Car Math

Now that the road trip has come to an end completely I want to see how much travelling with a car cost me in total. It got way more expensive than expected because of the low price I got for the car. The latter probably being caused by a bad market (for sellers) and a QLD registration that is more difficult and expensive to transfer than those from other states.

Anyway, here’s the numbers. First the fixed costs over the last six months.

Purchase price: $500
Initial repairs: $600
6 months registration and insurance: $380
Repair fuel pump: $150
Repair alternator: $230
Tow trucks: $70
New windscreen: $200
New tyre: $60

Subtotal: $2190
Sale price: -$500
Total: $1690

In addition to that I’ve burned a considerable amount of fuel on the roughly 13,500km I travelled with the car.

Fuel consumption: ~10l/100km at ~$1.30/l
Fuel costs: $1755 (1350l) (nice carbon footprint)
Fuel paid by fellow travellers: ~$400
Fuel total: $1355

My estimated overall cost for travelling 13,500km in six months: $3045 ($0.23/km)

Expensive? Maybe. Was it worth it? Totally.

As a comparison, travelling from Cairns to Melbourne with a three months traveller pass on a Greyhound costs around $430.

Had I to choose again between car and bus I’d take the car every time. It is expensive but it takes you to places no bus tourist ever gets to see and allows for very flexible travelling.

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