Date:         Mon, 04 Dec 95 22:26:52 CST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: Cost of Operating Vanagon

On Mon, 4 Dec 1995 12:26:00 -0600 you said:
>My cost came out to pennies shy of $165.00 per month for 156 months
>of ownership and at a cost of $.2246 per mile.  This cost does not
>gasoline or insurance.  I guess gas and insurance would add about 10
>cents per mile or less.

the cost/month seems a bit high to me, if that includes ONLY maintenance
items. but a few high-ticket items (like several sets of tires, shocks,
or a tranny/engine rebuilt) can really upset that figure. i think the
national average (for ALL costs: insurance, depreciation, gasoline, oil,
tag and everything) is about $0.32/mile. which is waaay up from 10 years
ago.

my 88 bus costs are grossly as follows: (for 100,000 miles)
gasoline..............  $5,000.00
repairs ..............   4,600.00
maintenance ..........   3,000.00  (oil, filters, etc.)
insurance ............   4,200.00
tag/tax ..............     500.00
      total .......... $17,300.00  or $0.173/mile

now, if you get picky, you have to figure the "cost" of the depreciation of
the car:
original cost ......... $20,000.00 <cause i bought it new>
current resale value ..  -6,000.00
  depr ciation "cost".. $14,000.00

so the real "cost" would be 17,300+14,000 = 31,300/100,000 = $0.313/mile

so, even with all the money that i've spent on the bus, i still come out
pretty much the average cost/mile. i think. :)

joel