The costs and benefits of car ownership.

Happy Thursday evening, fair reader.

Two days ago, Shiffy passed a milestone that is impressive in one way, and disappointing in another.

It's fun because it's a unique number, but disappointing because it signifies Shiffy's age.  I've had her for about three full years now.  When Grandma gave me her car, it had about 50 000km on it.  After driving across Canada, it had about 55 000.

Now, it has 100 000km.  As we drove up a hill and waited at the traffic light on its crest, Carmella and I did a few simple calculations about car ownership.

We've had the car for three years, and put about 50 000km on it during that time.  That's just over 16 000km per year.

At approximately $100/month insurance, we've paid $3600 over our ownership.

Shiffy gets very roughly 10km to 1L of fuel.  That means we've bought 5000L of gas for her.  At about $1.25/L, that works out to $6250 in fuel costs.

We've had four $500 repairs: a muffler job; a transmission fluid change and brake rotor replacement; new tires this spring; and an O2 sensor replacement and EGR valve clean.  That's about $2000 in maintenance.  I'm not counting oil changes and the small things I do myself.

So, our costs are $3600 + $6250 + $2000.  That's just under $12 000 we've spent on our car in three years, or about $4000 per year.

That seems like a lot, but is it really?

A Vancouver bus pass costs about $80 for a monthly 1-zone fare.  A 2-zone pass costs about $110.  For easy calculation, we'll pay $100/month for transit.

Carmella and I would both need a bus pass, so we'd be paying $2400/year for transit.  Over three years, that cost would be $7200.  Which is still quite expensive.

So, car ownership has cost us $4000 per year.  Transit passes would cost us $2400 per year.  If we only took transit, we'd save $1600 per year, or $133 per month.

That's not too bad actually.  For an extra $133/month, the both of us get freedom to travel where and when we want, the ability to tote large items, and the ability to take trips.  It's worth it, I think.

The great thing here is that Grandma gave us this car, so we didn't have to spend any money on purchasing the vehicle, unlike most people around us.  So we've very thankful and fortunate for that!  Our car ownership costs would be much higher if we had to pay even $1000 for the vehicle.

Thanks Grandma! Here are some of Shiffy's greatest hits.

 

 This isn't Shiffy, but rather Carmella's car.  The BC AirCare emissions control program doesn't extend to rural communities, so Carmella was safe driving this vehicle in Whistler.  In Vancouver though, it would require thousands of dollars worth of work to make it road-legal.  Carmella traded it to the Scrap-It program, which encourages owners to take high-polluting vehicles off the road.  Carmella traded her car for a 9-month bus pass.

This '92 Mazda Protoge was belching black smoke from the back, and dripping constant oil from the front.  Here, the scrap yard worker paints "S-Hot" on the side.  The S indicates it comes from the Scrap It program, and Hot shows that it was driven in, and so the engine and components are still warm.  I guess the vehicle's temperature is important when one goes about crushing it into a cube.

Here I am three years ago, exchanging Grandma's Ontario plates for my newly acquired BC ones.  Exciting!  I seem to remember I had to leave my wallet as collateral at the insurance place in order to borrow their screwdriver. 

Here are all my worldly possessions, not counting bicycles and the many boxes in Mom and Dad's Ontario basement.  In this picture, I'm moving houses in Whistler, again.  I lived there for four years, and lived in 8 places.  I feel so stable having had the same Vancouver address for about 20 months in a row!

This is at a rest stop in Squamish, on our way to Pemberton for our wedding.  I have fond memories of this stop.  It was around here that Carmella and my phones began beeping with messages full of exclamations from the family as they arrived at our wedding venue for the weekend, before we did.

Also, I'm proud that Carmella and I drove the three hours up to Pemberton with a trailer.  We brought our sound system up, we brought our luggage, we brought music stands and instruments, the wedding flowers, everything.  And Grandpa's trailer hitch made it all possible!  That wedding weekend, we really tested the 4-cylinder, 2.2L, 115hp engine.  It's not meant to tow things, but we were able to finesse it through the mountains.

Here is Shiffy with Cindy's bug, at a great camping spot off a logging access road near Harrison Hot Springs, about two hours from Vancouver.  It was a great spot, and good times were had.  An ocean inlet wasn't far away, there was moss everywhere, and the trees were big.  We played Settlers in the big six man tent!

Thanks to Shiffy, all these things were able to happen.  Without Shiffy, we'd be stuck on the bus.  And without Grandma, we wouldn't have Shiffy.

Thanks again Grandma!