Asset Review: Good Year for Cars

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Time for our half-year asset review:

Compared to June 2010 the KBB value on the 2003 Honda-CRV rose from $11,200 to $11,555.  The 2007 Mazda 3 value went up from $13,520 to $13,990 with a total value increase of $825.  This hardly offsets what our house did to our net worth but that’s another story.

Oddly, both vehicles appreciated in value despite adding miles and age.  I have two ideas why:

  1. Gas prices are higher than last year so vehicles which get decent mileage are in high demand.
  2. The value of the dollar has actually decreased.

I’m not an economist so I don’t know, but regardless, the last 12 months have been a good year to hold assets in vehicles and not dollars.  Anyway, now for the fun stuff:

Note: My asset review fiscal year starts in May or June (I roll the year whenever I feel like reviewing and realizing the assets so some years can be shorter than others).  The Year 2008 refers to June-2008 through May 2009, The Year 2009 refers to June 2009-May-2010 and so on.

2007 Mazda3 Costs

2007 Mazda3 cost of ownership (May 23, 2007 to June 15, 2011)

(bought new)

Asset Review Year2008200920102011TotalMean
Fuel1973108781578446591164
Insurance167084764489640571014
Depreciation2759701625(470)2400600
Service379134718513863297824
Interest Expense727691347681833458
New car tax1274nilnilnil1274318
DMV Registration362171217199949237
Accessories121nilnilnil12130
Documentation Fee55nilnilnil5513
Jury Duty parking ticket14nilnilnil143
Total Costs6851512738332363181744543
Miles Driven1861910090783169604350010875
Cost per mile0.370.510.490.340.430.43
I sold the Mazda3 since we don’t need two cars now that I walk to work, and if we did we would rather have an AWD anyway.  I’ve closed the books on it.  Total cost of ownership was $18174.  $378/month or $0.43/mile.  I will miss that car, but I’m happy it has a good owner (the new owner has been driving his previous car since long before I was born and finally decided it was time to replace it).

I booked the difference in KBB value and selling price to service since the tires were getting close to being needed to be replaced so that’s why the service is very high.  I probably should have booked that to depreciation, but I’m not regulated so I do accounting my way.

2003 Honda-CRV cost of ownership (June 8 2009 to June 20, 2011)

(bought used)
Starting miles: 77810
Ending miles: 90669
Asset Review Year20102011TotalMean
Service

1680

42621061053
Fuel

788

9321720860
Insurance

644

8961540770
Depreciation

605

(355)250125
DMV Registration

490

0490245
Total Costs
4207189961063053
Miles Driven

5690

7169128596430
Cost per mile
0.740.260.470.47
So glad we got out of California just in time to not have to pay the DMV registration again.  The $490 last year was because the DMV didn’t send us the invoice.  We were unable to pay online because you can’t pay without knowing a code that’s on the invoice.  We were honest and told them they needed to bill us.  The DMV apologized for not sending the invoice and being grateful for our honesty gave us a discount for our trouble was late seeing us for our appointment and slapped us with hundreds of dollars in extra fees and fines for not paying a bill that we couldn’t pay because they wouldn’t let us pay without the code that’s on the invoice that we didn’t get; then made us go smog the vehicle but wouldn’t extend a temporary registration for more than two days even though it was a three day weekend and all the smog shops were closed.

Insurance is allocated 50% to each car.

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