$26.50

this assumes current mileage (12k/year) and fuel costs ($3.25/gal for premium)

I'm not so good with the math.

My vote is go for the Forester. I'll be jealous of you, though.

Mine costs about the same as your current car. It's paid off, I fill the tank every two weeks or so, and insurance is around $70/month.

$23.61 but then again, I put 10k down on the car.

i'm telling you. try a corolla or avalon. you won't be disappointed.

-S

Oh goody, something fun to keep me awake while my test suite is running.

The total:
$4.97

Here's the breakdown if you're interested:
I don't drive every day, so I'll do a monthly average of 2 trips to my job (150 miles round trip [no that is not a typo, that's why I telecommute]), plus a road trip (say 600 miles), plus a tiny bit of around-town driving (say 100 miles). That makes an even 1000 miles a month, about 35 miles a day (wow, that's high.)

Car is paid for.
Insurance + AAA+ is about $1.60 per day.
Maintenance is about $1.12 per day (and will be getting cheaper once I start doing my own oil changes.)
I'll say 45 mpg as a conservative fuel estimate - that gives me .75 gallons per day, at $3.00 gallon (diesel) we have...$2.25

Car itself: $10.95 a day. That's my $250 a month payment, $810 a year insurance, and taxes/registration.

It costs $1.62 a day to go to work- $3.25 a gallon of premium, 20 miles to the gallon, four mile each way commute.

Probably $1400 a year in maintence after you add in the insurance deductable- deceptively high this year as most of that was tires and a post collision deductable- not annual expenses. $3.83 a day.

Total: $16.40 a work day.

I have a 2002 Mazda Millenia, which I love. The only problem is 02 is the last year they made them. Also, my car has 80,000 miles- I bought it last year with almost 70,000 on it, because I wanted the lux.

Also. The $4 a day for the Mustang might be worth it.

I'm really happy to make car payments for the car, as I like it.

Spring for the mustang! Not only is it a *Mustang*, but Fords last a long time. With the Mustang you'll get at least 200,000 miles out of it... where as with the Mazda and Forester, you'll be lucky to get 100,000.

50 miles per work day
$7.00 roughly (assuming $3/gallon)

oh, and don't forget that only an extra $4/day sounds nice, but remember that'll be more than $100 extra a month. I always think of car costs in monthly chunks, myself. :)

spreadsheets can solve any problem.

$1.07.

But I don't have a car. That's for my bus pass - and I don't buy one every month.

Assuming I were actually going to the office every day and roughly $25/week to gas up, it's roughly $5.21 for me to keep the car mobile.

$3 a day. But I don't have a car payment either, and I work about 15 minutes from home.

Will a car that costs a lot of money per day to drive make you drive less or enjoy it less?

To put this another way: will you enjoy a Mustang $4 a day more? Is the answer "yes, $4 is worth it to not drive a Forester", or "I'll never want to drive because it cost so much MUH-ney". Because either way, there you go.