Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
One thing I constantly bring up is that by far the biggest expense for most people is depreciation.
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Makes me glad I'm not most people :-) I think that except for the Insight*, just about every car I've ever owned has been pretty close to fully depreciated. Indeed, just looking at the local Craigslist, I could probably sell the '88 Toyota pickup for about twice what I paid for it, a decade ago!
Similarly for replacement battery cost vs the maintenance & repair of IC engines. If you pay someone else, the expenses are probably comparable; if you do your own work, it's
much cheaper to repair an IC engine. And if you enjoy mechanical work, as I do, the value of your time really isn't an issue.
*Even that was bought used, and a ballpark calculation suggests that I've saved about enough on gas to pay the difference.