# What is your true driving cost?



## Muki (Oct 15, 2015)

While I do think the standard 57.5 cents a mile from the IRS is nice to have, it doesn't tell us much about our true cost. This is what I estimated my cost to be:

I get about 19 miles a gallon with prices hovering around $2.13/gal so about $0.125/mi for fuel
I'm roughly estimating my tires to be about $100 each and assuming they will last 40,000 miles so $0.01/mi. Oil change with synthetic about $70 every 7500 miles so $0.009/mi for oil changes. I went to KBB and looked up the present value of my car. I then added 12k miles and divided the difference by that amount and got a depreciation of $0.009 cents a mile. Then I came to maintenance and that's the tough one to estimate because there have been times where I have no major car repairs for a few years and then all of a sudden a big one could happen sporadically. My car is a 2001 VW and maybe I'm high or low on this as my vehicle maintenance receipts seem to have gotten lost in my cross-country move, so let's just say average is about $1200 a year on maintenance if I had to guess. So that's $0.1/mi on future maintenance costs.

.125 + .01 + .009 + .009+ .1 = gives me $0.253/mi. So about a quarter a mile roughly in car expenses.

Is there anything major I'm forgetting that goes into car costs? I made an excel spreedsheet with math formulas that will automatically calculate my true earnings based off my input data. Trying to make sure I have all costs covered.


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## Matt Uterak (Jul 28, 2015)

I have a similar vintage Subaru.

I came to the conclusion that cost is $.25 per mile.

I think the most overlooked cost item is depreciation. Buying a new car would be a bad idea.


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## sarah ava (Nov 18, 2015)

near abour 0.35$ per mile.


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## Larry-AMS (Feb 24, 2015)

This is the best calculator that I have found that includes everything into the equation...

http://artofbeingcheap.com/calculator/

Most people arrive at a 35 to 40 cent per mile cost...it forces you to take a serious look at what you are spending on your vehicle.


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## Muki (Oct 15, 2015)

Larry-AMS said:


> This is the best calculator that I have found that includes everything into the equation...
> 
> http://artofbeingcheap.com/calculator/
> 
> Most people arrive at a 35 to 40 cent per mile cost...it forces you to take a serious look at what you are spending on your vehicle.


According to this calculator my total car cost is 21 cents a mile. I had previously estimated about 25 cents a mile.


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## coomassie (Jan 16, 2016)

So, do you think the $0.575/mile figure is a decent deal? I'm leaning towards just using that figure for my tax return vs counting up all the various business receipts I've been keeping. BTW, if you have a separate bank account for this endeavor make sure you count the monthly fees.


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## BiggestScamInHistory (Jan 19, 2016)

It's closer to the IRS figure because of the high amount of depreciation thanks to the extreme usage Uber drivers do to their cars, and thr rising costs of repairs when using your vehicle commercially. You lose little when driving 12k a year, but you lose a whole hell of alot when driving 40-60k a year, if not most of the value.

Just the repairs on a vehicle could be 10 to 25 cents a mile depending on the vehicle. And that's not even counting oil changes and new tires needed. Add up car washes, tolls, and having to get the car fully detailed or interior upholstery worked on after 6-12 months or even sooner thanks to 1,000's of people (some to many very intoxicated and rowdy) going in and out of it and you realize keeping up a car isn't cheap.

Which is why taxis and other commercial vehicles charged 2-5 times as much as UberX does. But no, keep thinking you're smarter than everyone else and stay in denial even until the point you can't even afford all the repairs you need. 

I've personally seen it first hand from ride share drivers who thought they were special enough to beat the system and come out on top. They just forgot common sense and basic math in a business they were completely new to until Uber. Uber loves the ignorant and arrogant (and desperate)


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