Habe dies gestern an einigen Stellen gepostet, dachte mir aber, ich würde es auch hier posten. Ich habe ALLE autobezogenen Ausgaben für meinen 2007 Camry, den ich Ende 2017 in bar gekauft habe, nachverfolgt. Ich bin mit dem Auto 142.000 Meilen durch 27 Bundesstaaten gefahren.
Die meisten Probleme würde ich auf das Fahren auf salzigen, mit Schlaglöchern übersäten Straßen im Nordosten oder einfach auf eine hohe Kilometerleistung zurückführen. 2007 ist ebenfalls bekannt "schlechtes Jahr" für diese Autos aufgrund der Ölverbrennung.
Aktuelle Probleme mit dem Auto: 11 Motorcodes prüfen (alle EVAP-bezogen), ABS-Licht (Sensor), TPMS-Licht (alle 4 Sensoren sind defekt) und mäßiger Rost und kosmetische Schäden. Außerdem verbraucht das Auto seit 150.000 Meilen Öl.
Ich hoffe, dass ich es diesen Sommer durch einen Toyota Crown Signia ersetzen kann, wenn die Finanzen sinnvoll sind.
Von DiabolicDiabetik
39 Kommentare
I posted this a few places yesterday but figured I would post here as well. I’ve tracked ALL car related expenses for my 2007 Camry I purchased in cash at the end of 2017. Data was tracked manually using Excel.
I’ve driven the car 142,000 miles through 27 states. The 2nd image is everywhere I’ve been with the car, created using Mapchart and tracked over time.
Most of the issues I would attribute to driving on salty, potholed Northeast roads, or simply high mileage. 2007 is also a known „bad year“ for these cars due to oil burning.
Current issues with the car: 11 check engine codes (all EVAP related), ABS light (sensor), TPMS light (all 4 sensors are bad), and moderate rust and cosmetic damage. The car has also been burning oil since 150k miles.
I’m hoping to replace this with a Toyota Crown Signia this summer if the finances make sense.
Fun stuff. Your map legend should probably be: „Time spent in each county“, took me a second to understand.
Very cool. Crazy that the car purchase only accounts for 15% of the price of ownership.
This is beautiful, thank you for sharing and inspiring me to do the same.
I just noticed the gallons of gas used, on my wifes chevy cruze, hidden in the menu. 5,800 gallons used! For a car that gets 35mpg i never would of guessed we spent $16,000 on gas, i dont even want to do the math on what my f250 with 165k miles used.
Ok, I’ll ask. Why so much traveling? Is it for work? Fun? Are you on the lam?
Had the same car many years ago if I remember correctly it had an oil issue big recall where it burns motor oil between oil changes up to a quart they put sleeves on pistons but I had it for 250k before getting totaled 10 years ago
Nice analysis. Like the lifetime cost/mile metric! Very impressive low-cost result!
How many miles did it have when you bought it?
I am sorry, but I read that as „cat“ ownership and I was all excited to compare costs! Then I was confused when I read Fuel and Maintenance and was wondering if that was a new terminology I did not know about 😂
I always wonder how the math works out for people driving for Uber/Lyft considering this kind of analysis.
If you’ve ever wondered at why companies are mandating RTO, this shows just one sector in great detail. Imagine all the miles not driven, tolls not paid, fuel not bought, repairs not purchased, day parking not paid, etc. Now imagine this data for every other sector involved, such as eating food or getting child care as examples. The interconnected spiderweb of what we spend money on was threatened. If anything this example is very light on the amount of driving, it’s probably a fair assumption that a lot of commuters put in greater numbers than this in terms of raw mileage and presumably associated costs.
Are repairs list like OP’s normal for a car of this age? I drive about half as much but my 2003 Toyota hasnt had anything critical broken. The worst one right now is the outside driver mirror doesnt tilt up/down but its been like that since 2016 when i got it.
67,000 miles in 2016, about 140,000 miles today. I live in the salt belt and its never seen a garage in the time ive had it. I feel like im unknowingly missing something and the car is going to give up the ghost randomly when i see posts like this.
Boy. I’d be terrified to see my 8 years of ownership on my daily/offroad F-150😂.
Beautifully presented data.
I just bought a new car and would love to do this. Can you share your tracking template?
Well done. Easy to read and understand.
Without your second pic, it’s clear you live in the rust belt because you’re getting your exhaust and suspension repaired that often.
I’ve driven my 2012 Camry for about 60k miles and the only maintenance I’ve needed routine. Tires/brakes/oil/etc…
This is impressive. My wife and I always run these types of numbers but not to this level of detail. Great work! Love it.
Here is something, but it is not perfect since I don’t know what month you purchased your car.
You are basically paying $379.50 a month for a vehicle: gas, license, and repairs. This is what I think is sensible fiscal living. We keep our cars until they start looking like beaters and start costing us more than what we call our „X“ a month, and then we replace them. $379 for a car including everything? That is ideal!!!
Good stuff!!!
Great post OP! This is the kind of thing I like to show to people as an encouragement to buy older Toyotas, maintain the heck out of them, and save boatloads of cash
I did something very similar with a 2007 Corolla that I also bought in 2017 for roughly $4K with 120K at the time and still own.
My all-in average cost per mile over those years is almost exactly 20 cents. This has saved me tens of thousands of dollars in the past decade.
This cost per mile makes me jealous. I track a similar sort of dataset and my cost per kilometre is $2.34 CAD.
New cars are much more expensive to own, you need to keep them for longer to amortize the cost (probably around 15 years).
As a Michigander, I’d say it looks like you visited all the right spots in Michigan!
I probably shouldnt be surprised but damn! Fuel is nearly half of expenses.
This is very cool. Would you share your sheet’s file so others can use it?
Wait a minute…. $60/mo average on insurance over 8 years. What is your coverage like?
Just a note the Crown Signia is literally a lifted station wagon.
Your headroom will be reduced compared to your current car.
But it’s damn well made, my gripes are the thin tires, weird shift knob, and weird hybrid set up and premium fuel.
But if you can live with those issues. It can be nice
I couldn’t live with the price tag
Contrary to popular belief that it’s a home or a 401k, the used Toyota Camry is actually the single biggest wealth builder in America. 142,000 miles for $40,000 over a decade is a PHENOMENAL return on investment.
And this is a fule efficient car calculate the cost of a gas for a vehicle getting less then 20mpg
this is the most depressing visualization i’ve seen all week and i build payment dashboards for a living
that 2007 corolla burning oil since 150k is the real story here. toyotas are supposed to be immortal but that generation had the oil consumption issue. basically every corolla/camry/rav4 from 06-09 with the 2AZ-FE engine burns oil like it’s going out of style
from malaysia where car ownership is basically mandatory (public transport is… evolving) – seeing $28k total over 8 years makes me jealous. our import taxes triple everything. a corolla here costs what a loaded accord costs in the US
also love how insurance + reg is basically flat while everything else compounds. that’s the real lesson – recurring costs are predictable, maintenance is where the wallet dies
would love to see this same data for an EV. everyone talks about „lower running costs“ but the depreciation curve is still terra incognita
great work on the viz btw. the granular breakdown with actual receipts is chef’s kiss
This is a great breakdown that really highlights the hidden costs of car ownership. The fact that fuel/tolls represents only 41% while maintenance is 13% and repairs are 13% tells an interesting story – you’re spending almost as much keeping the car running as you are actually running it.
What stands out to me is how repair costs likely spiked in later years as the car aged. That’s the real financial trap of holding onto aging vehicles – the „I’ve already put so much into it“ sunk cost fallacy kicks in hard.
The insurance/tax slice at 14% is also telling. People often only calculate monthly payments + gas when budgeting for a car, but this visualization shows those two categories combined are barely half the total ownership cost.
For anyone tracking their finances: this level of granular expense tracking is gold. Most people drastically underestimate their true cost per mile. When you factor in depreciation and all these maintenance items, you’re probably looking at $0.50-0.70/mile for most vehicles, way higher than what people think.
Curious – was the 2007 Camry purchased new or used? That context would make the data even more valuable for comparison.
How did you log and generate the visualization for the county map?
I think I could whip something out in D3 or Tableau but I don’t have the time spent in each county data readily available.
I have to say that for a Camry with that ‚low‘ of miles I’m surprised to see that much in repairs. It also shows still how low you can keep your $/mile costs if you buy well.
That’s why EVs are gradually taking over (in the rest of the world at least). Energy is about 10-20% of what it costs for an ICE vehicle.
Oh god I misread this as „cat ownership costs” and I was confused with „repairs” like „how much does it cost ro fix damage done by a cat?” xD
Dang. Makes my used model y look cheap. Fuel has been 1/4 of a Camry with no maintenance, oil, or repair costs in 3 years.
Yeah, I bought a Honda Fit new in 2020 for $16,000. Fucking thing doesn’t break down, cheap to insure, and gets 41 MPG (37 city). I probably paid less than this.
the car insurance cost seems really low to me for somw reason.
You might have the least reliable toyota ever. Or your mechanic is taking advantage of you
It’s only a bit misleading, since the car was purchased the last week of the year and had no insurance or taxes. If you add the 2017 and the 2018 columns together, then you get an accurate cost analysis of the first year of ownership.