Year 4, Final 1998 Audi Numbers

It has become apparent that I am the custodian of a terribly dry blog.

I sold the old 1998 A4 Avant yesterday for $2000. I purchased it nearly 4 years ago for $4200 making the 'depreciation' only $2200 over the course of 4 years. See below for details on how all the other expenses stacked up. To me the most interesting numbers are down at the bottom. $/mi by year and accumulated. It will be interesting (no really!) to see what the 2008 car with 34k miles will be like with high depreciation but low maintenance costs.


Year 4 cost of ownership numbers...
Total miles: 246,684 (69,543 of them mine)
Year 1 miles: 20,195
Year 2 miles: 25,304
Year 3 miles: 12,653
Year 4 miles: 11,391

Total gallons of fuel: 3265
Year 1 gallons: 930
Year 2 gallons: 1155
Year 3 gallons: 618
Year 4 gallons: 562

Average miles per gallon: 21.3
Year 1 mpg: 21.7
Year 2 mpg: 22.0
Year 3 mpg: 20.8
Year 4 mpg: 19.9

Fuel cost total: $10,137
Est year 1 fuel cost: $3022
year 2 fuel cost: $3056 (cheaper gas this year, 5k miles for 'free' avg $2.64/gal)
Year 3 fuel cost: $1911 (avg $3.24/gal)
Year 4 fuel cost: $2148 (avg $3.82/gal)

Insurance total: $2201
Year 1: $380
Year 2: $486 (rates went up and I didn't notice?)
Year 3: $667 (added collision coverage)
Year 4: $668

Maintenance total: $4119
Year 1: $1730 (all sorts of random junk, some murkiness of what to 'count')
Year 2: $1442 (big timing belt and hose repair job and oil changes only)
Year 3: $426 (heater core, hatch struts, O2 sensor, oil changes)
Year 4: $521 (tires, oil changes, smog check)

Accident repair: $1695

Total everything cost of ownership: $21,185 (!)
Year 1 total: $11,608 (includes$4200 purchase)
Year 2 total: $5069
Year 3 total: $3086
Year 4 total: $1422 ($2000 subtracted for sale)

$/mile by year excluding purchase, accident repair, and sale
Year 1: $5,600/20,195 = $0.28 ($0.15 fuel / $0.13 ownership)
Year 2: $5,067/25,304 = $0.20 ($0.12 fuel / $0.08 ownership)
Year 3: $3,086/12,653 = $0.24 ($0.15 fuel / $0.09 ownership)
year 4: $3,422/11,391 = $0.30 ($0.19 fuel / $0.11 ownership)

All inclusive $/mi as expenses and mileage accumulated
After 1 year: $11,609/20,195 = $0.57 ($0.15 fuel / $0.43 ownership)
After 2 years: $16,677/45,499 = $0.37 ($0.13 fuel / $0.23 ownership)
After 3 years: $19,763/58,152 = $0.34 ($0.14 fuel / $0.20 ownership)
After 4 years: $21,185/69,543 = $0.30 ($0.15 fuel / $0.16 ownership)

Year 3 Audi Numbers

(a cool picture Jeff took this spring to add some value to an otherwise dry post)

Year 3 cost of ownership numbers...
Total miles: 235,401 (58,152 of them mine)
Year 1 miles: 20,195
Year 2 miles: 25,304
Year 3 miles: 12,653

Total gallons of fuel: 2703
Year 1 gallons: 930
Year 2 gallons: 1155
Year 3 gallons: 618

Average miles per gallon
Year 1 mpg: 21.7
Year 2 mpg: 22.0
Year 3 mpg: 20.8

Fuel cost total: $7989
Est year 1 fuel cost: $3022
year 2 fuel cost: $3056 (cheaper gas this year, 5k miles for 'free' avg $2.64/gal)
Year 3 fuel cost: $1911 (avg $3.24/gal)

Insurance total: $1533
Year 1: $380
Year 2: $486 (rates went up and I didn't notice?)
Year 3: $667 (added collision coverage)

Maintenance total: $3598
Year 1: $1730 (all sorts of random junk, some murkiness of what to 'count')
Year 2: $1442 (big timing belt and hose repair job and oil changes only)
Year 3: $426 (heater core, hatch struts, O2 sensor, oil changes)

Accident repair: $1695

Total everything cost of ownership: $19,763 (!)
Year 1 total: $11,608 (includes$4200 purchase)
Year 2 total: $5069
Year 3 total: $3086

Running $/mile
Year 1: $11,608/20,195 = $0.57
Year 2: $16,677/45,498 = $0.37
Year 3: $19,763/58,152 = $0.34

*some known errors and inconsistencies in this. But mostly correct ... ish.

Tilt shift again

Cool collection of tilt shift photography: here

Physics

Neat physics demonstration I had not seen before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQX8I9ZWtPQ#t=44m2s

Explained:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_water_dropper

via: reddit

Less annoying

If you've ridden in my car recently you've no doubt been annoyed by the head liner coming down in the back and the low oil pressure alarm going off periodically.

The oil pressure sensor was changed and it looks like the new one has a lower pressure setting so perhaps it will be happier in my high miles engine than the old one was.

And for the head liner, well ... I once heard something about how "The good enough solution often becomes the permanent one." Oh well, meh.

Fruit MRI

Via Reddit Someone took MRI scans of fruits and vegetables and animated the results. So awesome. My favorite is the mushrooms.

Playful Porcupine

Does this mean that all other porcupines are lonely and misunderstood?

Skiing on waves

Another skiing post - amusing!

Wow smoking is boss!

Where can I get a pack, I want to have those kinds of good times!

Ratatat

I had never heard of Ratatat before last night when Pandora thought to give them a spin for me. Enjoyable!

TV...

ENHANCE!
62" DLP, thanks Craigslist!

From forweb

Dry.

To all of you who patiently listened while I explained how the rear hatch on my car had become heavy because water was leaking into it. I was wrong. So wrong that I drilled a small hole in the bottom of it and no water poured out wrong. So wrong I pulled the trunk trim off and had to take a look wrong. My Dad told me the gas struts on the hatch were blown a month or two ago at least. He was right, good job Dad. A pair of replacement gas struts on the way at a cost of $32 each. A hatch that stays up all by itself in my very near future.

 

X-ray pin-ups

Haha, link pretty silly

Flying with Chase

This evening Chase invited me to ride along for some flying over Ventura County! Fun stuff, it had been about 8 years or so since the last time I was up in a small airplane. We checked the airplane out, took off from Camarillo and went a short distance over to Santa Paula. There we did a few landing and take offs with 3-4 other people doing the same. And then we flew over to the coast just west of Magu Rock. And then back to Camarillo for a few more landing and take offs. Here's the pics!

PhD's bum deal

You knew you didn't want to become a grad student for 7 years, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it...

You laughed at The Simpson's jokes perhaps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XViCOAu6UC0

This _lengthy_ article lays out why PhD study is a bad deal for American grad students.
http://www.miller-mccune.com/science/the-real-science-gap-16191/

tl;dr summary: There is not shortage of scientifically trained persons in the USA, there is a shortage of research positions and adequately paying jobs. This is why American students are shunning the technical fields: it's a bad deal.