Ownership: The cost per kilometre

October 17, 2008 -- Filed under Saving money by Andrew Macdonald

So you’re thinking about a new vehicle, Normand? Are you looking at a car, a truck or an SUV? I gather that one of your top priorities is to reduce your environmental impact. The greener the car (more fuel efficient) then the lower the cost of operating it, right?

Well, it’s not quite that straightforward. Yes, it is true that the further a car goes on a volume unit of fuel, the lower the cost per kilometre. However, there are other considerations: the original cost of the vehicle, the recommended maintenance schedule and related costs, the warranty, insurance costs (that vary based on model) and, last but not least, the future trade-in value.

I’ve found a terrific online tool for determining vehicle ownership costs from the CAA. The site has been updated to reflect fuel pricing from June 2008. A few minutes with a calculator and you can quickly determine the actual comparative ownership costs of various models.

If you’re still stuck on the L/100 km measure as the only cost of the vehicle, gas 2.0 published a post about a couple of researchers from Duke University who put together this video (about four minutes) on the subject of ownership costs based on distance traveled and fuel consumption rates.

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