Quote:
Originally Posted by woodsman
I've owned my car 4.5 yrs and have averaged $5000/ yr in maintenance and upgrades, this while doing most work myself. When purchased it had 65000mi.
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Wow.
Owned 2. Used nothing but the best (Optima, PS2S N-rated, etc). One at 26k, other at 42k.
The first cost me nothing beyond an oil change. $60 parts, $39 labor.
Owned 6 months, totaled.
The second cost me brakes and rotors, a 45k service, 2 sets of tires ($600 used 50 mile take offs from a dealer taken off because of age, not wear. And $1,100 new), an alignment, oil changes, a battery.
Unscheduled: a single O2 sensor $120 parts, $40 labor. A seat belt warning light maybe $150 which took 3 trips to fix but the second two were free.
All the work necessary at 42-45k was known as the result of a PPI.
Owned for 5 years. Stranded never.
Depreciation from $26k to $13.5 was far more than repair/maintenance expenses which, even having someone else do most of the work and buying only the best, couldn't have averaged more than $1k per year.
I don't count upgrades because those could have been done without and were optional.