Saturday, October 27, 2007

Drive your car to death

Drive your car to death, save $31,000

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- By keeping your car for 15 years, or 225,000 miles of driving, you could save nearly $31,000, according to Consumer Reports magazine. That's compared to the cost of buying an identical model every five years, which is roughly the rate at which most car owners trade in their vehicles.

In its annual national auto survey, the magazine found 6,769 readers who had logged more than 200,000 miles on their cars. Their cars included a 1990 Lexus LS400 with 332,000 miles and a 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up that had gone 488,000 miles.

Calculating the costs involved in buying a new Honda Civic EX every five years for 15 years - including depreciation, taxes, fees and insurance - the magazine estimated it would cost $20,500 more than it would have cost to simply maintain one car for the same period.

Added to that, the magazine factored in $10,300 in interest that could have been earned on that money, assuming a five percent interest rate and a three percent inflation rate, over that time.

The magazine found similar savings with other models.

The magazine recommends several cars that have the best shot at reaching the 200,000 mile mark and a few that, according to its data, aren't likely to make it.

All the cars in the magazine's "Good bets" list are manufactured by Honda and Toyota . The "Bad bets" are a mixture of European models and two Nissans.

Consumer Reports' "Good bets" for making 200,000 miles:

Honda Civic, Honda CR-V, Honda Element, Lexus ES, Lexus LS, Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Highlander, Toyota Land Cruiser, Toyota Prius, Toyota RAV4

Consumer Reports' "Bad bets" for making 200,000 miles:

BMW 7-series, Infiniti QX56, Jaguar X-type, V8-powered Mercedes-Benz M-class, Mercedes-Benz SL, Nissan Armada, Nissan Titan, Volkswagen Touareg, V6-powered Volvo XC90.

I log 150 miles a day going to work and have well over 200,000 miles. I love my car, it gets great gas mileage and I hardly ever have any mechanical problems.

I bought it brand new in February 1998, had it 0% financed and paid off in under 2 years. I'm hoping to not need to purchase a new car for at least another 3 or 4 years.

The Jones' at work almost all have Mercedes and huge SUV's but I'm happy with my car. It's paid off and gets me where I need to be.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very informative post. My van is currently at the mechanics. I was glad to see that it didn't make the list.