Key Takeaways
- Various factors contribute to the cost of ownership, such as insurance, fuel, monthly payment, maintenance and repairs.
- Lowering these costs is possible with proper maintenance, and by shopping around for the best loan and interest.
- There are also plenty of tools online and on our website to find approximate ownership costs for your vehicles.
What are the other factors that go into owning a car?
The main payments you have to make as a car owner are your car payment, insurance payment, fuel cost, maintenance cost, and repair costs. Unfortunately, we often only think of the monthly car payment when we think about owning a vehicle. Unfortunately there are other costs that go into owning a car and one of the biggest ones outside of the car payment is your insurance payment. Since we cannot avoid the insurance payments, and oftentimes when we purchase a new vehicle we are required by the lender to get full coverage. This means your insurance won’t be the cheapest option possible. Your insurance costs can range widely based on age, gender, and the fact that it is your first car.
Beyond that there are fuel costs, which mostly depend on how much you are driving, and the price of gas. Maintenance costs will be a necessity to keep your vehicle in tip top shape. Getting regular services as listed by the manufacturer are important to keep your vehicle in top shape and running well into the 200,000 mile range. The occasional repair may be necessary, but at Chevrolet we hope that they are less since Chevys are built with Chevrolet reliability.
How do I lower my ownership costs?
Lowering ownership costs on a vehicle largely comes down to making sure to take good care of your new car. The better you take care of your vehicle, the better it will take care of you, and hopefully it will take care of you for longer. Making sure your maintenance is regularly done will also help you to lower other costs such as repairs.
Another way is to shop around for your own insurance, as you search for your own insurance you can find the best price for you and the right coverage. Oftentimes you just need to make sure that your insurance coverage is up to the right standard for your lender.
How do I know just how much a new car will cost me?
Finding the right price for your vehicle can often seem daunting, but fortunately the internet makes it much, much easier. There are websites such as NerdWallet and Edmunds that have car cost calculators that can give you a breakdown of what you may expect to pay. On top of that for each specific part of the cost you can generally find their own specific calculators. For example we have a payment calculator tool under the finance tab that can provide you with just how much your monthly payment can look.
Jerry AI and other insurance websites help you to find proper insurance for the best possible price and with the exact amount of coverage you need. The EPA website has a way to show you not only your vehicle's fuel economy ratings, but also exactly how much your vehicle will cost you in fuel for a year. Finding the right price is just a tad easier with these tools.