In addition to discounts for bundling and being a good student, Liberty Mutual offers “affinity discounts.” The company works with employers, schools, nonprofits, and other organizations to provide group discounts. This is done using a macro, so you must have macros enabled in Excel for that date function to work. It gives you a summary of all 4 scenarios on a single 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. My buddy and author James Bragg says that "The reason God gave you feet was to show salesman your heels." The deposit slip is used as a written confirmation between the buyer and seller itemizing the selling price of the car, the buyer's initial deposit and how much the buyer still owes on the used car. That is your monthly cushion. For example, USA Today reported that the average price of a new car in 2015 is $33,560. Sure, you will eventually have to replace the clutch on a manual transmission car, but with reasonable driving habits, a clutch can last 120,000 miles. If you approach repairing your car as an interesting engineering challenge instead of a terrible task, you’ll find it very rewarding. I think that’s the other thing that never gets calculated well. That’s about double the number used by AAA, and it would increase the cost of owning your car in the first year to $11,756. 16. You can, of course, usually find savings by taking time to compare car insurance quotes from competing insurers. Simply enter your monthly income and accurately list all your expenses and your desired car payment. I have kept data logs for my current car (which I am about to replace). Nice work on the spreadsheet and thanks for the good work. To confirm terms and conditions, click the "Apply Now" button and review info on the secure credit card terms page. Learning how to do the maintenance will save you thousands and thousands of dollars in your lifetime. Here you'll find awesome spreadsheets we created to make your life easier as you research your next vehicle. Thanks! It’s important to understand that this is just an average based on national statistics. Allstate offers discounts for new cars, multiple policies, accident-free driving, good school performance, and safety features. Many visitors have used this spreadsheet right there in the finance office and caught dealers cheating. Car insurance rates are rising — by a lot. I want to factor in how much this savings number can be increased if you choose a hybrid or electric car as well instead of regular fuel. Best High Yield Savings Accounts Compared, Understanding Overdraft Protection and Fees, The Beginner’s Guide To Saving For Retirement, How Much Do You Need To Have Saved For Retirement, How Much Should You Contribute To Your 401(K), How To Pay Medical Bills You Can’t Afford, Free Monthly Budget Spreadsheet For Excel & PDF, Auto Loan Interest Calculator: Monthly Payment & Total Cost, Bestow’s Chief Insurance Officer, Jackie Morales, How Much Does It Really Cost To Own Your Car? I was kind of shocked by my own numbers. For example, how well is the vehicle running? I still find it’s better to run the old car forever, it never gets cheaper to get a new car, UNLESS you are taking it to the dealer for repairs. I’ve already calculated that my 2012 Rav4 will cost close to 70,000 over the lifetime of the vehicle. This spreadsheet compares 4 different loan scenarios at once. The only thing MSRP is used for is calculating the residual value. Take a car from 10 years to 20, compare that to new, and lets see where the crossover point is to where you might reocmmend a replacement. It the next 100,000 miles where it get interesting , because now all the items will have a chance at needing repair. Let’s look at what AAA says about the average costs of a “typical sedan” that is driven 15,000 miles per year: AAA actually lists seven expenses, because they consider tires to be a separate category. Our Patent Pending software helps you to know what your call center staffing needs are and schedule your staff when you need them. Car Loan Calculator: How Much Car Can I Afford? At $3,654, it represents more than 40% of the annual cost of owning a car. Do you replace it with a new one as soon as the car is paid for? Once again, it’s very important to emphasize that the numbers presented by AAA represent averages based on nationwide statistics. And perhaps most important, are you in a financial position to be able to afford to purchase a brand-new vehicle? Of course, those are just average numbers. Let’s take a more typical 5 year old car and run it out to 15-20 years and see how that looks . Before you download: This budget spreadsheet records the last date that you saved your budget and records it in a cell near the top on the right of the spreadsheet. Between the price of the vehicle, financing costs, insurance, taxes, and maintenance, owning one —let alone two — cars can drain your bank account quickly. To help, I want to go over my system to do exactly that — lower your car insurance in just 4 steps — as well as give you 10 great scripts to use to … Comments may be held for moderation and will be published according to our. I’m thinking of purchasing a new Mac. And we settle an old debate: Should you trade in before your car gets too old or should you drive it into the ground? But the spreadsheet just allows you to enter the calculated residual value. Do you “drive it into the ground”? Per AAA, maintenance is $766.50 and tires are $147 per year. But how much you actually pay will again depend upon personal circumstances. We are paid referral fees for leads or sales generated from visitors that click on some links or fill out certain forms on this site. To download, just right click on the images on the left here, and choose "Save Target As." Or something in between? This article seems to be front-end heavy on the depreciation side of things, but forgets to mention that maintenance and repair costs tend to increase over time. Here at Spreadsheet Scheduler, we help you schedule the right number of contact center agents at the right time to make sure you are hitting your Service Levels as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. For example, let’s say that your 10-year-old car needs a new transmission, at a cost of $2,500. How much you pay for fuel each year will depend upon the miles per gallon that you get with your car, road conditions in your area, and the specific price of gas where you live, which can vary widely. How much do you need the car? The service is fast and free, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out. Paying close attention to how much your vehicle costs also presents an opportunity — buy and own a car the smart way and you could save a lot of money each year. will likely offer convenient, low cost options. Thanks for that personal data, CJ. And I also agree with the poster about automatic transmissions, they are the number one cause for turning the car in. You're probably spending way more than you think on your car. At one point the finance manager began questioning where I got the spreadsheet, but didn't get into questioning its accuracy. How much driving do you do? It's best to enter your figures using Microsoft Excel outside of your browser window. . Local tech colleges, community education programs, etc. is always a trusted option. Discounts are also available to military personnel and seniors, among others. Does the cost of a subcontractor count as a capital good when applying the Limited cost trader test? Spreadsheet skills are useful in so many ways. You'll notice in the lease spreadsheet I made no cell for you to enter MSRP. If you live in an area that experiences harsh weather conditions, it will probably be higher. The deposit buys you time while you go to the bank to get a bank draft. Please view our advertising policy page for more information. For more information on ALG Residual Values and other leasing software, see Expert Lease Pro. Fox News recently reported that the average age of a car in the US has climbed to a record 11.5 years. Of course if someone had bought a newer or more expensive car, depreciation, insurance and registration would be even higher. I would suggest users reading this post, who are spreadsheet leery, consider taking an introductory class on using spreadsheets. It represents the loss in value of the vehicle over its useful life. Copyright © 2020 ConsumerNet, Inc. CarBuyingTips.com® is a registered trademark of ConsumerNet, Inc. For your protection, the spreadsheets are password protected so you don't try to mess with the formulas. One of the quickest ways to do this is through. If you take care of your vehicle, maintenance expenses are likely to be lower. Opinions are the author's alone. One of the quickest ways to do this is through Gabi, a service that uses your current policy to find better deals from competing insurers. I expected maintenance and repairs to be a bigger part of my costs, since I can remember the $840 radiator, the $700 timing belt, the multiple times I replaced tires, the O2 sensor, the battery, etc. Can't decide whether to take the rebate or the low interest rate? The best way to save these files is to right click the image or link for the file and choose the menu item "Save Target As." Or, if Excel prompts you to enable macros on this spreadsheet, click on Yes. I think dropping comp isn’t worth the small savings for that portion of car insurance. In other states, there are just some relatively minor registration fees. In addition to discounts for bundling and being a good student, We invite readers to respond with questions or comments. Our cars are both older (2006 and 2007 models), and while it’s saved a ton of money by not having payments for so many years, it’s definitely starting to pick up in terms of repairs and maintenance costs. But here are the average costs for each expense: The average cost is $1,681.50, or 11.2 cents per mile. I plan to run the numbers on how much money you lose over a lifetime versus how much money someone could save if they bought better quality used cars. The first spreadsheet is a Used Car Bill Of Sale which takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out what information you need when transferring title of a car from the seller to the buyer. Mac and Powerbook users who are running Microsoft Office 98 or later can download and use all these spreadsheets. Owning a car is expensive. Combining the two, we’re at $913.50, and that looks about right for late model cars. We may, however, receive compensation from the issuers of some products mentioned in this article. The average expense is $669 per year, which assumes that you bought your car with a 10% down payment, with a five year loan and average credit. With so many discounts available, you can save money every month. I had no finance costs, since I was able to pay for the car in cash. “Free Budget Spreadsheet… Car and truck expenses: If you use your vehicle for business, you can deduct the portion that you use the vehicle for business, not personal use. To enable macros in Excel, select: Tools >Macro > Security, then click on Medium or Low Security. In the end, I got the best deal I think anyone could have, or at least the most accurate. I get one like this all the time: I took your lease spreadsheet on my laptop to the dealer and plugged in their numbers right at the dealership. An important part of car shopping is having a quality experience with the dealership you choose to buy or lease from. This helps you see how payments are calculated. We make every effort to maintain accurate information. The more expensive the car, the more you should know how to take car of it. The spreadsheet strips out wasted fees, determines the dealer's true cost and offers 3% - 5% fair profit above that. Please do not incorporate these spreadsheets into any product for sale, or post them claiming they are your designs, which they are clearly not. The spreadsheet will tell you if you can afford it. Very good point – I’ve always done all work on our cars (I’m 64 now), and have saved tens of thousands of dollars by not paying a dealer or mechanic to do the work. The enhancements I made are the inclusion of the money factor and cells for other closing costs like dealer acquisition. Kevin Mercadante Learn more by using our simple auto loan calculator. Lower cost of commercial software, because software written to process a given XML tag set is much easier to develop than software that can handle an unlimited number of tag sets. The number 1 reason people junk cars is that the automatic transmission goes belly-up, and they discover that getting it fixed usually costs much more than the entire Blue Book value of the car it it’s more than about 6 or 7 years old. But since ad valorem taxes are based on the depreciated value of the car, those fees would drop as well. The spreadsheet exposed a $60/month discrepancy which lead to identifying the hidden charges and missing discount. It’s also worth checking into Liberty Mutual. Tell them to calculate the residual value and enter it on the form instead. , a service that uses your current policy to find better deals from competing insurers. It's best to enter your figures using Microsoft Excel outside of your browser window. Mileage penalties are added to the total cost of lease to show you how much the entire lease will cost you. For best results, print these spreadsheet using a color printer. Based on a new car bought for $33,560, the annualized cost of ownership is: Of course, you can reduce these numbers a great deal by buying a quality used car. The service is fast and free, so you have nothing to lose by trying it out. And if you are handy with tools, replacing a clutch yourself isn’t all that difficult, which eliminates the labor charges. This Microsoft Excel spreadsheet helps you work up an offer to the dealer for a new car only, not used. I agree with dropping collision, but comprehensive is cheap and windshields get dinged and cracked all the time. Loved this post, thanks for all the concrete information. Of course my lease spreadsheet does have its limitations, so use real lease software like Expert Lease Pro. The average car is now close to 11 years The real and more interesting calculator would be to talk about the 10 year old car and when to drop it, or if that ever even happens. You may print these spreadsheets or save them to your disk under a different name, or email them to a friend, but do not post them on another site, as they are occasionally updated and improved. These appear throughout CarBuyingTips.com, but are all collected here for your convenience. This should come as no surprise, since new cars in particular experience rapid depreciation in the early years of ownership. Opt for a long-running dealership as longevity is usually a sign of quality service and customer satisfaction. This content has not been provided by, reviewed, approved or endorsed by any advertiser, unless otherwise noted below. Different sections are color coded for easier reading and fields to calculate excess mileage penalty. Ultimately the extra charges were dropped and the calculations were made to match. from the car pricing sites that we tell you to use. The first 100,000 are easy. With so many discounts available, you can save money every month. There is no spreadsheet for used cars. You can do your calculations without being connected to the internet, so bring your notebook PC with you to the dealer and check their numbers right there. I highly suggest that you practice with it on an old lease. These spreadsheets cover budgets, loans, leases, used car bill of sale and making your offer to a dealer. To cut down on the number of expenses, I’m lumping tires and maintenance together. I have a ten year old Mercedes. We commit to never sharing or selling your personal information. Click on it for instructions for each spreadsheet. This is also the main reason why total operating expenses fell by 2% from 2014 — fuel costs were lower by $268.50 due to the dramatic fall in gas prices since the middle of 2014. The finance charge would (or should) be long gone by year 10, which chops another $669 off the annual cost. This easy to use tool should be your first step before you consider buying a car. Print it out and take it to a dealership to negotiate or fax it to several local dealers, one of them will bite. GSF Car Parts has over 70 stores across the nation and an easy to navigate website that sells car parts such as batteries, clutch kits, brake pads & drums, spark plugs, oil, filters and engine management systems and much more. There is a standard mileage rate that you can use, or you can deduct a portion of vehicle-related expenses like gas, repairs, car … As you can see, the longer you own your vehicle, the less it costs to operate. Requires Excel 97 or later. Some browsers will work just by clicking on the images and saving them. Learn more by using our simple auto loan calculator. It's based on the FTC's Regulation M Model Lease form with enhancements. WagonR is good city companion, and mainly used by my wife, however, it has completed 14 years and looking at uncertainty around government policies about vehicles older than 15 years, I … This spreadsheet provides a good starting place for negotiations, but remember, market conditions always dictate the selling price. Play "what if" games with the down payment? A short background: I own VW Polo (Diesel), and WagonR duo (LPG). However, all credit card information is presented without warranty. The rules state that a business on the flat rate scheme can reclaim VAT on goods that cost more than £2,000. My usage goes back to the first Excel release, on the Mac, in 1985. The average here is $668 per year, but this varies a great deal by state. Want to increase the number of months in the loan? Here are the numbers. This spreadsheet calculates lease payments. Different models also make all the difference here too. However, it is also likely that your maintenance expense would be higher by at least $1,000. Everyone does the new car old car and then stops at 10 years. Never let the dealer even use an MSRP field on the buyer's worksheet.