My Search for a New Car

I was blessed earlier this spring to have totaled my car.  This was the first Honda Odyssey we owned, and we put 86,000 miles on it after the 120,000 it had when we bought it.  We paid $6800 for it and put another $1700 in repairs into it over the 7 years we owned it.  It was hit from behind 2 years ago, denting the back hatch, but it was still operable.  The insurance settlement from this accident was $2400.  The insurance settlement from totaling the car this spring was $3100.  All in all, we spent a net $3000 for this car, and got 86,000 miles out of it.  That's under $0.03 per mile!  My goal (taught to be by my dad and a family friend) was to spend less than $0.10 per mile for the purchase price and major repairs, minus the selling price (or in this case, the insurance settlements).

But, I wasn't satisfied with $0.03 per mile because of the rising prices of fuel and my increasing understanding of ecology.  At $3.50/gallon, getting 20 miles per gallon, I was paying 17.5 cents per mile on fuel alone.  So my new goal was to find a car that could stay under $0.10 per mile including purchase price, repairs, AND FUEL, minus selling price.  If I found another car as healthy as this van I just wrecked, I only had $0.07 per mile for fuel, so it would need to get 50 miles per gallon or better if gas stayed at $3.50 per gallon.  The next day, gas went up to $3.70 a gallon :)

If I look at electric vehicles (and I did, extensively), the calculations get more complicated.  Most electric vehicles don't advertise "miles per kilowatt hour" fuel efficiency.  They say that they are the equivalent of 120 mpg, but that is a point in time based on high gas prices and low electrical prices.  Still, this rough calculation is enough to satisfy me that I can stay under $0.07 per mile in fuel costs for quite a while.  And there are quite a few cars out there that look interesting.  Check out "The Elf" and "The Truckit" at  http://organictransit.com/  or take a look at all the electric vehicles at http://www.evtradinpost.com/.

After all my research and calculations, however, I've decided to do even better and ride my bike and walk.  I have a 2 mile commute to work and a 2 mile commute to the site where I'm building a house.  My wife has a Honda Odyssey to haul around our children, and she can occasionally give me rides in really bad weather.  I need the exercise, and the price of repairs (or even completely replacing the bike) every year is still cheaper than the electricity to charge an electric vehicle.