Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The Cost of Owning a Car While Living On-Campus

I'm thinking about purchasing a car (a black Hyundai Sonata 2007 to be precise). However, I can't decide if I should wait until I graduate or if I should buy one sooner, perhaps right before spring break. To help me decide, I computed all the car related expenses I would need to pay if I got the car sooner rather than later:


Parking Permit (1 quarter) $254.76
Car Insurance (3 months) $160.75
Gas (700mi @ 25mpg, $2.80/gal) $ 80.00
Interest (18k @ 5% for 3 months) $225.00
Total $720.51


So if I buy a car during spring break and keep it on campus for spring quarter, I would pay around $720 more than if I bought it when I graduate. That's a good amount of money, so maybe I shouldn't buy a car just yet...

4 comments:

Kevin Chiu said...

As a dorm resident, can't you get parking for $50/month or something?

Andy Hou said...

I actually asked if there was such a discount, but there isn't. The $50 thing you're thinking of may be the carpool permit.

Daqing said...

You forgot a 3-mo depreciation and the opportunity cost.

Andy Hou said...

I think the interest i could have earned with the money is the same as the opportunity cost, so I did take it into account. You are right about the depreciation though, according to this, I think it would be about $1500.