{"id":187,"date":"2009-03-07T16:06:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T23:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.knuetter.com\/christian\/?p=187"},"modified":"2009-03-07T16:06:25","modified_gmt":"2009-03-07T23:06:25","slug":"65000-and-counting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knuetter.com\/christian\/2009\/03\/07\/65000-and-counting\/","title":{"rendered":"65,000 and counting"},"content":{"rendered":"

My car rolled over 65,000 miles today.\u00a0 That’s not a particularly significant number (I tend to like the palindromic numbers myself) but it did make me think to take stock about where I am with this car.<\/p>\n

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\"2002<\/a><\/dt>\n
Image via Wikipedia<\/a><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In 2001, fresh out of a job, my 1993 Isuzu Trooper was in need of repair- and after a few years of questionable reliability, I decided it was time for a replacement.\u00a0 I bought the Nissan Pathfinder for a decent price (I thought) of about $35,000 (including tax, title, and all that other bullshit).\u00a0 After getting more than 5k for the Trooper, I was driving home in my first ever brand new vehicle.<\/p>\n

In that first year of ownership, I drove the car 14,000 miles: On one trip alone I drove from San Francisco to Joshua Tree<\/a> to Seattle and back.\u00a0 Did I mention that I wasn’t working?<\/p>\n

In the years since, my driving scaled way back.\u00a0 For starters, I have a job now – I’ve had a few in the past years.\u00a0 In those years I haven’t worked further than 15 miles from home and in the last 4 I’ve worked downtown – no driving to work!<\/p>\n

I was fortunate (and disciplined) enough to pay off the 5 year loan in about 3, so I haven’t had any car payments for the last 5 years.\u00a0 That has been awesome.\u00a0 I hate making payments.<\/p>\n

And, being fairly meticulous with paperwork, I’ve got a full record of all of the work that I’ve had done to the car: normal routine maintenance; replaced windshield, new tires, smog checks, etc.,\u00a0 Including the initial purchase price of the car (but not including interest charges as I don’t have that recorded, or insurance as that’s all wrapped up with the condo and motorcycle..) my cost of ownership to date has been $39,750.\u00a0 Ahh. one more thing – that doesn’t include gas.\u00a0 I reliably get a lousy 17 miles to the gallon.\u00a0 let’s see…. 65000… 17 .. let’s assume $3 average (that’s high for sure) 3823 gallons of gas .. $11, 470.\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 25% of my ownership costs have been fuel.<\/p>\n

That’s definitely higher than I would have expected, but part of that I have to chalk up to the fact that (knock on wood) I haven’t had any major issues with the car so far and I’ve also elected to keep driving this car, rather than replacing it every 3-5 years like so many others would be tempted to do.<\/p>\n

Today the Kelley blue book<\/a> value is listed at $9,500.\u00a0 Who knows if anyone is even buying these cars these days, but that’s not really important as I’m not selling.\u00a0 I intend to drive this car hopefully for another 8 years which will hopefully only double (or less) my current mileage.\u00a0 If it can last even longer I’d like it even better.<\/p>\n

As an environmentalist I’d love to have a car that gets better gas mileage – but at this point am I a better steward keeping an older car and not creating more demand for more manufacturing or would I be better off doubling my fuel efficiency.\u00a0 I’m not sure.<\/p>\n

Despite rising gas prices, despite the economy,\u00a0 I like having an SUV – it matches the driving I typically do (when I’m not driving to Sacramento…).\u00a0 I take it to the mountains loaded with people and gear.\u00a0 For me, the ideal scenario is to supplement this car with a smaller “city” car.\u00a0 And of course, by city, I don’t actually mean a car to drive around the city as I HATE driving in the city – I prefer walking\/public transport.\u00a0 A city car is one to take on those big grocery shopping days, or to visit friends on the peninsula, or to haul the mountain bike on a sunny Saturday.<\/p>\n

But for now, the Pathfinder does just fine.<\/p>\n

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