https://newsroom.aaa.com/tag/cost-to-own-a-vehicle/
If you have a cheap reliable car, paltry insurance, and don't drive much you might just get down to $300-400 a month, but I think you're also underestimating your cost.
If we assume the worst case scenario where the car is worthless after the next 60k miles and I have to spend $1k repairing it, that's a total cost of 5.8 cents a mile. At 10k miles/year, that comes out to $48/month. I don't pay interest on a loan for it, but even if I did it would only be another $8/month at 4% APR.
It gets 25 MPG, at 10k miles/year and $2.50/gallon, that's another $83/month.
My insurance is $30/month. $48 + $8 + $83 + $30 = $169/month, well below $300-400.
FWIW, I actually only drive about 6k miles a year, so my actual cost is only $29 + $8 (opportunity cost) + $50 + $30 = $117/month.
I also had a car that was reliable, a 2002 CRV...well, it was reliable until we got past the 150k mark or so, then it started costing us big time to replace shit.
As others have noted, your repairs probably don't even cover basic maintenance like battery, oil changes, or fluids.
You don't have registration/sales tax in your value of the car.
Do you ever pay for parking or a car wash?
You should probably also add in any taxi or Uber/Lyft rides you already take to get a total transportation cost.
I don't think so, it's just a cheap car. It is well above state minimums (I think minimums are 25k/50k and it's 100k/300k). It includes comprehensive coverage but with a $2k deductible (mostly just useful for rental cars since $2k deductible is most of the value of the car). It has been as low as $20/month in the past.
>As others have noted, your repairs probably don't even cover basic maintenance like battery, oil changes, or fluids.
I specifically mentioned that they did.
>You don't have registration/sales tax in your value of the car.
Ah that's true, that adds about $20/month with emissions testing too.
>Do you ever pay for parking or a car wash?
Fair point, but that's less than $2/month on average.
That's crazy cheap. The cheapest I could find for state minimum in Georgia was $60 and that was answering the questions as a perfect driver.
>I specifically mentioned that they did.
But the numbers don't add up. There's no way you spent just $300 in 60,000 miles on maintenance. Oil changes alone would be $300ish. It should also be a brake job, new tires, and things like new wipers. On top of that you replaced an alternator, battery, and a belt change?
Hm maybe it's just cheaper in Arizona for some reason then. Could definitely see a significant difference in state regulations causing that.
Oh shit I forgot about tires, you're right I was missing some things. Better numbers look like this I think:
Battery: $100
Belt: $20
Alternator: $170
Coolant: $20
Windshield washer fluid: $5
Air filter: $10
Tires: $500
1x Wiper blade: $20
4x oil replacements (I replaced when oil looked discolored, not at 7k miles): $100 ($25/each)
No brake job yet, but that's probably coming soon...
Total: $845
Lack of rain/snow/salt on roads probably reduces maintenance costs by a lot in regions like this, so national averages might be higher.
So after both adjustment my numbers are probably closer to $200/month, and I'll accept that's probably an outlier and $300/month is a reasonable estimate for a cheap car.
As long as the car payments aren't high and the commutes not really long, it's pretty reasonable. If your commutes are that long, a service would be outrageous. E.g., a company paid for my Uber trip from SF to Los Altos back in 2012, and it cost $125.
I'm a statistical outlier fortunately. My car with excellent insurance costs me < $100/month.