Car Buying Project

Site of my car:
http://www.autotrader.ca/a/Chevrolet/Camaro/New+Westminster/British+Col
umbia/5_29148112_20150717150311773/?
ursrc=pl&urp=2&urm=8&showcpo=ShowCPO
Car depreciation website results:
Purchase price of car ($):

32 800

Vehicle's age in years (#):

Years you plan to own vehicle (#):

Number of years to calculate lifetime costs (#):

45

Expected percent return on investments (%):

Year -->

10+

Year %

28

20

16

YTD %

28%

48%

64%

72%

78%

83%

87%

90%

92%

93%

Final vehicle age in years:

Depreciation cost:

$25 584.00

Resale value at end of ownership period:

$7 216.00

Average annual depreciation percentage:

16%

Average annual depreciation cost:

$5 116.80

Lifetime depreciation cost:

$230 256.00

Forfeited future value:

$817 153.76

According to my calculations, if you purchase a new vehicle for $32,800.00

and keep the vehicle for 5 years, your total depreciation cost will be $25,584.00. That's
an average annual cost of $5,116.80.
If you continue to purchase similar priced vehicles at similar intervals, over the course

of the next 45 years your depreciation costs will add up to $230,256.00.

Had you been able to invest the $5,116.80 annual depreciation cost, your investment
could have been worth $817,153.76 after 45 years.
And remember, this does not include all of the other costs of ownership that come
attached to a vehicle purchase (finance charges, gas, insurance, licensing,
maintenance & repairs, etc.).

Car
Age
1
2
3
4
5

Car Depreciation Schedule

Depreciation
Depreciation
Percentage
Cost
28%
$9,184.00
20%
$6,560.00
16%
$5,248.00
8%
$2,624.00
6%
$1,968.00

Resale
Value
$23,616.00
$17,056.00
$11,808.00
$9,184.00
$7,216.00

Cost of Ownership Website Results:

annual vehicle purchase costs (do not include finance charges)

/year
6260

annual finance charges on vehicle loan(s)

/year
275

gasoline and motor oil

/year
3000

annual car insurance expenses

/year
1500

annual maintenance and repair expenses

/year
550

vehicle rental, leasing, licenses, and other fees

/year
150

Click this button to calculate the total. >>

Monthly Costs - This is your total monthly household car expense. If you
didn't own a car, this is how much you'd be saving each month.

Retirement Savings
If you didn't own a car and
began investing your
monthly automobile savings
at age 25 at 5% interest, you
would have

by
$1 673 556.3

the time you retired (if you

retired at age 67).

College Savings

/month
$977.91

Home Mortgage

If you didn't own a car and invested your If you didn't

monthly automobile savings for 18 years a house
at 5% interest, you'd have
automobile
$341 490.47 obtain

own a car and bought

using your monthly
savings, you could
a
home
$182 167.89

for your children's college education.

mortgage, assuming a 5% fixed,

According to the College Board, the 30-year loan. This would be
of the
current annual cost of college at a public enough to cover
107.91%
university
is
$8,240
per
year
and inflating at roughly 8% annually. This
means the average cost of a four-year purchase price of the median
college education in eighteen years is existing home in the US in July
about $137,383. If you didn't own a car 2012, according to the National
and saved the money instead, you would Association of Realtors
be able to send a total of
children
2.48

to college 18 years from now using just

the money you saved from not owning an
automobile.

Journal entry: After doing this project I realized how buying a car is actually
a little bit more complicated than just buying it and then using it forever. I
now know about all the costs that go into it after you have bought the car
like the gas, oil change, and other repairs and maintenance. I also know the
differences, pros, and cons of buying a new car and a used one. I think the
optimal time to buy a car would be when it is a couple of years old (So I
would buy a 2014 model in 2017) because then the model is not super new
which means it wont be as expensive. There are a couple advantages of
owning a new car over an old one. A new car is newer so it wont require as

much maintenance as the used car would need. It is also most likely to be
cleaner, nicer, and in better overall shape than a used car would be. My
motivation to owning a vehicle as I get older is to use it to get me
everywhere I need. I hopefully would like to be going to UBC by the time Im
in university so I would want a car which I could use to drive their and back.
Yes, I think you should buy that brand new corvette just before you retire if
you have enough money because if its something you have always wanted
then you might as well buy it when have the money.