Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for Roo1 - '93 Impreza GX

[Ratbag]

Gidday Folks

I finally got around to doing an estimate of the TCO for Roo1 - 1993 5 door, 5MT, hatch, GX model (top of the range).

Paid $29,000 on road for it in Feb 1994. Traded in for $2,000 on Roo2 in Dec 2011. I knocked up about 234,000 kms in it.

Estimate of costs:

Depreciation: 11.6¢/Km
Fuel: 10.45¢/Km
Tyres: 0.59¢/Km
Repairs: 1.07¢/Km (inlcuding major services at 100/200,000 Kms)
Maintenance: 1.19¢/Km
Miscellaneous: 1.20¢/Km
Comprehensive Insurance: 3.27¢/Km
Registration: 4.00¢/Km

Making a grand total of very approx: 33.37¢/Km over 234,000 kms.
Pretty darn cheap motoring, when one looks at the figures published by automobile associations for most cars.

Tyre cost is an average of $440 per set for an average life of about 75,000 kms. I actually bought 3 sets of tyres, but the latest set were almost new, with around 7,000 kms on them when traded in. The above figure includes a per Km cost for the original tyres. Worked out as an average of what I actually spent divided by the total kilometres, this figure is very little different, at 0.56¢/Km. The car only ever had one wheel alignment at around 227,000 kms, and it cost about $35 (one front wheel needed a slight tweak).

Repairs include both major services; air conditioner rebuild; tail pipe repair; couple of re-co drive shafts; 2 batteries.

Maintenance includes intermediate oil changes; brake pads; wiper blades; windscreen replacement; rust removal and re-spray bonnet and roof; and miscellaneous light bulbs.

Miscellaneous includes such items as the original sheepskin seat covers; head light stone guards; Hayman-Reese tow bar - all purchased when the car was new.

These costings do not take into account loss of interest on one's capital cost, the time value of money, or opportunity costs.

DISCLAIMER: I did these calculations on the back of an envelope (literally ... ) and using a basic calculator. I also worked out the figures for each item from memory, without looking at Roo1's log books ...

So I reserve the right to modify them if and when I get around to doing this properly on a spreadsheet with the car log books in hand ... :ebiggrin: :biggrin: :lol:

 

[idw]

That looks pretty good all up, I did similar for my first car (el tickford fairmont) owned it for 18months and 130,000km. Figures weren't nearly this friendly, the high comp head, bore out, big injectors,3" exhaust and dump tune probably didn't help :lol:

The foz is a better figure, but Im still scared to know what it's actually costing me, IM happy in blissful ignorance :ebiggrin:

 

[NachaLuva]

Just goes to show how little tyres cost when compared to all the other running costs, yet it never ceases to amaze me when people cheap out on them

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday Id

What's interesting to note is that depreciation makes up about 1/3rd of the TCO for Roo1.

I knew this when we bought Roo1 new, but it was then a tax deduction, with about 90% business use for the first seven years.

It is also a big part of my reasoning when we bought Roo2 and RonnyRoo second hand.

With Roo2, it had around 2/3rds of its economic life (estimated at 300,000 kms or 20 years old, whichever comes first) left, but ended up costing about 40% of its price when new (nett after allowing for the trade in price for Roo1).
Basically, this means that someone else has paid approximately $11,500 of depreciation over and above the straight line depreciated value figure that represented the car's "true" value. The price when depreciated as a straight line over 20 years "should" have been $30,450, i.e. some $11,500 more than we paid for it (gross). That reduces our depreciation cost to around 9.47c/Km instead of around 13.3c/Km for this particular car. That represents a saving of around $3,830 per 100,000 Kms. A not inconsiderable saving, IMNSHO!

The same sort of deal goes for RonnyRoo. Bought with 65,000 kms on the clock and just under 3 years old. Price paid? About 57% of new price, with around 78% of its economic life left. Someone else has paid some $8,760 worth of depreciation that we will not have to pay ...

IF one knows what one is about as regards cars, buying s/h is a great way to get a very good car a lot cheaper than buying some cheapie shopping pram and immediately carrying the huge depreciation loss. One gets a far better car, at about the same price as the cheapie ... :ebiggrin: :biggrin: .

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday NL

Just goes to show how little tyres cost when compared to all the other running costs, yet it never ceases to amaze me when people cheap out on them

I agree in principle, but 4 corners for the Impreza cost $440 for top quality tyres (185/70 14"). Even the last set cost only a little more each than this. The first set of Michelins went for around 95,000 Kms. Second set, also Michelins, lasted around 75,000 Kms. The third set of Michelins "only" lasted about 55,000 Kms. I then switched to what the Police use, Bridgestone GR90 (IIRC). These were excellent handling tyres in all conditions, and were on the car until it was traded in, about 9,000 Kms.

By way of comparison, the Michelin XM2 on Roo2 cost about $165 a corner (215/60 16"). The cost per corner for Michelins for the SH is around $250+ a corner (225/55 17").

The tyres on Roo2 and RonnyRoo are unlikely to last more than 60,000 Kms. This increases the cost/Km for tyres pretty dramatically, but still not a huge part of the TCO.

What is painful about tyres is that it is usually a large outlay in one hit. This hurts for most of us.

 

[Ratbag]

Just as a matter of interest, I'd, what did your hot Fairmont cost to run?

From my Batphone

 

[mr turbo]

There are some interesting numbers there mate. Together with an interesting read.
I don't think I'd like to see what numbers mine would show. Especially as I'd be including the gear box into the equation

I also tend to agree about the tyres. It's one big hit that's almost impossible to spread out.

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[Ratbag]

Gidday Mr T

Agree about the gearbox. I could see one coming over the horizon with Roo1. Crunching in 2nd going up, and 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st changing down. Along with some other fairly big ticket items.

It wouldn't have bothered me if the car had suited me, but it didn't really. Had the Forester been available when I bought the Impreza, there is no way I would have jumped over the Forester to buy the Impreza ... So a good time to cut and run.

There was this really, really nice Fox, just properly run in at 100,000 Kms and 5 y.o., with the best of everything that Subaru ever put into them (XS, EJ-253, 5MT/DR, and extremely nicely done in every respect, inside and out).
How could a boy resist? :biggrin: :lol: :rotfl: