Car Cost Calculator
Web and SaaS
car ownership cost calculator
SHOW HN2014
48points
45comments
#671of 2,272 in 2014
Top 30%of 2014 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
3 positive, 16 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 6 critical, out of 27 comments about the project. Thread score -0.13.
Idea: 2 for, 1 againstPerformance: 1 for, 2 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Exponential depreciation model seems reasonable
From 2 comments
scroll down. He explains his algorithm : "The caclulator uses exponential depreciation is used to calclate the cost of depreciation and the asset value of a car over time" That…
mgolawala on HNYup. And I'd say that's pretty accurate.
pkulak on HN
Objections
Depreciation rates seem too high for some cars
From 2 comments
While I'm fine with exponential depreciation, the rates are very high (or maybe just variable by car). My RAV4 has closer to 9-10% depreciation (assuming 15k miles/year) per the…
OrwellianChild on HNYeah I actually have an outlier that has negative depreciation. Got it used for 26k with 44k miles. 6 Months later my insurance company informed me that they had to put my car…
uncoder0 on HN
Maintenance cost model is a rough hack
From 1 comment
The problem there is, I have no idea how to model maintenance costs! The field is basically a hack. If there is a better way, I'd like to do that.
khet on HN
Default gas price looks too low
From 1 comment
The default gas price is shown as $3.40/gallon. Where are you getting gas that cheap??
timjahn on HN
Metric units missing
From 2 comments
Thanks! Feature suggestion: Metric units (for every other country that is not the USA)
xexers on HNI completely agree. This tool is useless to me in Australia, unless I convert all the units. Even within the same measurement system different countries express units in…
guidedlight on HN
Requests
Add metric units
From 2 comments
Thanks! Feature suggestion: Metric units (for every other country that is not the USA)
xexers on HNI completely agree. This tool is useless to me in Australia, unless I convert all the units. Even within the same measurement system different countries express units in…
guidedlight on HN
Add parking cost field
From 1 comment
You might add a parking cost field, because for anyone in a city, parking's unlikely to be free
emeltzz on HN
Add lease versus buy comparison
From 2 comments
This is a great tool! It'd be awesome to add lease information into it as well, to help with the lease-vs-buy decision.
pcl on HNI too would like to evaluate lease versus buy.
officialjunk on HN
Model maintenance by mileage and time
From 2 comments
Depends on how deep you want to go, but you could set up a table with common considerations and let users set frequency... Most maintenance is mileage-dependent, so if you base…
OrwellianChild on HNTo complicate matters, some of those items are time or distance items. Oil and battery, for instance, need to be changed after a certain amount of time regardless of the miles…
vonmoltke on HN
Questions
Where does the depreciation model come from
From 1 comment
Where did you get a 20-30% average depreciation on cars? Depreciation is not linear on vehicles. Most of the depreciation occurs in the first few years and then tapers off. Is…
sixQuarks on HN
How to model maintenance costs
From 2 comments
Don't the maintenance costs go up after a while. Otherwise people would only buy 10 year old cars as they'd be like 20-30k cheaper :D
bitJericho on HNThe problem there is, I have no idea how to model maintenance costs! The field is basically a hack. If there is a better way, I'd like to do that.
khet on HN
Alternatives named
Edmunds TCO
From 2 comments
Nice idea, but I actually think Edmund's TCO is a bit more comprehensive and uses real world data for each car. http://www.edmunds.com/porsche/911/2011/tco.html?style=101380348
zdrummond on HNNice aspirational example there with the 911... Didn't know about TCO, but I like the idea. First glance impressions of the Edmunds tool: ``` - Mileage assumes 15k/year, which…
OrwellianChild on HN
Maintenr
From 1 comment
Like someone else mentioned, there are better tools to calculate static ownership costs. This is definitely a good start. I'm working on https://www.maintenr.com and we allow you…
korzun on HN
TrueDelta
From 1 comment
What if you were to partner with someone like truedelta.com?
chiph on HN