Does anyone track cost of ownership ($/mile)?

The thread about cars with lots of miles made me wonder...does anyone else calculate total cost of ownership on their vehicles? Maybe because I'm an engineer and like spreadsheets, but I use them to keep track of maintenance and it's just another small step to put cost per mile in there.

What do your numbers look like? Mine:

2005 Ford Ranger, bought in 2011 at 109k miles, currently at 197k miles.
Purchase/Maint: $0.10/Mi Gas/Ins/Reg: $0.13/Mi Total: $0.23/Mi

1990 Mazda Miata, bought in 2012 at 158k miles, currently at 183k miles.
Purchase/Maint: $0.14/Mi Gas/Ins/Reg: $0.16/Mi Total: $0.30/Mi

1997 Mitsubishi Montero, bought in 2013 at 207k miles, currently at 228k miles.
Purchase/Maint: $0.34/Mi Gas/Ins/Reg: $0.25/Mi Total: $0.59/Mi

1998 Ford F350, bought in 2015 at 226k miles, currently at 236k miles.
Purchase/Maint: $1.78/Mi Gas/Ins/Reg: $0.17/Mi Total: $1.95/Mi (but I haven't driven it much, mostly for towing)

1998 Lexus GS400, bought in 2016 at 98k miles, currently at 101k miles.
Purchase/Maint: $2.33/Mi Gas/Ins/Reg: $0.27/Mi Total: $2.60/Mi (just got it)

Including estimated resale value would make the numbers more realistic (especially for the F350 and Lexus) but I'm going to keep them for the foreseeable future, so I didn't include anything.

I wish I had a spread sheet template for mine, I track fuel mileage and repairs, but have yet to make a true CPM figure

I do an estimated cost to own when I buy a new vehicle. Which includes $per mile. This is not the deciding factor, just want to know my true cost of driving a mustang over a civic.

I don't keep track of things closely enough to really calculate it. For the Jeep, it's probably well into "I'm better off not knowing" territory...

absolutely not. the cognitive dissonance that would ensue would cause a nervous breakdown.

Mister Fister wrote: absolutely not. the cognitive dissonance that would ensue would cause a nervous breakdown.

hah! In some cases it is definitely better not to know - I don't track anything on my ATVs which are for fun. I try not to get too caught up in the actual costs, but it's interesting to me to compare!

Mister Fister wrote: absolutely not. the cognitive dissonance that would ensue would cause a nervous breakdown.

Precisely.

It's bad enough to just think what I spent on the RPF1s and Star Specs on the BRZ. Much less payment, insurance, gas, exhaust, tune, coilovers.

If i factor in just gas and tires on the wagon ive probably spent more money on burnouts then buying the car. Id just have too park it if i knew the truth!

I use Gas Cubby on my phone to track some of my vehicles. Works well to remind me of things like oil changes, which is useful on an excessively sized personal fleet. I suppose I could add insurance and the like in there as well. If you like tracking this stuff, it'll do some nice summaries. It's also fun to compare the MPG of the Big White Cummins Truck against the CRX - the latter is very consistent, the BWCT has a tendency to leave town with a couple of cars in tow.

I don't track it very closely, but I do approximate it.

The two Colorado trucks I have are running about .22 and .18 per mile for buy in and maintenance so far. Those numbers will continue to drop as we pile the mileage on them.

I had a couple of E-series vans that got real cheap toward the end. Like down into the .02-.03 per mile buy in and maintenance. One of them I bought for $1800 at 200K, and ran up to 470K.

The only one I ever really sat down and did that with was her old Accent because I had a purchase and sale price. All told, after purchase, license, insurance, maintenance it was something like 3 cents per mile that we had it. IT was friggin ridiculously cheap. Put it this way, we spent more in gas in that car than it cost to run it.

I only track gas via an app for the last 10 months, its amazing and kinda scary seeing how much you spend in fuel.

1kris06 wrote: I only track gas via an app for the last 10 months, its amazing and kinda scary seeing how much you spend in fuel.

Yeah, keep a car long enough and you will spend more in gas than you ever did on the car. The Accent was like $6500 in fuel, $4500 in the car (which we sold for $1000) and 150k miles.

My goal is life is to care less and less about more and more until I don't give a berkeley about anything.

This kind of activity would not fit in with my plans.

I have no desire to even consider doing something like that.

NOHOME wrote: My goal is life is to care less and less about more and more until I don't give a berkeley about anything. This kind of activity would not fit in with my plans.

I view it as interesting trivia that is worthless. I like to fill my brain with that stuff instead of the more important "Where did I jsut set down that 10mm socket? The one I JUST had?"

Bobzilla wrote:

NOHOME wrote: My goal is life is to care less and less about more and more until I don't give a berkeley about anything. This kind of activity would not fit in with my plans.

I view it as interesting trivia that is worthless. I like to fill my brain with that stuff instead of the more important "Where did I jsut set down that 10mm socket? The one I JUST had?"

(Mostly) useless facts is a good description - I know the numbers, but I still continue to modify the cars how I want and buy more. Just something to distract myself with, and a tool to help track maintenance.

Our best was the Escort wagon. Purchase, tax, oil changes, insurance, everything, even the bottle of stop leak for the radiator. $0.04 cents per mile. Gas was another 0.05 almost exactly, making it under ten cents a mile to run it for 11 months and 18,000 miles. Right out of college, no money, wife had a brutal commute. It served well.

I track it, but I don't include insurance - its too highly dependent on whether or not its my primary car and other factors.

$0.171/mile overall with an average gas price during that time of $3.18 (gas price will drastically skew your result). Real cost would be $0.15-0.16 depending on what I could get for the car right now if I sold it.

I bought a car just for pizza delivery when gas was getting stupid ($1.79) because it got 10 mpg better than the car I was using. Got in the habit of checking costs to see when that 10 mpg actually made a difference.

I figure I have used about 9000 gallons of gas, about 80 oil changes and assorted repairs for 12 years I still come in at under 10 cents a mile.

Bruce

Nope don't track it. It would suck the fun out of ownership in a big hurry and besides. I don't rate my cars by $ per mile. Each has a purpose. My jag was an oasis of comfort and isolation with just enough sport to get me in and out of Boston every day. The Porsche . . . Well it was for fun. That car was measured I smiles per mile. The corolla is my Kenmore on wheels that I take to jobs that are in some of the less desirable parts of Boston proper. The H2 keeps the wife happy. Enough said about that.

I will be replacing the X Type that was totaled this spring with a STR as I find my self wanting a car that can eat up some highway miles in complete isolation from the outside world. Tell it the temp to keep it at. Some smooth jazz on the concert hall sound system while sitting in a very nicely appointed cabin all while having enough performance in reserve to keep me entertained. The "I have earned this" car if you will.

The only people that track $$$ per mile that I know are my brothers and both drive boring cars. In fact both of them prefer not to drive when ever possible as it is costing them money.

egnorant wrote: I figure I have used about 9000 gallons of gas, about 80 oil changes and assorted repairs for 12 years I still come in at under 10 cents a mile. Bruce

I just added it up for the track 3.80$ a mile with tires, gas and depreciation provided everything holds together. The cobra was 1/5th that.

Nope. I don't want factual numbers to ruin/alter my emotional attachment to a car.

Absolutely not.

It does kinda give me pause when I realize I have spent over $25,000 on a 1991 Escort.

Bruce