Last time I checked in on the financial aspects of our purchasing a new car (an '06 Accord back in late 2005), it was June of 2007, and I was fiddling with Excel and examining the true costs of buying a new car.

At that point in 2007, I calculated that the Accord had cost us something like $4,213 all together. We paid the car loan off in September, 2008, after 990 days.

I figured this past weekend was a nice time to check back in on the "true cost" of the Accord. As expected, now that we're over three years into ownership, the numbers are distinctly ugly.



With that in mind, I checked the Kelly Blue Book and NADA sites for a rough value of our Accord in today's market. The lower of two sites' values was $14,055 so I went with that. If we sold the Accord today for that amount, we'd have spent about $11,761 for the priviledge of driving the car for 3.5 years or so. (That's $272 per month for those of you with only ten fingers.)



By doing a bit more math, we see that our Accord has depreciated roughly 36 percent from its sales price in the past three-plus years. That $7,893 is a nasty hit to take — and that's on a car known for its above-average resale value.

So does it hurt me to look at these numbers? Yes, I suppose it does ... a little. But this is the price we pay for "buying new." We were aware of all this at the outset.

And oh yeah: Anyone who tells you your car is an "investment" is either (1) in the car business, (2) unable to do math, or (3) just plain daft!

Labels: Automobiles