Dave's Life

I have never been one known for going to car lots and purchasing a shiny new car that loses value as soon as I turn the key. In fact, just this morning a friend was commenting that my vechicle collection is somewhat eclectic in the fact that other than the ones I own, you very rarely (if ever) see the same model on the road.

Case in point is my previously most recent addition - my 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer, complete with woody panel sides. I truly love that truck and it is surprisingly awesome to use as a daily driver, except for one issue. Its 11MPG is an absolute killer, especially when coupled with my 62-mile daily round trip commute. Based on this morning's gas price of $3.15, that is $17.75/day just to get back and forth to work assuming I never take a detour going to or from the office.

This week, a coworker showed up in her new Prius that gets somewhere around 40MPG. Additionally, I have seen numerous articles this week talking about how gas prices will quite easily peak (assuming the ever actually do peak) substantially higher than they are today. My problem with getting a new hybrid is that the break-over point before I would actually see any real savings would be years if ever! I started looking into other options and quickly narrowed my sights to the early Mercedes diesels, specifically the 190-D and 240-D models. Both get somewhere around 35MPG as opposed to their gas versions which are in the low 20s. Both have motors that have numerous reports of a million miles. I found several somewhat decent used vechicles in the 1200-2000 range. Non-running vechicles in these models were still getting around $800.00. I did a lot of searching for owner satisfaction and couldn't find anyone who didn't like their 240-D. In fact, my favorite testimonial was "I've had my '83 since 2000 and it has helped make me a better person." Who doesn't want to be a better person?!? :)

So, knowing the general target of what I was considering, my friend Aaron whipped out a spread sheet to help me calculate cost analysis. I wanted to see how long it took before I was saving real dollars only using the new vechicle for my Monday-Friday commute while still using my Jeep the rest of the time, and I was really surprised at what we found. Here are the variables that we took into consideration:

• Miles per Day: 62
• Gas Price: $3.15
• Diesel Price: $3.89
• Current MPG: 11
• Projected MPG: 35
• Work Days per Month: 21.72
• Car Purchase Price: $1200.00
• Worst-case re-Sale Price: $850.00
• Registration/Inspection: $60.00
• Monthly Insurance: $30.00
• Monthly Maintenance: $50.00

First, what it told me is that my current Monday-Friday gas cost is $385.63! What in the world?! If I swapped to a 35MPG diesel even at $3.89, my monthly gas cost alone would be down to $149.67! Now before I get all crazy I need to bring in some reality by throwing in insurance, maintenance, licensing, etc. Even after factoring all that in, I am still at a monthly cost of $229.67, netting me a monthly savings of $155.96.

So based on this information and based on the fact that at any moment I could walk away selling the vehicle for $850.00, here is what the accumulated savings look like over the next 12 months:

• - $254.04
• - $98.08
• $57.88
• $213.84
• $369.80
• $525.76
• $681.72
• $837.67
• $993.63
• $1,149.59
• $1,305.55
• $1,461.51

That's right, after 1 year I will save almost 1500 bucks by purchasing an additional car! Plus, I love the fact that I am not wasting good miles on my Wagoneer by driving it to and from work every day.

So, last night I went and picked up a new-to-me white 1979 Mercedes 240-D. It is by no means a looker, but then again it is a 30-year-old car I got for 1200 bucks. but it is pretty comfortable to drive and feels even better knowing the effect on my wallet. Here is a shot of it that I just took out of my office window...

If anyone is interested in using the spreadsheet helped create these numbers and helped me make my decision to purchase the Benz, you can access it here and modify it as you need to suit your needs.