estimating depreciation and operating costs on 38 cars...

Hi Fchatters,

I spent some time this afternoon "running the numbers" on a list of cars that interests me. I'd appreciate any feedback you guys may have. I plugged in the estimates (blue numbers) pretty quickly, so they are no doubt off a bit.

The primary questions I am trying to answer:

1. what would each of these cars be worth in 5 years after 30,000 additional miles of use?

2. What are the relative depreciation and operating costs for each car?

Assumptions:

- "Operating costs" means maintainence, tires, oil, etc, but not insurance or gas. That is, this is what you could expect to pay a mechanic. Cost of financing (if any) was also not included here.

- All cars are are either near-new or in very good after a recent restoration. Current purchase price reflects this. Not concours, but nice cars.

Questions:

- Any thoughts on my cost estimates? I have no real world experience with most of these cars, so I would appreciate any feedback.

- For fun: which dream cars are missing from this list? This is all I could come up with off the top of my head. Now I just need to find that 38-car garage.

Thanks,
Steve

Argh. Pictures too big for local server hosting. You'll have to click here to see my charts. They are all the same data, just with different sort orders that I thought was interesting...

Make then cost per mile:
http://www.streamload.com/steve/depr_estimates/tco_-_by_make_cost_per_mile.gif

Cost per mile:
http://www.streamload.com/steve/depr_estimates/tco_-_by_cost_per_mile.gif

Depreciation:
http://www.streamload.com/steve/depr_estimates/tco_-_by_depr.gif

Purchase price:
http://www.streamload.com/steve/depr_estimates/tco_-_by_purchase_price.gif

 

> I can't read them.

If you're using Internet Explorer and it looks blurry, you may need to "zoom" the image to it's full size by clicking on the "zoom icon" that appears when you hover over the image for a second.

Here is a screenshot of the button you need to click in the bottom-right hand corner of the browser window (appears after hovering for a second):

-Steve
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