Guestimate on what it will cost me to register my vehicle in MN...

[awsun1980]

Hey, where did you find this exact info???

Originally Posted by Thegonagle

I know they're nice cars. I just didn't realize you could load up the sticker that much with options when I looked them up.

It looks like your registration tax will be between $215 and $225, and the other small fees, including a new plate fee, will bring it up to $240-260.

The tax will go down about $25-30 a year for you, and they only charge the plate fee every seven years.

[Thegonagle]

A search for MN DPS (for Minnesota Dept. of Public Safety) in Google helped a lot.

I found the tax table here: http://www.dps.state.mn.us/dvs/Fees/2009TaxManual.pdf

I found the Base Value search here: https://dutchelm.dps.state.mn.us/dvs...ues/BVMain.htm

And I guestimated the other small fees from experience. (New plates are about $10, IIRC.)

If you want one of the special plates for Support Our Troops, or one of the several Critical Habitat plates, it's an additional $30 per year, with the $30 going directly to the VA (with Support Our Troops) or the Dept. of Natural Resources (with Critical Habitat plates).

Critical Habitat plates link: Specialty

Support our Troops plates link: Untitled Document

[marmac]

The OP wanted a "guessstimate"

I gave her a comparable vehicle ( 2007 Camry) that I just paid for the license.

What else is there to discuss ?

[awsun1980]

LOL, marmac, actually, I should change that--I do want to know exactly what I'll be paying as it is a lot of money for me to come up with. Especially for a car that will be traded in in less than a year's time.

Thanks for the linkes, Thegonagle, that helps a lot! I was on that website, but couldn't seem to find that info.

[Thegonagle]

If you keep trading in vehicles, your tax never goes down. It's most cost-effective to buy a 1-3 year old car, take good care of it (including most of the planned maintenance in the owner's manual), and keep it for a long, long time.

Modern cars are terrific, and will last 200,000+ perfectly reliable miles, as long as you do the planned maintenance--oil, oil filters, transmission fluid, coolant (anti-freeze), spark plugs, and air filters are at the top of that list. Tires, and brake pads, drums, and discs also wear out regularly and need regular service.

CV and/or U-joints (related to your drive shafts), tie-rod ends (they connect your steering wheel to the road wheels) and ball joints and bushings (they connect the suspension to the rest of the car) wear out usually between 100,000 and 200,000 miles, and every car has several of each. These are the most expensive parts to have replaced, however, they're usually once-in-a-lifetime repairs.

Shock absorbers (also known as MacPherson struts on most FWD cars and some small trucks) have a limited lifetime, too, but you really can let those go for a long time as long if you need to. You need to change them maybe two or three times in 200,000 miles for best handling and braking, but in reality, some people never change the shocks.

The alternator will go out one time in the life of the car, and a new battery every 3-4 years is cheap insurance for this area. Not very expensive stuff though.

Other than these items, there's not much else for you to expect to have serviced in order to keep the car road-worthy for 10-15 years and 200,000 miles. Keep up on the repairs/maintenance, keep it it clean, and wax the paint from time to time, and nobody will ever notice that it has 150,000+ miles unless they peek at the odometer.

All those repairs I noted are still cheaper than a monthly payment.

I have a Jeep with over 230,000 miles, and a Honda with almost 200,000. They're both good, reliable cars because I maintain them well. (The Jeep is a '96 looks its age because of the inevitable rust + neglect by the previous owner, but the Honda is a '99 and still looks great.) And as of this this year, both of them will be down to $35 for the tax.