REVscene Automotive Forum - View Single Post - Metro Vancouver gas prices could hit $1.54 a litre by the weekend: GasBuddy

68style · 03-07-2022, 10:05 AM

I'll play the math game a bit though, it was brought up that anything but a shitbox for $2k is a bad deal compared to an EV (we will say Tesla 3 so there's some point of comparison).

I haven't commuted driving to work for 4 years now, but when I did I went Richmond to Surrey every day and the car I drove by choice was a 2004 Lexus IS300 that I bought with 134,000kms on it for $7500. The IS300 inline-6 is notoriously bad on gas compared to most cars, it's not that fast, but what can I say... I just like how the car feels. City/Hwy is 16/23mpg on that car, probably 70% of the trip is highway so we will say 20mpg or 11.8L/100km for sake of argument.

The trip from my house to my former workplace is 29.5km each way. 60km a day. A pretty decent commute, not too crazy but definitely not a short one either. So in theory I was using 7L of fuel per day. Obviously gas was cheaper back then, but today it's $2/L so $14 per work trip. Yes the IS300 says you're supposed to use premium, but I haven't for the 8 years I've owned it and it's never been an issue. I was on a flex schedule of sorts, so working 9 day fortnights... 18 days a month on average at the office, that's a monthly fuel commuting cost of $252 at today's fuel rate. Annual cost is $3024.

Maintenance has been almost non-existent. I bought the car with the timing belt/water pump already done and new brakes. Tires were about 30% worn. Looking through my records, I've done oil changes every 5,000kms at a cost of $75 per oil change (i6 engine has a big oilpan, needs 5.4L of oil). I am just about to do the brakes for the first time at 208,000kms now at a cost of $283.20USD for new power slot discs/pads all around from RockAuto ($363 at today's exchange rate) and I will be doing the brakes myself, so there's no mechanic charge for that. I bought a new set of Barum tires in Bellingham, we don't get them in Canada but they're Czech made and pass all Euro standards which are higher than NA. I've found them to be very good, a bit noisier than Continentals that it replaced. They cost (at the time -- they've gone up to $95 now) $65USD per 215/45/17 tire for a total of $260 USD which I luckily didn't get taxed on at the border, but that's $333 after conversion.

I've had zero other maintenance on this vehicle. Assuming I was always using it for commuting (I only did half the time I've owned it) I was commuting ~13,000km per year which, being generous, is 3 oil changes for $225 per year on top of fuel of $3024. My brakes took almost 70,000kms to wear out at a cost of $363 so divided by annual mileage that's an annual average cost of $67.50 per year. I'm not going to include tires because EV's use tires too.

So my car was costing $3316.50 a year to run not including insurance (about $1800 for sake of argument for full coverage, it's since dropped down to $1400 with all the ICBC changes).

I'm unsure what government rebates are currently available on Tesla's, but I don't know that there are any on the current priced SR since it's $68990 now and beyond the cost threshold I believe. $68990 plus taxes is a bit over $77000 and there's a bit extra on top because it's past the new luxury tax threshold as well, but I won't include it because I'm lazy. At a purchase price of $7500 + taxes ($8400 all in) and annual running costs of $3316.50, it would take me 20 years of driving my Lexus to reach just the initial purchase price of a Tesla Model 3 SR. This is not even accounting for the fact it does cost money to run a Tesla as well nor does it factor in financing costs which are not insignificant -- you'd be buying it outright in this scenario.

Be super super generous and throw in a timing belt/water pump job and a couple oil leaks repaired here and there, some random coolant/transmission fluid changes, $6000 worth of stuff let's say, shit happens, it's still going to take 18 years to reach the initial purchase price.

So............. yah... not exactly just a "anything but a $2k beater costs more to own" end result.

03-07-2022, 10:05 AM	#387
68style Performance Moderator Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Richmond Posts: 19,447 Thanked 21,458 Times in 7,317 Posts Failed 333 Times in 222 Posts	I'll play the math game a bit though, it was brought up that anything but a shitbox for $2k is a bad deal compared to an EV (we will say Tesla 3 so there's some point of comparison). I haven't commuted driving to work for 4 years now, but when I did I went Richmond to Surrey every day and the car I drove by choice was a 2004 Lexus IS300 that I bought with 134,000kms on it for $7500. The IS300 inline-6 is notoriously bad on gas compared to most cars, it's not that fast, but what can I say... I just like how the car feels. City/Hwy is 16/23mpg on that car, probably 70% of the trip is highway so we will say 20mpg or 11.8L/100km for sake of argument. The trip from my house to my former workplace is 29.5km each way. 60km a day. A pretty decent commute, not too crazy but definitely not a short one either. So in theory I was using 7L of fuel per day. Obviously gas was cheaper back then, but today it's $2/L so $14 per work trip. Yes the IS300 says you're supposed to use premium, but I haven't for the 8 years I've owned it and it's never been an issue. I was on a flex schedule of sorts, so working 9 day fortnights... 18 days a month on average at the office, that's a monthly fuel commuting cost of $252 at today's fuel rate. Annual cost is $3024. Maintenance has been almost non-existent. I bought the car with the timing belt/water pump already done and new brakes. Tires were about 30% worn. Looking through my records, I've done oil changes every 5,000kms at a cost of $75 per oil change (i6 engine has a big oilpan, needs 5.4L of oil). I am just about to do the brakes for the first time at 208,000kms now at a cost of $283.20USD for new power slot discs/pads all around from RockAuto ($363 at today's exchange rate) and I will be doing the brakes myself, so there's no mechanic charge for that. I bought a new set of Barum tires in Bellingham, we don't get them in Canada but they're Czech made and pass all Euro standards which are higher than NA. I've found them to be very good, a bit noisier than Continentals that it replaced. They cost (at the time -- they've gone up to $95 now) $65USD per 215/45/17 tire for a total of $260 USD which I luckily didn't get taxed on at the border, but that's $333 after conversion. I've had zero other maintenance on this vehicle. Assuming I was always using it for commuting (I only did half the time I've owned it) I was commuting ~13,000km per year which, being generous, is 3 oil changes for $225 per year on top of fuel of $3024. My brakes took almost 70,000kms to wear out at a cost of $363 so divided by annual mileage that's an annual average cost of $67.50 per year. I'm not going to include tires because EV's use tires too. So my car was costing $3316.50 a year to run not including insurance (about $1800 for sake of argument for full coverage, it's since dropped down to $1400 with all the ICBC changes). I'm unsure what government rebates are currently available on Tesla's, but I don't know that there are any on the current priced SR since it's $68990 now and beyond the cost threshold I believe. $68990 plus taxes is a bit over $77000 and there's a bit extra on top because it's past the new luxury tax threshold as well, but I won't include it because I'm lazy. At a purchase price of $7500 + taxes ($8400 all in) and annual running costs of $3316.50, it would take me 20 years of driving my Lexus to reach just the initial purchase price of a Tesla Model 3 SR. This is not even accounting for the fact it does cost money to run a Tesla as well nor does it factor in financing costs which are not insignificant -- you'd be buying it outright in this scenario. Be super super generous and throw in a timing belt/water pump job and a couple oil leaks repaired here and there, some random coolant/transmission fluid changes, $6000 worth of stuff let's say, shit happens, it's still going to take 18 years to reach the initial purchase price. So............. yah... not exactly just a "anything but a $2k beater costs more to own" end result.