![[OC] 8 Years of Car Ownership Costs](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ttg2hrv1xibg1-1024x672.png "[OC] 8 Years of Car Ownership Costs")
Posted this a few places yesterday but figured I would post here as well. I've tracked ALL car related expenses for my 2007 Camry I purchased in cash at the end of 2017. I've driven the car 142,000 miles through 27 states.
Most of the issues I would attribute to driving on salty, potholed Northeast roads, or simply high mileage. 2007 is also a known "bad year" for these cars due to oil burning.
Current issues with the car: 11 check engine codes (all EVAP related), ABS light (sensor), TPMS light (all 4 sensors are bad), and moderate rust and cosmetic damage. The car has also been burning oil since 150k miles.
I'm hoping to replace this with a Toyota Crown Signia this summer if the finances make sense.
Posted by DiabolicDiabetik
15 Comments
I posted this a few places yesterday but figured I would post here as well. I’ve tracked ALL car related expenses for my 2007 Camry I purchased in cash at the end of 2017. Data was tracked manually using Excel.
I’ve driven the car 142,000 miles through 27 states. The 2nd image is everywhere I’ve been with the car, created using Mapchart and tracked over time.
Most of the issues I would attribute to driving on salty, potholed Northeast roads, or simply high mileage. 2007 is also a known “bad year” for these cars due to oil burning.
Current issues with the car: 11 check engine codes (all EVAP related), ABS light (sensor), TPMS light (all 4 sensors are bad), and moderate rust and cosmetic damage. The car has also been burning oil since 150k miles.
I’m hoping to replace this with a Toyota Crown Signia this summer if the finances make sense.
Fun stuff. Your map legend should probably be: “Time spent in each county”, took me a second to understand.
Very cool. Crazy that the car purchase only accounts for 15% of the price of ownership.
This is beautiful, thank you for sharing and inspiring me to do the same.
I just noticed the gallons of gas used, on my wifes chevy cruze, hidden in the menu. 5,800 gallons used! For a car that gets 35mpg i never would of guessed we spent $16,000 on gas, i dont even want to do the math on what my f250 with 165k miles used.
Ok, I’ll ask. Why so much traveling? Is it for work? Fun? Are you on the lam?
Had the same car many years ago if I remember correctly it had an oil issue big recall where it burns motor oil between oil changes up to a quart they put sleeves on pistons but I had it for 250k before getting totaled 10 years ago
Nice analysis. Like the lifetime cost/mile metric! Very impressive low-cost result!
How many miles did it have when you bought it?
I am sorry, but I read that as “cat” ownership and I was all excited to compare costs! Then I was confused when I read Fuel and Maintenance and was wondering if that was a new terminology I did not know about 😂
I always wonder how the math works out for people driving for Uber/Lyft considering this kind of analysis.
If you’ve ever wondered at why companies are mandating RTO, this shows just one sector in great detail. Imagine all the miles not driven, tolls not paid, fuel not bought, repairs not purchased, day parking not paid, etc. Now imagine this data for every other sector involved, such as eating food or getting child care as examples. The interconnected spiderweb of what we spend money on was threatened. If anything this example is very light on the amount of driving, it’s probably a fair assumption that a lot of commuters put in greater numbers than this in terms of raw mileage and presumably associated costs.
Are repairs list like OP’s normal for a car of this age? I drive about half as much but my 2003 Toyota hasnt had anything critical broken. The worst one right now is the outside driver mirror doesnt tilt up/down but its been like that since 2016 when i got it.
67,000 miles in 2016, about 140,000 miles today. I live in the salt belt and its never seen a garage in the time ive had it. I feel like im unknowingly missing something and the car is going to give up the ghost randomly when i see posts like this.
Boy. I’d be terrified to see my 8 years of ownership on my daily/offroad F-150😂.
Beautifully presented data.
I just bought a new car and would love to do this. Can you share your tracking template?