Black Saab Orange Stripe- One year later
In any case, to mark the passing of one year, I thought it would be fun to show a summary of the money I’ve spent on the Saab, as I’ve done a thorough job of logging each expense in a notebook in the car. I wanted to know how much it costs to operate the car, to see if it’s somewhat economical to have a separate autocross car / utility vehicle. I was excited to add up the numbers; I thought it would show that I was doing a good job of keeping costs down and running an economical autocross car. HAH! The numbers have proven me wrong. Of course, many of the costs I’ve incurred in the last year have been startup costs (new wheels and tires, shocks), and I’ve been making up for neglected maintenance of the previous owner(s). In any case, the numbers added up to a figure much higher than I expected:
| Cost category | Amount |
| Car | $800.00 |
| License, registration, title, emission tests | $219.05 |
| Maintenance parts: wiper blades, hoses, fluids | $340.70 |
| repair parts: window motors, sunroof motor | $190.90 |
| Repair book, owners manual | $57.64 |
| Key | $1.94 |
| Service performed on car by others including parts and labor (transmission flush and oil change) | $138.73 |
| Wheels and tires | $617.91 |
| Insurance (12mos) | $522.40 |
| Fuel (3230 miles, approx 161 gal = 20.09 MPG) | $365.65 |
| Shocks | $432.23 |
| Total cost for 1 year | $3,687.15 |
I was shocked to see that I’ve spent $3687.55 on my beloved car for a year. And only $800 of that was to buy the car. The second highest expense (behind wheels and tires) was the insurance, and that’ll be recurring every year I own the car. I’m actually feeling petty foolish, and irresponsible for spending this much money on the car. It’s just over $300/month on average. In the next year, I’ll not be spending $800 on a new car, nor $150 for more wheels, or the $432 for shocks, so there’s almost $1500 I don’t foresee… of course, there will always be unforeseen expenses owning a 15 year old car. Our other cars probably have similar operating costs… but I’ve never sat down to tally them, nor do I keep as good records as I have for the 900. Looking at the amount of money I’ve spent, I’m totally humbled. I should have invested, or just bought new wheels and tires for the R for about $1500-1800 total. One way to think about it is that this is also my hobby… other people have season tickets to sporting events, or go boating, or RV’ing, or travel more. My hobby is working on the Saab, and driving it around. I’ve certainly gotten a lot of enjoyment from the car this year. Perhaps that’s the best way for me to look at it… the money I spend for the thing I enjoy. Yikes. It’s still a lot of money either way.
