[peterwwillis]

TCO is supposed to include the total cost; buy a car that didn't cost 17,400 and your price goes down considerably.

  Cost of car:         17,400 
  Fuel:                712.99
  Maintenance:         3,056.08
  Other:               940
  TCO over 3 years:    22,108

Buy a 5,000 used car, and your 3-year TCO goes down to 9,708. But that's gonna be gas powered, so you have to lower the maintenance and raise the insurance and gas. And higher cost per mile means the amount of miles you drive matters more.

[stanski]

Minus the 11 grand for selling it after, no?

[peterwwillis]

I don't think that's a useful measure. You really don't know what, if anything at all, you will get back after 3 years.

If you total your car and you have good insurance, you might get reimbursed its remaining value, which might be about market, or nothing. If you have a loan out on the car, better hope it didn't depreciate faster than the loan payment takes, or you take a loss. Or maybe you don't total it, sell it privately, and get more than on a trade-in. You don't know what the market will bear, you don't even know if you'll have ended up with a lemon. But even if you do get money back at the end, how old it is, whether its insurance or maintenance costs more, etc will all affect sales later.

I think purchasing a car with an expectation to regain value is gambling. I'd prefer to buy something I'll drive into the dirt, whether used or new, for a more certain financial outcome.