Quote:
Originally Posted by Ecky
A lot of maintenance items have a randomness to them.
Just using my car as an example, the Insight has no real major maintenance items. The transmission fluid is "lifetime", the timing chain is "lifetime". It calls for 7500 mile oil changes, which come to around $20, and would be twice per year at 15k miles. Coolant flush is the price of a bottle of antifreeze and half an hour outside, if you do your own work.
Most develop a downshift grind from 3rd to 2nd gear, which has no impact on driving if you double clutch. ISB will probably go sometime between 200k and 400k miles. Hybrid batteries eventually die but can last 20+ years in a cool climate with regular but infrequent grid charges - mine is 9 years old and behaves like a new battery, but that wouldn't be the case if I lived in the Southwest.
My car is from the south and it had its battery replaced in 2009 under warranty by Honda (no cost). I replaced a leaking master cylinder with a Rock Auto piece for ~$70 at 200k miles. Otherwise, the records I have show that since it was new, it's had oil changes, 3 sets of tires, and a 12v battery every 5-7 years. Aside from oil, these are maintenance items shared by all cars.
So, maintenance costs would be... zero? $70 over 18 years = $4 per year?
But how to project that into the future?
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I also have an out of date maintenance spreadsheet I try to maintain. It lists the various costs over the years for a particular vehicle.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1d0...MokiNniTMAxVqQ
My maintenance and repair costs are low for my vehicles too, but a lot of that ends up counting towards depreciation. Even if you don't ever replace the battery within your ownership, the wear and tear of it and other items will be factored into the sale price.
As you pointed out, you need tires, and they aren't cheap. That bumps up the maintenance/repair category significantly. Many little items can add up too, so I would budget some fixed amount for things like wiper blades, air fresheners, car washes, etc.