Cost of ownership for my e34

[Scott E]

I modified and updated the spreadsheet I use to track expenses for my car. I also added some formulas to calcuate how much it really cost me to drive and maintain my car based on data in the spreadsheet and some information I found on the net about Southern California fuel prices over the past 4 years.

In a nutshell it costs me about 54 cents a mile to maintain my car. Hopefully I dont have any major repairs for a while and that number goes down a little.

Let me know what you think and feel free to use it as a template

http://www.kidkrash.com/expense.xls

[dave b]

Withouth gas, I'm at $.36 per mile over the last 70,000 miles on my 1993 525i.

Also in Socal.

[billb]

Let me know what you think and feel free to use it as a template

http://www.kidkrash.com/expense.xls


I should get royalties for that thing!

Bill B.

[ryan roopnarine]

reading your spreadsheet, i'm beginning to think that i'm expecting too much in the "repair-free" department for this age of a car. in the last 9 months, I've put just under 21,000 miles on the car, and i don't even drive it during most of the week. i guess i can expect for stuff to fall off under stress, and EVENTUALLY (hopefully) taper off. being able to put off a heater core replacement until sept. helps too, i guess. i'm curious, too, how you managed to only spend 10 for an oil change...isn't the filter like $5 by itself? most good quality SJ oil is at least 1.25-150, and if i'm not mistaken, your m30 uses roughly the same 6-7 quarts my m50 does.

[ryan roopnarine]

pps....how do you do a tranny and oil for $20? i don't have a manual, but even when the motor oil was almost free, i still paid almost $15 to change oil and tranny fluid at the same time, not including a filter (or the carb spray to clean stuff up). i'll be conservative and say.....Rebate on maxlife 10w40--free

filter--about $6 after i drove across town for it
two quarts of maxlife (as the rebate is only for 5 qts)--$4.22 plus tax
1 gallon wal mart transmission fluid $4.5x
can of carb spray for this and sundry other tasks--.75

=16-17 dollars...

i'm a cheap son of a b'....share your secret.

[Scott E]

The oil filter was $4 from BMA and I try to find Valvoline 20/50w on sale for a $1 a quart after rebates and such. The tranny filter was $10 from BMA and I was given a case of tranny fluid awhile back.

[Scott E]

If I were to purchase a brand new $30,000 vehicle (financing included) that gets 25 mpg and I drive 15,000 miles a year for 5 years, assume fuel to be $2.00 per gallon, and $1000 a year for insurance my Cost Per Mile would be about 54 cents a mile over a 5 year period.

This is assuming no repair & maintenance costs. I.E. Tires, Oil, Brakes...etc etc

And GUESS WHAT??? It still wouldnt have the e34 styling

Just my 25 cents worth to my own thead

[Elekta]

Look for my 04 taxes to reflect the $.54 p/m number next year. I claim the max on my work car and drive it about 16k p/yr.

[MicahO]

Numbers CAN lie, that's what it comes down to. What I mean is that numbers can be twisted quite easily to show exactly what the user wants to support.

Looking back on the ownership of both of my e34's, and I kept very meticulous records, I came to some conclusions. 1) the e34 is a great used, long-term ownership vehicle, and 2) the 535 I bought was horribly tainted, and I never figured out how or why.

The wife's Touring - owned it for 3 years and 34K miles. "Cost" of the car, including maintenance, repairs and upgrades worked out to an incredibly reasonable 18 cents per mile, and 5 cents of that was "upgrades" (in my book, wheels are upgrades, tires are maintenance, so there's even statistical rationalization in that number). Now take that number and add it up - the cost of ownership, plus the cost of purchase, minus the return from selling (I adjust my sell price for this number, as I gave my nephew a completely unreasonable sweetheart deal on the car) and I come up with about $300 per month of total expense, where "expense = cost + depreciation" $300 a month when one includes depreciation is quite good. As an addendum, I'll note that the tranny dies on my nephew 6 months after I sold the car - that would have changed the "cost" picture considerably. Sale was forced by the fact that the wife needed more space. I considered selling the 535 at this time, but my nephew asked about buying the Wagon, and at the time I was "happy" to keep the 535.

My 535 - owned it for 2 years and 20K miles. "Cost" of the car including maintenance, repairs and upgrades worked out to 52 cents per mile, 10 cents of which I classified as upgrades. And I was still chasing demons. Ownership alone, disregarding depreciation, was an astounding $450 per month!!! If you take out the $2K I spent on driveshafts that didn't fix the vibration the car had, I'm still looking at $365 per month and 42 cents per mile before depreciation. You don't want to see the number after depreciation, but feel free to poke around on Edmunds and sort it out. That car hit me right in the pooper.

Had I sold the 535 and kept the Touring, I would still be driving an e34 today. But I didn't, I kept the possesed monster for a few more months, then sold it to my mechanic at a little over what Edmunds called "private party" and I was happy when it was gone (insert Tom Petty song here).

It was easy to rationalize the cost on my 330, coming from what I had spent on the 535. It's also easy to emotionally attach to the 330 - the car simply rips. But I do know what Scott's saying about the e34 - there is a LOT about the car that people will not find elsewhere, and, admittedly, new bimmers ain't cheap.

I tend to think that anyone spending over 30 or 40 cents per mile simply keeping their car on the road is spending too much, but that is a straight cost comparison and does not cover the emotional issues that do arise with these vehicles. Frankly, the 535 I owned beat me up so much I got tired of, as Ryan said so well, waiting for the repairs to "taper off." I tapered them off myself, and said buh-bye!

If you've got the right e34, it's a great car to own for the long term. If you've got the wrong one, you're in for a world of hurt - cut your losses and move on, even if it's a move to another e34.

As with all things, YMMV.

[Jason]

yes, the E34 is a great looking car but something newer, and also good looking, say an E46, won't need work every 2 months (hopefully)