Monthly Expenses
 

I've searched the forum, and this question has only been brought up once to my knowledge, and was brought up in '07 so obviously the responses will change especially with the economy as it is and the gas prices as low as they are (at least where I live).

How much do you guys spend per month on your rx-8, excluding mods? (insurance, gas, maintenance (oil cost, etc.)) And how often do unexpected problems occur on your vehicle (as well as the cost to fix these problems)

Personally, I drive a 2005 Mercedes C230 Kompressor and I'm looking into buying an rx-8. Contrary to what you guys may believe, money is an issue since the Mercedes was gifted to me a while back. The reason for a new car you may ask? My mom just sold her van, so she uses my car more and more frequently. I would like to not inconvenience her and just buy another car so she can drive it whenever instead of having to make her wait all the time (and I hate automatic).

I spend roughly 500 dollars/month on my car, and in the offchance of an unexpected problem it is mostly covered by my factory warranty. My expenses are as follows:

-$200~ on gas
-$50 on car washes
-$200 on insurance (since there are 2 drivers on my insurance policy)
-$50 on oil/washer fluid

I haven't really ran into many unexpected problems that the factory warranty didn't cover so I didn't include that in my expenses but I am going to assume that I will probably run into many unexpected problems with the rx-8 (at least that's what the trend on this forum leads me to believe). Keeping in mind the Mercedes C230's reliability is lacking a bit I can't imagine the RX-8 to be much worse than the Mercedes.

*Please don't treat this as a "Should I buy an rx-8" thread as it is not, I just want to see what your monthly expense on the RX-8 is so I can get a better idea on where I stand*

Thanks in advance.

Hey I can save you some money in this recession


Wash your own car.....

Well, the reason I included car washes as an expense is because of the salt on the roads up north in Canada. I would wash my own car since it ends up cleaner but you can't turn the hose on where I live since they are frozen all winter long. And as for money being a concern, it is only a concern in terms of buying a new car. But again, this isn't the question, just want to know how much you guys spend is all :)

Insurance- $222 (im 19)
Gas- $200 -but this really depends on how far you drive every month. i get 17mpg
Oil- i guess if you divide it up to a montly basis, maybe $10? i change my oil every 2k
Things breaking- $1 i havent really had any problems, owned the car for 12k miles


hope this helped some

263$ a month (Thats with an 04 mazda 6, 98 civic, and an 04 rx-8)
Gas- dont know, only owned it since saturday
Oil- Dont know,
Things Breaking, none.

insurance-$211 (04 rx8- 03 civic)
gas-around$60
oil- $8
car wash $10
spending 40 hours a month cleaning brake dust of my rims PRICELESS!

bout treefiddy.

Mods .... ∞

:rofl:

IDK, about 130 gas, 80 insurance, 20 at the car wash this time of year, oil/premix . . . negligable amount on a monthly basis. $5 maybe?

zero problems that required fixing in 48k miles.

those w/complaints tend to make much more noise. ;)


but I fail to see the relevance for you since location results in significant changes to all of these numbers.

per month:

200 dollars in gas
90 dollars in car washes (I have a monthly plan at this pressure wash only place, can wash it as much as I want, and I drive about 400 miles a week in my car on the highway, so it does help keep it very clean)
101 dollars in insurance (probably going to go up though with the stupid left turn ticket)
60 dollars a month in tolls (counted as a driving expense)
20 dollars a month in oil changes (1 every 2 months on average)

total = 471 dollars/month

As far as other maintenance, it's only gotten expensive for me because I've since added gripper pads which tend to wear a little more quickly than normal. Just looking over this total, it's a good thing I love my RX-8...

I do not see any mention of car payments which should be considered part of the monthly expense :) Unless everyone here has paid their loan off!

420 in car loans
110 in insurance
100 if that in gas about 5 tanks at 230 mi a tank
i wash the car so thats free and maby 10 bucks in oil
also i have never had a problem with the car and its at 63k miles

2 years of ownership. Yep. :)

300 car pmt
170 insurance
150 gas
7< oil (excludes oil changes)
10 premix

i wash the car myself cuz no one will do as good a job as the person paying for the car..

that particular number is completely irrelevant, since OP's loan will not be the same as anyone else's.

but then, none of the other figures will be the same anyway b/c there are way too many variables . . .

$360/mo (though my actual payment is down to ~$320ish per month b/c I pay a little extra every time.)

holy schnikies! what the hell premix are you using that hits $10 per month??

Insurance: I think mine is around 170 a month...i'm a 19 year old college student with a clean driving record, and I'm listed with my parents (although the car/title is in my name, as I bought it myself)
Car Payments: I pay 226 dollars a month. Got the loan as an 18 year old at 8.6 percent, so I'm not complaining.
Gas: In the summer, I go through about a tank a week. So 85 bucks or so at current prices.
Oil: I go through a quart about every two fillups during normal (not highway) driving. 5 bucks. I also change my own oil every 3500 miles, so that costs about 20 dollars. I've done it three times since I bought the car, so that's 60/12 which is an extra 6 bucks or so a month.
Washing stuff: In the summer I wash and wax once a week. So that's probably 30 dollars a month.
The only money I've had to spend on service is 20 dollars to rotate my tires at the dealer. I've owned the car for 10k miles, and it's a 2004.

So that's about 480 a month. Your mileage may vary. As you can see, this car has been no more expensive for me to own than a non-rotary (thus far).

2 car policy, $260 ins
stored for winter so $0 gas
stored for winter so $0 car wash
stored for winter so $0 oil/washer fluids

/obviously my post is worthless

alright, in that case. my car payment is 316 a month

Yep it is 100% irrelevant :) But for the most part so is this thread because everyone is comparing moving targets :)

currently experimenting with Lucas UCL, about $4 for a 5oz. bottle

Always budget for worst case scenario. Then, when the worst case doesn't happen, you end up with extra money, plus didn't have to worry about not paying bills.

That means, budget for gas $5/gallon and assume more driving than your usual routine.

But I think you're over-itemizing on the following items, and under-itemizing some items.

There's no need to budget for oil, premix, or UCL. Those are 1 time expenses that last 6 months to 1 year.

There's no need to budget for washer fluid. Take the washer fluid out as it is useless weight. I've had rx8 like 3 years and still on my original bottle of windshield cleaner spray.

There's also no need to budget for car washes. I haven't washed in 3 to 4 months, for instance. If I felt like washing, it would probably cost me 5 cents to make a bucket of Optimum No Rinse, of which my current container should last me 20 years. I've let the rainy days do the washing, and I just have to wipe the windows of fine sand every few weeks. That says something since it seldom rains in my climate.

Early on I used to wash every day. Now, I just put it off until it is time to claybar and reseal.

The sooner you break away from "clean mentality" the better off you will be. Then you will see those shiny car/ shiny rims folks and realize what a sad existence that is. Too much time/too much pride on something destined to just be a rustbucket. Break the mentality!

The actually necessary items that spring up suddenly will be:

-tires
-spark plugs/coils

/\ No.

$272 on the car lien, 5.9% interest rate, all under my name.
$190 on insurance, i'm 21 with a clean record, my own personal policy.
$130 on gas at current gas prices, 200 miles to the tank and I fill up once a week.

Most expensive month for me was back in 07, 2400 $ in one month. This included gas, insurance and car payments, and a hell of alot of driving on my part. Car payment/insurance were about 1000/Month, gas was 95 cents/Litre IIRC

I have since put the car on my mortgage, and drive a hell of alot less for my new job and it runs me roughly 7-800 month gas, insure, oil/filter, premix.

I'll add that while there are other cheaper car to drive, none will make you anxious to do so ;)

You mean, took out a home equity loan equal to the remaining amount due on rx8 auto loan? I just imagine rx8 becoming $80,000 vehicle once the mortage is paid in full.