<prompt> Human: TL;DR: Owned Nissan Altima 5 years, 100k miles... TCO: 0.39mileI paid off my car loan in November 2017 and decided to see what the actual cost of the car was over the 5 years that Ive owned the vehicle. This was my first big purchase after starting my first job after college. I am an engineer and lived in a very low COL area when I purchased the car, yet gas was very expensive rural upstate NY. Here are some pictures to help you understand my explanation.EDIT if you look at the graph and chart linked above, you see that I have a KBB resale value of 9000 as of 12618 that I factor in to the equation. This is subtracted from the total amount spent and then divided by the total miles to get the TCOmile2013 Nissan Altima 2.5SLPurchased in Burlington, VT but registered in NYPurchase Price FinancingPurchase price of the car was 24,349.82 after all of the applicable fees were added to the sticker price. I was very nervous having never bought a car before and was a little nervous negotiating, so I didnt do a very good job of getting the price down. Having bought a car with my wife in 2017, I was much more informed and negotiated a better trade-in value of her old car I put 4000 down after saving up for several months. Still living on a college students budget but making engineering money allowed me to have a lot of expendable income that I stowed away to purchase the car. I had minimal credit, so I was given a 4.99 interest rate if I financed the car for 5 years through Nissan. EDIT: Payment was 384mo for 60 months with some months paying extra Purchase Price: 24,349.82 after taxtagtitleetc Down Payment: 4,000 Interest Rate: 4.99 Loan Terms: 60 months Total Paid: 26,984.30 Interest Paid: 2,634.48GasStarting day one, I kept a Field Notes Traveling Salesman edition notebook in my center console and logged the date, mileage, gal and amount of gas every time that I filled up. Looking back on the graph, you really can see inflection points during some of my major life events job changes, extended vacations, etc. Total gas used: 4114.286 gal Total cost: 10,149.57 Avg gal: 2.50 Avg mpg: 26.2Maintenance, Insurance, etcI have tried to be very strict with my preventative maintenance on the car so that I can drive it for a looong time. I have gotten oil changes every 6000 miles full synthetic and tire rotations on a similar interval. I have had to buy 2 new sets of tires over the 108,000 miles in 5 years which have included free rotation, balance and nail repair shout out Discount Tire!. General consumables, I have replaced myself including brake pads, air filters, cabin air filters, broken interior door handle, wiper blades.I have had 2 minor non-warranty repairs done on the car over 5 years which were paid for out of pocket.They were: AC fan clutch related parts 1205 and dent on the driver F R doors from being backed in to 1318. Having only 1 mechanical failure after 108,000 miles is pretty impressive. Number of oil changes: 19 Oil change cost: 1086.90 General parts: 334.51 Repair - non-warranty: 2522.33 Tires: 1254.42 Insurance: 7319.71 RegistrationInspections: 1144.75Overall, the Total Cost of Ownership comes out to 42,301.44 see graphs for specifics at time of writing with the odometer reading 108,657. This comes out to a TCOmile of 0.39, which it significantly less than the IRS standard rate. I am happy with my purchase as it has been a very reliable car, HOWEVER I do not think that I will purchase a brand new car next time that I am in the market for a vehicle. Let me know what you think about my breakdown and my financial decision to buy a new car as a 22yr old individual. Assistant: Have to say that your record keeping is the most impressive part of this..Human: Thanks. My wife thinks its the dumbest thing ever, but it was a good lesson in working with Pivot Tables. Also, now that all of the data is in Excel, updating it is very quick.Assistant: I use a google survey form to input my gas information - I got tired of transcribing everything from the book into my spreadsheet - now its all in there automatically. The other tabs are for various other expenses oil changes, repairs, tires. I went for the form so my wife can fill it out as well without needing to get into a spreadsheet or text me numbers. Nice record keeping!Human: Great idea. I tried to setup a notebook in my wifes new car, but she forgot after the 2nd fill up. Now shes at 16000 and I feel like its all lost... although I could estimate it from the bank transactions and average fuel costs but that would be too nerdy... maybe not  <response>: My wife was the one that wanted to do it, but then we started getting lazy, had to do detective work. The form just worked really well. Ive also made forms for friends for them to track their expenses - its easier for them to put in a little survey form, hit submit, than to remember to go back to a spreadsheet and input info. Super handy.. 