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I was looking at a 2004 ES Lexus with 20mpg for city and 2002 Corolla with 32mpg for city. I calculated (taking into account premium gas price for Lexus) for 10 miles per day or 300 miles per month and it turned out to be $22.50 difference per month. (Corolla being $22.50 per month and Lexus being $45.00 per month)
Is it worth driving a Lexus rather than Corolla for $22.50 more per month? '
Turns out to be $270 per year and $1080 per every 4 years.
Unless you have a very steady driving pattern and need to save every dollar, I'd consider $20/month into the noise/error level of budgeting. There are other considerations for choosing a car, but I'd consider this point more or less a wash. Do keep in mind that premium is often MUCH higher than regular; they tend to get closer in glut times like this and spread apart in higher-priced times, and not always in a sensible or fixed-ratio way. (It has to do with production ratios; a refinery can make more gallons of lower-octane fuel and often does in price spikes, meaning a shortage of premium and a correspondingly greater price.)
Can the Lexus use regular? Many cars can use either grade, with some performance/mileage variations.
I was looking at a 2004 ES Lexus with 20mpg for city and 2002 Corolla with 32mpg for city. I calculated (taking into account premium gas price for Lexus) for 10 miles per day or 300 miles per month and it turned out to be $22.50 difference per month. (Corolla being $22.50 per month and Lexus being $45.00 per month)
Is it worth driving a Lexus rather than Corolla for $22.50 more per month? '
Turns out to be $270 per year and $1080 per every 4 years.
Okay, great. Also, so what?
First of all, what is the purchase price of each? What are expected maintenance costs? Insurance? Registration? There's a lot more to consider than the price of fuel. If you're not going to look at total cost of ownership why even bother with one component of the equation?
But mostly, only you can decide whether the benefit is worth the cost.
First of all, what is the purchase price of each? What are expected maintenance costs? Insurance? Registration? There's a lot more to consider than the price of fuel. If you're not going to look at total cost of ownership why even bother with one component of the equation?
But mostly, only you can decide whether the benefit is worth the cost.
Purchase price is $2700 for the Lexus and $1500 for Corolla. I've heard both have low maintenance costs. Not sure about insurance and registration.
Especially when you’re talking about cars that old with unknown maintenance history. Almost certainly not getting those mpg figures anymore(if they ever did in real world driving).
300 miles per month -> 3,600 miles per year. This is an extremely low number of miles by American standards, where the average driver is at ~13,500 miles. Your savings will be proportionally small.
Now, if you drove the ~20k miles per year I put on my car, you'd be looking at $1,500 per year in savings.
With something as short as a 10 mile commute, I'm buying the cheapest beater I can buy. That's barely a long enough drive to get the AC/heat to temperature.
Individual car will matter more. Often times cars that old/inexpensive are driven until they have problems and then offloaded. Yes, there's the proverbial grandma's car she drove to church on Sunday and actually changed the oil every three months. The more common one is someone on the economic margins buys a beater and puts the bare minimum into it to keep it operational and drives it until it starts having problems due to age/neglect and then gets rid of it.
Your basically buying the previous owner and maintenance history. A clean ES that age will go for maybe $5,000 and come with a set of maintenance records. One selling for half that, well, there's a reason. California rust isn't a problem. One that needed the timing belt done two years and 20,000 miles ago might go for half what a clean one with maintenance records. That doesn't mean it's a good deal.
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