Cost of Driving: What is Your Car Costing You?

Three Simple Ways to Measure Your Cost of Driving

For some, it's easy to lose track of what you're spending on your car. Use these three simple steps from wikiHow to determine what exactly your car is costing you each month.

Calculate Your Fuel Costs

1. Write down the number of miles that displays on your odometer when your tank is almost empty.
2. Fill the tank without topping off.
3. Refill your tank when it's nearly empty again and write down the number of gallons it took when you refilled, again, don't top off!
4. Subtract the number from step three by the number from step one to see how far you've driven in between filling your tank. This number is roughly how many miles you'll get on one tank of gas
5. Divide the number of miles you've driven (step four) by how many gallons it took to fill your tank to see what your MPG was in that time frame.
6. Divide the distance you drive in one month by your MPG found in step five to get how many gallons you burn in one month, then multiply that number by the cost of a gallon to get how much money you're spending each month.

Maintenance and Insurance

1. Add together what you've spent in the last year in maintenance such as oil changes, tire change over services, parts, repairs, etc.
2. Divide by 12 to get your monthly cost.
3. Add together your inspection, registration and insurance costs for the year and also divide by 12.

Cost of Driving

If you want to figure out exactly what each mile is costing you,

1. Add the figures from the top two categories together, and divide by the distance you're traveling each month. Voila! Your cost per mile. (Keep in mind these numbers don't include depreciation of your vehicle, parking, tickets, etc.)

And if your vehicle is costing you too much, maybe it's time for a Subaru! :)


All information via wikiHow, image 1 via clker, image 2 via midlifemommusings, image 3 via kertoon