VEHICLE ACQUISITION

Posted on July 31, 2012

Description:

Our first car was a little BMW in Heidelberg, Germany when stationed with the 302nd MI Battalion (Sly Fox!). Since moving to Portland in 1998 we have owned a moped on occasion, a bike, and through the use of public transit, car-sharing programs, and friends with cars, have been able to generally get to where we needed to be.

But the truth is that we are better at being our best self with a car. We do more in less time with a car at our disposal. Humans are social creatures, and the ability to quickly and efficiently move about the city carrying laptops, notebooks, and books as well as a few shareholders, makes collaboration easier and projects run smoother. We have no doubt a car purchase will increase productivity and value for KmikeyM.

Financial Analysis



In the last three months we've spent $874.37 on car transportation through a combination of Car2go, rental cars, gas money, and Zipcar. With a slight margin of error to account for paying cash we're rounding up to $900 over the past three months, putting our car transport cost at $300 month.

The purchase of a car, insurance, fuel, and maintenance will be higher than $300 a month, but with that figure in mind we get a better understanding of the true cost of boosted productivity. Let's say we purchased a brand new 2012 Prius C (see image below). Estimated car loan payments would be $300, insurance another $100, and fuel costs (based on estimates from the US Dept. of Energy) of $95. (While there are additional maintenance costs we believe our estimate is accurate based on estimating high and a new car warranty in the case of our example.)

$500/month (estimating high on all counts) is a $200 a month increase over our usual vehicle spending estimate. When considering the additional range of events and collaborations possible we are very excited to begin looking for the right vehicle for KmikeyM.