How much does mileage affect resale? Commuter car?

Hey guys,

I know this looks long, I would really appreciate your opinions!

I've got a 2013 DCSB O/R with about 17k miles on it right now. I only drive ~20 miles a day currently. I recently found out I would be going TDY and driving from North Dakota down to Keesler in Mississippi. After that I will be driving back home to ND... and moving to Texas. The drive to Keesler and back would be right at 3k miles. ($600)

Once in Texas I plan to buy my first home and the commute will be between 18-25 miles one way. lets say 50 per day for easy math. that is 250 per week, 1000 per month, 12000 per year. This is not including personal driving or weekends. I would venture to say I would put 25,000 or more on in the first year.

I get about 18 MPG in my tacoma making for 55.56 gallons per month at $3.60 per gallon this comes out to right at $200 per month just commuting to work.

How much will mileage negatively impact my resale value??

So I have 4 options that I see...

Keep and drive my tacoma only

Drive the tacoma to keesler and back then buy a car in texas

Drive the tacoma to keesler and back then buy a supermoto/enduro

Buy a beater now and drive it to keesler, back, then commute with it.

 

If you are driving straight highway miles, it shouldn't effect truck value at all. I personally would rather buy a higher milage highway commuter car than one only driven locally. The wear and tear is completely different. If 18 MPG doesn't bother you, drive the Taco. It's going to take some high mpg's to recoup the cost of another vehicle, insurance and maintenance. It is a good reason to get a nice cruiser though.

 

Mileage will ALWAYS affect resale value. Fortunately for you, you've got a Tacoma, and these damn things hold their value like no other.

You do the math on your own fuel consumption, then compare that to the cost of a beater and weigh those options.

... or you could just say 'fuck it, I want a bike.' and go that route because it'll be cool, and depending on which part of Texas you move to, you're gonna be dry most of the year; unfortunately, though... you'll be surrounded by Texans and they might string you up unless you buy a TEXAS EDITION KING RANCH FORD HARLEY DAVIDSON motorcycle.

 

Mileage will always affect your resale value. Being in TX you're going to want to have a truck. Trust me, people around here love Toyotas.

 

Mileage AlWAYS effects the price, My Tacoma an "09" has very few miles because I have a couple of cars, motorcycles, to run around on, My Tacoma (for the most part) is just sitting in the garage rusting away. I really like the Tacoma, (about the best looking truck on the market) but I should sell it before I have to sweep it up off the floor, Toyota really has to start adding some taconite to the "soup" straight scrap just doesn't do it.

 

Not sure what part of Tx you are moving to but if it one the bigger metro areas then I would not go with the bike. If you do make sure you have good health and life insurance.

 

The mileage will without a doubt will affect the value but what the extra insurance and upkeep money will cancel out what you save in gas money. I have a beater and I HATE it (and it doesn't really cost me that much in repairs just small stuff). The problem is I would have to park my Tacoma in an area where they like to break into a car for a quarter, slash tires, and generally try to steal any thing of value. So I keep my Taco collecting dust in the garage. If I didn't work in such a bad area I wouldn't even entertain the idea of a beater and only drive the Taco...sit down and calculate it on a piece of paper...insurance, reg fees, insp fees, tires, windshield wipers, and oil changes for the year and you will see...just my .02

 

I think you are way over thinking this. Screw the mileage. The only questions are:

What do you want to drive?
Can you afford the gas?

I would just drive the Tacoma. But I can afford it. I didn't buy it as an investment. I do tend to keep a vehicle for a long time. My last truck I had for 20 years before I sold it...

 

Agreed. Totally mind f'n yourself. Just drive then damn truck!

Doesn't make sense to me when people buy nice trucks/cars with the intent of buying another cheaper car to commute around with. Where is the sense in that? What a waste of money in my opinion.

 

I don't know about it being a waste of money since the money saved from gas in the long run along with less wear and tear on the Tacoma is well worth it. It is also alot less stress when you are expecting a possible hailstorm to just hop in the beater. But who am I to talk, my 'beater' gets worse gas mileage being a '98 wrangler

 

tell ya son... I drive 60 miles one way daily so 120 miles round trip my home to shop. so I racked 73000 miles in two yrs and 1 month on a 2012 taco. that just highway miles. I do less than 3% of it in 4x4 off road for hunting and dealing with snow covered highway long before the plow crew comes along.
It does have a good effect on resale. the dealer gave me 17500 for trade. this would be my last trade in on a taco.. going to get the 2014 model next week.

 

This is my thinking. I honestly bought the tacoma in a hurry. The payment is manageable and I can handle it at the moment. The gas isnt a big issue. My problem is that I know the future of the US military is not very stable right now. They just kicked out a LOT of people. Noone is safe from this.

My thought was that I could let the truck be nice and cosy in the garage retaining its resale value for now while I beat on a little honda or something. Then maybe a few years from now when I make staff or tech I could afford to sell the honda and use my truck the way it was meant to be.

Or if I got the boot, I could sell my truck and get the most out of it possible so I can get back on my feet quickly as a civilian without the $400 truck payment.

Another factor is that my wife is going to school right now which sucks. Once she is done and can work our income will double. At that point I will be much more comfortable financially.

 

My problem is that I know the future of the US military is not very stable right now. They just kicked out a LOT of people. Noone is safe from this.

that could change in 2016

 

Here's my experience.
I drive 60 miles round trip 5 days a week to work.
Bought a 09 DCLB sport in 09 and drove it everywhere for a year.

Had the chance to buy an old minivan for cheap and did.
The minivan got 25mpg and the cost savings was noticeable but not huge.
I put 40K miles on the van in 3+ years just commuting, the fuel usage differential more than paid for the van. Most repairs were shade tree items that cost me very little.

Despite my commuter van I still put 87K "fun" miles on the Tacoma (would have been 127K w/o the van). Another factor is climate here. Every time the highway department put down 1/2 inch of salt on 1/4 of snow I was glad to be abusing the van and not the truck.

Last January the van was still buried in a snow bank after the Tacoma was used for holiday travel. I was commuting in the Tacoma for a few days since it was too cold to snow (-20F) and the heater in the van sucked when it got that cold. On the way home in record cold totaled the truck on black ice. I was happy with the value I got for the truck, still, the biggest ding on its valuation was higher mileage vs. comparables. At first I was sad the truck got wrecked and not the van, but realized if I was in the van I could be dead vs. completely unharmed.

Ended up buying a new 2013 SR5 DCLB and trading in the van for the exact same amount I paid for it (it was now due for some pricey front end work and wasn't worth keeping any longer). Loved the new truck and didn't mind commuting in it for a while. I'm a believer in putting some miles on in the beginning for the sake of making sure the truck has no bugs or defects from the factory. Between trips and commuting I've got 16K on the truck so far with no issues.

When I would add up the rate I was piling on the miles it was depressing. As with the last truck, the plan is to run this truck for 10-15 years. Beyond that I didn't care to run it through all the construction, heavy traffic and leave it defenseless in a park and ride all day. So one week ago I picked up an 02 Chevy Prizm, decent condition and 108K on the clock. It should get up to 40mpg. Being essentially a Corolla all the controls are in the same place as on the truck, I like that. If there's deep snow I won't hesitate to take the Tacoma but for ordinary "garbage" miles I'll use the car.

The ride of the car is lower than even the one the van had, I may come to hate it, if I do I can always sell the car but at this point the plan is to see if I can get 100K commuting miles out of it. If I can I'll come out way ahead and the truck will be saved from a lot of rock chips and road salt.

My calculations may be different in Texas, but up here I hate soaking the truck in salt each day for 4 months out of the year.

 

I'm in the same boat, get a motorcycle.

 

Thank you for sharing your experiences with me roundhouse! I think my mind has been made up. I will drive the truck to keesler and back just so I dont have to move 3 vehicles to texas... and San Antonio will have a much larger used car market. I will pick up a little car once I get down there.

Thanks everyone for the input and opinions! Y'all rock

 

I just traded in my 05 with 140k miles, i plugged the numbers into KBB and the mileage took $300 off the value . Nobody will care if they are "highway miles", "city miles" or "mud pit and corn field miles" they see the number on the odometer and go from there.

 

On KBB Private party value, a 5 year old tacoma shifts in value an average of 1k per 10k miles.

Every 10k I drive I will save ~1k in resale value and ~1k in gas. Worth it.

 

If you don't see yourself keeping the truck very long, then keep the miles and mods off it so you can the most money back out of it.
I bought my Tacoma to replace my garage queen M3, so I don't mind racking the miles on it since I was looking for a car I could rack up miles on and not be stressed out about it.
I live in TX and while getting a bike is good for saving on gas, it gets really hot here and really cold so it's not something practical to commute in year round.

 

Buying another vehicle to offset the cost of fuel of depretiation is not going to work when you do the math. Not with those numbers. And especially when the vehicle in question has the second highest resale value in the country.

Buy Tacoma. Drive Tacoma Everwhere. Keep Tacoma forever.

This is the best way to get the most out of you dollar.

If you want a bike or a second car, by all means get it. Just don't try to kid yourself, or us, into thinking it's to save money. That's just intellectually dishonest.