What cars have the lowest cost of ownership?
So you’ve shopped around and you’ve managed to narrow your choice to two or three cars, priced in the same ballpark and boasting similar features, but you’re deadlocked as to how to choose between them. You’re trying to be frugal, so you consider just going with the cheapest of the three, but something tells you that the decision isn’t that simple. There’s more to the cost of owning a car than just paying the sticker price; in fact, the car with the lower sticker price might just turn out to be more expensive over the long haul. In other words, you might have the cash to buy a car, but not the income to afford to own it. That’s the difference between price and total cost of ownership (TCO). The total cost of ownership (over five years) includes six factors: • Depreciation accounts for 46 percent of TCO (the average model depreciates 65 percent). • Fuel costs mount up quickly — especially for SUVs — constituting 26 percent. • Interest varies according to vehicle price, but in a typica
