Car logbook

Personal wiki
21

I looked into the viability of taking the train to Toronto rather than flying.

It would cost about $650, $300 one-way, about double the typical $250 to $400 round-trip flight; and the trip takes 2 days of travel one-way.

22

It looks like renting a car for a week (for a trip to Calgary, say) would cost about $250. I could rent a car for 5 weeks/year for the cost of registration. (costs much more if you pick up from the airport, for some reason.)

23

Let’s review the TCO I have to work with.

Say I spend $6,000 in depreciation every 5 years = $1200/year. Registration is about $1400/year. I spend about $60 in gas every month, so another $750/y. And then maintenance; so far, I’ve easily spent over $2000 in 2 years, but Google says average maintenance for a mazda3 is about $500/y. Parking is $1080/year.

1200+1400+750+500 = 4930 / year.

I could take 125x $40 round-trip taxi rides a year, i.e. twice a year, and still break even. And this doesn’t factor in less quantifiable factors that I mention above. Also, I could potentially rent my parking spot.

otoh, that’s “only” 400/mo. only 20% of my non-house disposable income.

24

Let’s note some use cases for my car and potential alternatives.

  • Getting to work promptly during normal weather

  • Grocery shopping
    – need insulated bag for frozen stuff and big cart. Otherwise should be fine.

  • Going to Greenbryre for social.
    – 30 minute bike ride, 10 km taxi = $20 each way. Bus nearby.

  • Dropping off recycling at SARCAN

  • Going to visit Blackstrap

  • Going to visit Calgary

I don’t think ebike is a reasonable alternative. Don’t really feel safe biking in a lot of areas of town.

25

Taxi rates are fixed in Saskatoon:

$0.25