Daily driver?

[hyuan]

Thought I'd chime in on this thread.

I drive my NSX daily, and put about 10K-18K miles on it. I am zeroeing in on my second year of ownership and my annual mileage per year has increased steadily (I am driving alot more now due to commute).

I bought the car at about 69K miles and I have about 95.5K miles. In this time, I've replaced various things due to age: antenna mast, trunk struts, shocks, CD player. Things have been failing to (presumably due to age), coolant tank (leaking), dying starter. My tires have been extremely long wearing (I am just now replacing the rears ,they are Dunlop SP9000s), but that can still cost you if you go for a better tire. This is in addition to the 60K, 90K, and timing belt.

In 12-15 months, I'll need to do the 120K maintenance.

I mention this because, some folks claim Accord-like reliability; which for the most part is true. However, at least in my case, my TCO has turned out to be about 1.2K dollars a year so far after two years. It would have been higher if I used a more conventional tire.

I believe that if you put the kind of mileage that I put on my car, you will probably see similiar TCO numbers. Then again, others may have been luckier... however, I don't think the stuff that has been breaking on my car is out of the ordinary.

YMMV.

[This message has been edited by hyuan (edited 25 February 2003).]

 

[nsxtasy]

hyuan, I'm confused. You're saying that your TCO (total cost of ownership) is $2400 for two years of driving 26K miles, right? Doesn't total cost of ownership include maintenance, repairs, tires, oil changes, gas, insurance, registration? What about depreciation and interest?

The reason I'm confused is, 9 cents a mile just doesn't sound right to me. You can easily spend about that much on gasoline alone.

 

[MadMaxx]

Originally posted by hyuan:
Thought I'd chime in on this thread.

I drive my NSX daily, and put about 10K-18K miles on it. I am zeroeing in on my second year of ownership and my annual mileage per year has increased steadily (I am driving alot more now due to commute).

I bought the car at about 69K miles and I have about 95.5K miles. In this time, I've replaced various things due to age: antenna mast, trunk struts, shocks, CD player. Things have been failing to (presumably due to age), coolant tank (leaking), dying starter. My tires have been extremely long wearing (I am just now replacing the rears ,they are Dunlop SP9000s), but that can still cost you if you go for a better tire. This is in addition to the 60K, 90K, and timing belt.

In 12-15 months, I'll need to do the 120K maintenance.

I mention this because, some folks claim Accord-like reliability; which for the most part is true. However, at least in my case, my TCO has turned out to be about 1.2K dollars a year so far after two years. It would have been higher if I used a more conventional tire.

I believe that if you put the kind of mileage that I put on my car, you will probably see similiar TCO numbers. Then again, others may have been luckier... however, I don't think the stuff that has been breaking on my car is out of the ordinary.

YMMV.

[This message has been edited by hyuan (edited 25 February 2003).]

Good info. In 6 months of driving every day + 2 weekend trips to the coast (200miles per trip or so) I racked up only 2K miles. My office is right down the street... a 1 minute blast down the the highway once you get on.

1200$ isn't that bad if it included your service and belt change + general maint. Actually, thats very good in my book

We'll see what the next few weeks bring. I'm going to take a look at a few cars to make sure I fit well in them and that I like them overall..

James

 

[hyuan]

Originally posted by nsxtasy:
hyuan, I'm confused. You're saying that your TCO (total cost of ownership) is $2400 for two years of driving 26K miles, right? Doesn't total cost of ownership include maintenance, repairs, tires, oil changes, gas, insurance, registration? What about depreciation and interest?

The reason I'm confused is, 9 cents a mile just doesn't sound right to me. You can easily spend about that much on gasoline alone.

You're right. TCO is not the correct term. I should have included gas and oil changes as well.

I had assumed that those costs would apply to any daily driver. However, the additional costs I listed were meant to specific to owning an NSX that is driven 10s of the thousands of miles a year, and roughly incorporates the cost of the maintenance. The correct figure is ~$1200/year + gas + oil changes.

Where the $1200/year includes regular maintenance for an NSX + things unexpectedly breaking + tires.

HTH