Grex Cars Conference

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Grex Cars Item 141: Cost Per Mile
Entered by gull on Wed Jan 2 18:38:06 UTC 2008:

Have you calculated your cost per mile?  If you have, post it here,
along with the number of miles driven last year and what's included in
your figure.

8 responses total.

#1 of 8 by gull on Wed Jan 2 18:39:38 2008:

I drove my primary car, a 1995 Ford Crown Victoria, 12,959 miles last
year.  My cost per mile, including fuel, maintenance, repairs,
insurance, and registration, was 21.5 cents.  Depreciation is hard to
calculate for a car this old, but it might add another two or three
cents per mile.

#2 of 8 by keesan on Wed Jan 2 19:06:55 2008:

0 miles.  Cost us for license plates $37. $15 for insurance so that we 
could call and activate actual insurance the day we registered (another $1 
or so). We spent about twice this much on taking the train to Detroit 
twice, $112 for two, plus bus fare $6 the second time (the first we biked 
15 miles at the end) and $7 to museums.  Total distance travelled about 
120 miles each way in the train x 2 = 240 miles, plus 30 miles in the bus 
and another 20 miles to museums, or about 300 miles.  About $180.  About 
60 cents/mile for transportation by motor vehicle.  It would have been 
cheaper to take the car instead of the train but more polluting and much 
less interesting.  

Total miles travelled by bike or foot - 15 each per week, 50 weeks, 750 
miles, cost - a bit of extra food, $40?  Total about 1050 miles, cost 
about $220, or 21 cents/mile.  

How many calories does it take to bike or walk 1050 miles?  100 calories 
for a 180 lb person, says a website.  For 150 lb (average of the two of 
us) about 85 calories times 1050 = 90,000 calories.   If we did not walk 
this far we would have gained 13 lb average per person.  Cost of 90,000 
calories as organic brown rice.   700 cal/cup which is something under 1/2 
lb.  1500 cal/lb?  60 lb rice at 65 cents/lb = $40.

#3 of 8 by nharmon on Wed Jan 2 19:32:49 2008:

For 2007:

2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee: 11,786 miles

Cost per mile, including fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance, and
registration, came to 30.0 cents. I would estimate the depreciation to
be another 17 cents per mile.

2001 Honda Nighthawk: 1,100 miles

Cost per mile, including fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance,
registration, came to 28.4 cents. And depreciation is estimated to be
another 45 cents per mile.

#4 of 8 by slynne on Thu Jan 3 00:32:00 2008:

Alas, I have no idea. But it probably isnt much. My odometer stopped
working all the time in the summer and now only works intermittently.
But I think I have driven around ten thousand miles. I have spent around
seven hundred dollars in repairs and maintenance. I have spent around
five hundred dollars in insurance and around seventy or so for
registration. I probably fill the tank a couple of times a month on
average and that costs me around $36-8 each time, it probably comes out
to around a thousand dollars a year because sometimes in the summer I do
more driving and put in more gas. I pay $40 a month for a parking space
in downtown Ann Arbor. It all works out to around 18 cents a mile or so.
Of course, I get a free bus pass and tend to take the bus to work most
days and those miles are FREE. Well sort of. Because even when I take
the bus, my fixed costs for the car remain the same. But that just
decreases my average "cost per mile"

#5 of 8 by keesan on Thu Jan 3 04:48:00 2008:

Re 3 - this averages between the two cars to 60 cents/mile, same as we paid
for the train/bus/license combination.  Or about $6000/year, which could pay
for a lot of trains and buses at $500/month, $120/day, $20/day if you take
Sundays off.  Does a bus pass cost as much as a parking spot?

#6 of 8 by tod on Thu Jan 3 21:14:13 2008:

I dont pay for train or bus.  
$0

#7 of 8 by keesan on Fri Jan 4 00:26:05 2008:

Do you take the train for free?

#8 of 8 by tod on Fri Jan 4 14:41:45 2008:

re #7
Yes

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