I’ve arraigned for a salvager to come tow away my blown-engine ’94 Escort LX station wagon. He has agreed, sight-unseen – but with a thorough description,. to a price of $125. This might seem like a great deal. considering that I only paid $100 for the car in the first place.

But then consider: I drove the thing for 8 months, at an average of 500 mi/mo (4000mi). I spent $160 to register the car, $40 to smog it, and $180 to insure myself for driving it. It got 23 mi/gal at an average price of about $2.25/gal. Add to this about $60 for money spent on essential service items (oil, wipers, air filter, etc.)

So (sorry I don’t have the HTML so as to form a nice table), here we have:

Net cost: purchase v. sale – $25
registration – $200
Maintenance- Insurance – $180
Fuel – $391.30

Well, surprise The result is only about .20/mi. I’m a bit flabbergasted here; I expected it to be closer to .28.

But than again: .20/mi to drive an unreliable and uncomfortable beater? The mind reels.