kevm14 wrote:
That is correct, I don't disagree in principle. However, nothing associated with any of the luxury stuff has broken! Notionally, we are looking at:
Broken things that had some kind of cost:
- HID low beam
- License plate bulb
- Rear wheel bearing
- Power steering pump
Maintenance or wear/tear items (all vehicles need these at some point):
- Spark plugs? Hardly a repair but I did do the job.
- Brakes? Maintenance, but I did all 4 rotors and pads.
- Tires?
Stuff that cost me zero dollars that I did:
- When I got it, I lubricated the ultraview roof and tightened a loose bolt
- Dried out the driver's side HID ballast and restored operation
So for true repairs, where are we at here?
- HID low beam - $70?
- License plate bulb - this was almost free at like $1.50 for the bulb
- Rear wheel bearing - Around $146 from memory
- Power steering pump - Around $155
Total: $372.50. Had it for almost exactly 2 years now. That is $186.25 per year or $15/mo. Even at 10x the repair costs over 5 years, I would still be far, FAR ahead of a brand new vehicle with warranty which has no repair costs for 5 years. I would need to take into account the resale on a 5 year old car though. Let me do that in a bit - have to put Ian to bed.
Let me try to estimate hours. These are rough and I am counting, mostly, the entire job, not just concentrated sections. So keep in mind these hours aren't all balls to the wall.
Broken things that had some kind of cost:
- HID low beam - I dunno, maybe 2.5? It was my first time pulling the bumper cover so I was being careful.
- License plate bulb - Around 2.5
- Rear wheel bearing - Around 3 hours
- Power steering pump - Probably like 8.5 hours between one afternoon and the next morning
Subtotal of the repairs that cost money: 16.5 hours
Maintenance or wear/tear items (all vehicles need these at some point):
- Spark plugs? Hardly a repair but I did do the job. - 3 hours
- Brakes? Maintenance, but I did all 4 rotors and pads. - I don't think I even put this on the forum. 4 hours?
- Tires? - Shop does this...
Subtotal of the repairs that are maintenance: 7 hours
Stuff that cost me zero dollars that I did:
- When I got it, I lubricated the ultraview roof and tightened a loose bolt. - Uhh, 45 minutes?
- Dried out the driver's side HID ballast and restored operation - I dunno, 1.5 hours?
Subtotal of the zero cost repairs: 2.25 hours
Total of everything: 25.75 hours
That averages out to 1.08 hours per month. I don't feel like this car is running my life at an hour a month.
One hour and $15 per month is what it has cost to maintain this car over the past 2 years. That was a fun exercise actually.
I did not count the cost of the maintenance items (brakes, spark plugs, tires) because this cost applies to every car. But I did include the hours.