I had a car payment once, I was 18 years old. Like anyone who’s ever been 18, I was understandably stupid. I used one of my street bikes as a down payment on a 1993 Ford Thunderbird with a supercharged V-6. That car was so fast!! It’s still the fastest car I’ve ever owned. It was black, fully-loaded, moonroof, all of the bells and whistles.

It was my first and only car payment, everyone had car payments. My mother and her husband each had car payments, my uncles, friends, friends’ parents etc. everybody had/has car payments—it was/is nromal. I still remember the book of payment slips I was issued; I would tear the newest one out each month and send it, along with a check for $223, to NuVision Financial Group in Orange County, California. I think I made five payments on that car, six at the most, then I listed it for sale and got rid of it. Here we are, 26 years later, I haven’t had a car payment since. I taught myself at a young age—vehicles make money, not take money. That was roughly 26 years ago, $223 won’t cover registration fees on a new vehicle today and you’re lucky if it affords liability-only insurance coverage for the next 60 days in the states. I have friends who believe a $700/month car payment is nomral.

I recently settled another toll-violation I received in the mail. They’re not called “fees” or “notices” anymore, now the fee/notice is called a ”violation.” It costs $12 in tolls violations to make a 200 mile round trip from Los Angeles to San Diego—$6 each way. What happens is; you drive through a camera booth and, as you pass through, a picture is taken of your license plate and you’ll receive a bill violation in the mail shortly thereafter. I paid the $12 in violations online. Then I thought about the gas, parking, insurance, and everything else required to operate a motor vehicle and the trip from Los Angeles to San Diego is quite a bit more than $12. I’m curious to know how much those three hours cost a Southern California resident. This article has:

The vehicle we just traded when we left the US for $USD and 8,837.109 #steem was a commuter, it’s made for long distance driving and gets stellar gas mileage. It wasn’t brand new either so the insurance was reasonable and registration, although increased by $70 in January of 2018 in California, was still manageable. It was paid for too, hmm. 🤔... That car isn’t going to work for this demonstration!

I like analyzing statistics and study type, in depth, figuring stuff out type of research projects anyway, I have an idea. 💡 Let’s take a look at the top selling car and truck from each engine class and figure out how much it actually cost to drive a #new vehicle in Southern California from Los Angeles to San Diego and back—a 200 mile round trip.

V-8

According to car and driver, the Ford F-250 Super Duty is the top selling V8 truck in USA. According to this article from US News, the Chevy Camaro is the top selling V8 sports car.

V-6

This Carmax article has the Ford F-150 XLT leading the industry in pick-up sales. This article, written by Business Insider, lists the Toyota Camry XSE as the top selling vehicle in its class.

4 Cylinder

Toyota Tacoma is the best selling mid-size truck in USA according to this article from I See Cars. This article from car dot com lists the Toyota Corolla as USA’s top selling compact car.

Now that we have the makes and models of USA’s best selling vehicles, let’s figure out exactly how much it costs these vehicles to be on Interstate 15 for a maximum of three hours.

For each of these examples I’ll use a 4.5% annual percentage rate (APR) for the interest applied to the car loan. Most Americans won’t qualify under 7n1/4% but, for the consistency of this article, I’ll keep financing at 4n1/2%. Financing extends as far as seven years in the US but 72 months (5 years) is the most common, for that reason, I’ll factor each of these vehicles at 72 months. I’ll link all of the sources I used and explain how I reached my figures on the first vehicle, for the remaining five, I’ll just plug in the numbers. Thanks for stopping by!

V-8:

2019 Ford F-250 Super Duty XLT. $37k x 10n1/4% in taxes and registration fees and the total price of this truck is $41k (37k x 10.25% = $3,885 + 37k = 41k). With an APR locked in at 4.5%, your yearly interest is $1,845. Multiply that five times (72 months) and you’ll reach a total of $9,225 in taxes. The balance of the truck plus taxes and fees is $48,225. The balance of the loan divided by the total number of months (72) required to pay off the vehicle equals a minimum monthly payment of $670. I plugged in my age, the year of the vehicle, my marital status, and everything else required by Liberty Mutual Insurance in order to receive an auto insurance quote:

$670/month + monthly insurance premiums and your new truck payment equals $977/month. Annual vehicle registration for this truck will cost $578/year (or) $20/month for a minimum monthly truck payment of $997 (or) $33/day. Now let’s see what kind of gas mileage this vehicle gets: 10 Miles Per Gallon (MPG) according to the averages located here at fuelly dot com. In order to fill up the gas tank with adequate fuel to reach San Diego and back, we’ll need 20 gallons of gas (200 miles divided 10) at $3.55/gallon in Los Angeles, California equals $36.

2019 Chevy Camaro SS Coupe. $41k x 10.5% sales tax = $45,200. $45k x 4.25% APR = $54,605 for a five year monthly loan balance of $758. Insurance required to drive this car is $234/month bringing the monthly payment to $992. A Camaro gets an average of 19 MPG so it’s practically the same amount of gas required to operate as the Ford F-250.

V-6:

2019 Ford F-150 XLT. $33,800 x 10.5% sales tax = $37,340. 37k x 4.25% APR brings the loan balance to $39k (or) $541/month. Insurance required to drive this truck is $204/month bringing the total monthly payment to $754 or $25/day. The F-150, averaging 16 MPG, needs 12.5 gallons for the trip.

2019 Toyota Camry XSE. $34,600 x 10.5% sales tax = $38,146 x 4n1/2% APR and the loan balance is $46,221 or $640/month. The insurance required on a Camry is $168/month bringing the total monthly payment to $808/month or $27/day. At 30 MPG, the Camry needs seven gallons of gas for the trip.

4 Cylinder:

2019 Toyota Tacoma. $26,380 x 10.5% sales tax = 29k x 4n1/2% APR and your loan balance is $35,160 or $488/month. The insurance required on a brand new Toyota Tacoma will cost $154/month bringing the monthly payment to $642 or $21/day. At 18 miles per gallon, the Tacoma requires 11 gallons of fuel to make the trip.

2019 Toyota Corolla. $25,500 x 10n1/2% sales tax = 28k x 4n1/2% APR and your loan balance is $33,900 or $470/month. The insurance required on a brand new Corolla is $192/month bringing your total monthly payment to $592 or $20/day. At 32 MPG, the Corolla will require seven gallons of fuel to make the trip.

I assumed the Toyota Tacoma and Toyota Corolla would be easier on the wallet when making the round trip—I expected that. I didn’t expect the Ford truck with a V6 to cost as much as it does, it isn’t a whole lot less to make the trip as both the V8 Camaro and the Ford truck with a big V8. That makes the Ford F-150 XLT useless to me, I wouldn’t be able to talk myself into buying the smaller engine when, at the end of the day, it’s only $11 less to operate than the big Ford truck with the much more powerful V8 engine.

I expected the Camry to perform better, I thought we would see the Toyota Camry make the trip for substantially less money—that’s not the case. The Camry is only about $20 less to drive than the Chevy Camaro with a V8. I would rather drive the Camaro but the rest of USA disagrees—Camry is the #1 selling car in the country.

The prices continue to drop as we get to the 4 cylinder engines, as expected, but not as much as I anticipated. The Toyota Tacoma with a 4 cylinder will make the round trip for only $19 less than the full size Ford F-250. The Corolla is the most affordable daily driver, the 200 mile round trip costs the least—$82. I’m not surprised by that.

Thanks for following along, I hope you found this information beneficial, like I said in the beginning, I enjoy research projects like this. The initial sticker prices seen on the showroom floor at the dealer aren’t as alarming after doing these calculations. The Camaro and F-250 have price tags that read larger than the other vehicles but when you do the comparisons, they’re actually a better deal than both V6’s. I expected the Toyota Tacoma to make the trip at a more reasonable price than it did—it didn’t. According to my calculations, the F-250 is a better deal for an extra $20/day.