Guys, I believe in doing this computation and based on variables that change over the life of the car, I computed it using a Car Cost model that I have built and refined over the years.
So, based on my brother buying a Ford Windstar in 07/1996 with 4 miles on it and selling it around 120K miles, I computed all elements of it including the fluctuations in gas prices (99c per gallon to $4 per gallon) as well as maintenance, insurance etc (ALL elements) and I came to $0.35 per mile.
I have the same identical van also (bought 2 the same day), and I am still running it so, I will give ‘actuals’ such as above, once I sell it or run it into the ground. If I run it into the ground, the salvage guy will give me $125 and I will plug that as a Sales Price of the Van. My current running computation based on a fictitous sales price (not sold yet) shows it at $0.41 per mile since I have less miles on it today. So, numbers can change ‘drastically’ (15%+) on a little variance.
So, I do not about your cars or vans, but that is my real world example. My Lexus is going to be much higher in price per mile, cause of a higher initial cost, but that is just the nature of what you feed in as variables.
AAA’s 50c+ is a bogus number for the future unless you go to dealers for fixing everything, and have bad practices (like changing oil at 3K miles when the manual says 7500 miles) or run the car on idle for too long (when you go into a store with your car running outside to keep it at comfortable temp) etc.
Kenny
loading....