$20,858.23
÷ 2621
$7.96
Rolling over to 100k or 100,001 in this case (because you weren’t quite able to get the exact shot you wanted) is a fairly significant milestone for a vehicle, so I figured it would be a good time to look back and see if I would do it all over again.
Let’s start with some basic math. If we take the original total financing charge and divide it by the number of days from the time of purchase until rolling over to 100k miles, we find out owning the Hi-C has cost a little less than $8 a day at this point.
Obviously there is a bit more to owning a car than just paying for it. Maintenance and repairs come into play. Since the Prius has never seen the dealership or a repair shop of any sort other than for an alignment after I “ruined it” by lowering it. The only extra charges outside of the modifications have been tires and oil changes. Oil changes have come as recommended every 10k miles and tires were rotated every 5k but have been replaced 4 times if you count taking off the brand new tires for the upgraded ones. I will mention part of lowering the car was adding a good amount of negative camber to the rear which will accelerate tire wear by a lot. Since I have no idea what it really costs to pay for maintenance and the Toyo Tires that I have been using aren’t quite your average Prius replacements I’m going to add $1000 for the 10 oil changes, and $1600 for tires. Feel free to call BS if you are more well versed in current mechanic charges, or buy some basic tools and save yourself a lot of money.
$23,458.23
÷ 2621
$8.95
While $9 a day still seems like a cheap ride our story does not end here. Let’s talk current value. A quick search for some used options shows that similar models with similar miles are selling for $12-$14k. Yes these are dealer prices so we will consider a more conservative $10k value for our exercise here.
$13,458.23
÷ 2621
$5.14
So would I pay $5 a day to have a car that has always just worked everytime that I have asked it to? Yes please! 100 times over, yes please. Even as just a backup car this is something I wouldn’t even have to think about. The fact that I was able to modify it to make it actually pretty fun to drive for the past 100K is all just a massive bonus for me. Even if the cost of the mods would scew our numbers a bit.
