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I had a college reunion this past weekend.
Rather than drive separately, my good buddy picked me up in his $250,000 exotic.
I kept thinking about how his first year depreciation will be more than my annual mortgage amount. Seems to make him pretty happy and he can afford it though.
The car I drive in Baja California Sur Mexico is a 2002 Jeep Wrangler 4x4
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- large buy in price commit
- road-trip charging anxiety
- battery losing efficiency over time (and with weather)
I currently drive a 21yr old Lexus sedan - 2001 GS430
This was a $55k luxury car when new and I picked it up for $12,500 back in 2011 with 90k miles in a condition that looked like it had just rolled off the showroom floor. It has 165k miles today and is worth about $6-7k if I had to guess based on condition/mileage. I can probably drive the car another 5yrs and I estimate it will be worth the same amount given that it’s fully depreciated.
The car still looks sharp, gets about 20mpg, and still keeps me happy.
My friends think I’m batshit insane to make as much money as I do and drive a car this old but I have strong convictions about not buying shiny depreciating assets to impress other people. Additionally I prefer to put my money into investments, travel, family than things like cars or jewelry.
I estimate that I drive about 150 miles per week for work which translates to about $200 of gas per month.
I may not drive quite enough for the economics to make sense to go electric given my current reference point. I guess I need to also consider that a 21yr old car won’t run forever although I’ve seen these cars go well over 200k miles, even over 300k in some cases.
It’s remarkable how reliable this luxury Toyota has been. It’s never left me stranded, never had any high dollar repair - only brakes, tires, and some suspension bushings. Also had a check engine light once during the 10yrs I owned it… turned out to be a $80 oxygen sensor that was replaced this year (labor included). Not a drop of oil in my driveway and AC still blows ice cold. I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t experience it.
In a strange way, I’m almost eager to keep driving it just so I can see how long I can stretch this out…
What car do you drive and where do you stand on the gas vs electric topic?