This is the original reviewer posting a one-year update for my 2010 Cadillac DTS. Current mileage is 102,706 miles, which means I have put about 5,600 miles on the car over the past year. It would normally have been a couple of thousand more, but I've had a little project going on at my second home about a thousand miles away and had also wanted to do some hiking accessible off dirt tracks, so driving my 2017 Explorer made more sense last year. Still, the good news is that there were no repairs, though I should hope so with such an abbreviated interval.
I had the oil changed and tires rotated at 100,586 miles at a cost of $200. I had the spark plugs, air filter, and cabin air filter changed at 101,016 miles at a cost of $500.
I looked back at my records and can quantify what I'd said about this car being more expensive than others I've owned. For years, I've graphed expenses and mileage in Excel spreadsheets, and fit a linear curve to a graph of miles versus cumulative cost. For the Cadillac DTS, with a correlation coefficient of 0.97 and R squared value of 0.95, the slope of that linear regression line shows I've spent $1,000 every 5,000 miles for an average 20-25 cents per mile. This is maintenance and repairs, not gasoline. For comparison, my 2002 Ford Explorer, with a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and R squared value of 0.97 defined a linear regression slope that showed I spent $1,000 every 10,000 miles for an average of about 10 cents per mile, including the $3,750 I paid for it at a repo auction. And the king, my 1985 Dodge Ramcharger with a correlation coefficient of 0.94 and R squared value of 0.90 defined a linear regression with a slope showing I spent $1,000 every 15,000 miles for an average cost of 7-8 cents per mile. Of course, the money spent on the Ramcharger and 2002 Explorer are in dollars of the early 2000s, so inflation may be a consideration for direct comparison to nearly 20 years ago.
Still, it's enough to show how many repairs the Cadillac has needed compared to my two previous used cars. It should be said, though, that the Ramcharger benefited from being simple and an earlier era vehicle that I could work on myself to a large degree. That in itself can show you that for somebody strapped for cash, as I was 20 years ago just trying to get on my feet with my first real job out of graduate school, driving a cheap old car that you can work on yourself will be a huge benefit to helping avoid a car payment and torpedoing your financial future.
For the final comparison, the maintenance on my 2017 Explorer works out to an average of $1,000 every 40,000 miles, but because I paid something like $32,000 for it, that works out to an average of about 50 cents per mile. That's double the Cadillac, which I paid nothing for and kind of consider to be a money pit. I know this site is about cars and not finances, but if I had a chance to share a little tip from my 50-some years, I'd say avoid the attractive looking money pits and avoid the new car payment. If your goal is to impress others, it's not working. Get a cheap beater, save up the cash you would have spent on car payments, and someday you will be very glad. That person in the new, or worse yet, used but recently financed, BMW next to you at the light is probably more broke than you are!
18th Feb 2024, 17:54
This is the original reviewer posting a one-year update for my 2010 Cadillac DTS. Current mileage is 102,706 miles, which means I have put about 5,600 miles on the car over the past year. It would normally have been a couple of thousand more, but I've had a little project going on at my second home about a thousand miles away and had also wanted to do some hiking accessible off dirt tracks, so driving my 2017 Explorer made more sense last year. Still, the good news is that there were no repairs, though I should hope so with such an abbreviated interval.
I had the oil changed and tires rotated at 100,586 miles at a cost of $200. I had the spark plugs, air filter, and cabin air filter changed at 101,016 miles at a cost of $500.
I looked back at my records and can quantify what I'd said about this car being more expensive than others I've owned. For years, I've graphed expenses and mileage in Excel spreadsheets, and fit a linear curve to a graph of miles versus cumulative cost. For the Cadillac DTS, with a correlation coefficient of 0.97 and R squared value of 0.95, the slope of that linear regression line shows I've spent $1,000 every 5,000 miles for an average 20-25 cents per mile. This is maintenance and repairs, not gasoline. For comparison, my 2002 Ford Explorer, with a correlation coefficient of 0.98 and R squared value of 0.97 defined a linear regression slope that showed I spent $1,000 every 10,000 miles for an average of about 10 cents per mile, including the $3,750 I paid for it at a repo auction. And the king, my 1985 Dodge Ramcharger with a correlation coefficient of 0.94 and R squared value of 0.90 defined a linear regression with a slope showing I spent $1,000 every 15,000 miles for an average cost of 7-8 cents per mile. Of course, the money spent on the Ramcharger and 2002 Explorer are in dollars of the early 2000s, so inflation may be a consideration for direct comparison to nearly 20 years ago.
Still, it's enough to show how many repairs the Cadillac has needed compared to my two previous used cars. It should be said, though, that the Ramcharger benefited from being simple and an earlier era vehicle that I could work on myself to a large degree. That in itself can show you that for somebody strapped for cash, as I was 20 years ago just trying to get on my feet with my first real job out of graduate school, driving a cheap old car that you can work on yourself will be a huge benefit to helping avoid a car payment and torpedoing your financial future.
For the final comparison, the maintenance on my 2017 Explorer works out to an average of $1,000 every 40,000 miles, but because I paid something like $32,000 for it, that works out to an average of about 50 cents per mile. That's double the Cadillac, which I paid nothing for and kind of consider to be a money pit. I know this site is about cars and not finances, but if I had a chance to share a little tip from my 50-some years, I'd say avoid the attractive looking money pits and avoid the new car payment. If your goal is to impress others, it's not working. Get a cheap beater, save up the cash you would have spent on car payments, and someday you will be very glad. That person in the new, or worse yet, used but recently financed, BMW next to you at the light is probably more broke than you are!