Running Costs
Fuel, maintenance, tires, fees and the slow cost of depreciation.
Budgeting maintenance as a car ages
A car's maintenance needs, told in four chapters, and how to budget each.
Car expenses and taxes: the basics
Who each car-and-tax situation applies to, what's involved, and exactly where to check the current rules.
Dealer service or independent shop
Dealer or independent shop? Nine criteria scored, and how to weight them.
Depreciation, the bill that never arrives
Depreciation never sends a bill. One curve shows what it costs anyway.
Extended warranty arithmetic
What an extended warranty is worth on average, worked out line by line.
Parking, tolls and the costs nobody counts
One week of tolls, parking and small car costs, tallied and annualized.
Registration, title and the other state fees
Title, registration and the other government fees on a car, defined.
The real per-mile cost of driving for a rideshare app
One illustrative week of rideshare driving as a profit-and-loss statement, with the costs the payout screen leaves off.
The service menu, translated
A quick-lube menu board, translated line by line against your manual.
Tires as a line item
Turn one set of tires into a cost per mile and a monthly budget line.
What a gas price change does to your month
See what a pump price change costs your month, by mpg, in one grid.
What charging an EV at home costs
Work out the monthly cost of charging an EV at home, step by step.
What moving to a new state does to your car costs
A three-phase checklist for taking a car across state lines, and who to ask about each cost.
When a cheap car turns out expensive
Two illustrative cars raced over five years of repairs, fuel and resale: where the cheap one gets caught.
When you stop commuting: the car's first year
Month by month through the first year after going remote: what falls, what creeps up, and what to call about.