Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
I would just be suspicious if their top priority in a vehicle is to save money. You don't buy a new $40k vehicle to save money.
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I doubt most people have ever sat down and calculated their total cost of ownership for any car they've owned, let alone expected cost for a new purchase. So in their minds, they
think they are saving money. But as you pointed out in another thread, we tend to
think a lot of things that aren't true.
I'm sitting at $0.38 per mile at just over 80,000 miles. If my fuel and insurance costs remain roughly consistent over the next several years, I'll be at $0.25 per mile at 150,000 miles. Compare that to the cheapest Jeep Wrangler (and leaving out taxes, consumables like tires, etc., which I included in my Prius spreadsheet--so this is giving advantage to the Jeep): at $28,295 and 25mpg highway, $2.51/gal (average I paid this year) and same insurance rate, the Jeep would be sitting at $0.50 per mile at 80,000 miles and $0.34 per mile at 150,000 miles. Tires and taxes will add a couple cents per mile to those. I doubt most drivers who buy a new vehicle keep it long enough to see those figures, though.