Jesse - show me a $15000 car that in 3 years will be worth much more than $5? I know - I know - its still $5k but the Volt benefits here in California are tangible and real - and include the HOV lane - this takes 30 min off my wife's commute every day. 2.5 hours a week - 45 weeks a year - thats almost a week of time spent at home . . . and if you buy a $15k car 0 you are driving an ugly old and little $15k car. . ..
Yes - we own a Volt - there was ZERO final assembly under warranty. The vehicle ran as advertised since day 1. Cost was about $38.5 Cap Cost - leased 15,000 miles a year for $378 a month including tax for 36 months. $7500 off the lease from the Feds, $1500 check from the State of California - we have a vehicle charging plan with the power company - and our power bill so far is exactly the same as it was in 2011-2012 period - yes - EXACTLY the same within $100 - why? We pay way less for power between 6p and 10a than we did before - and so far with the solar panels on roof generating 3kWh about 10 hours a day we co-generate in the most expensive part of the day, meaning the power we sell back at 48 cents per kWh peak more than offsets the additional power the car uses. YMMV - literally - but the cost of the power for the car so far has been free from the rate changes. If we did not co-generate I expect we'd see a significantly higher bill.
Its my wife's car - she drives 70 miles a day - gets 45 miles from a charge. Gasoline for 25 miles a day and gets about 40mpg so from a DOC it costs us $2.56 a day or 3.6cents per mile for power/gas. . . . you can not beat that with a stick.
Plus - her company gives us $675 a month car allowance - so it costs us nothing in real life except the taxes on the money.
I would LOVE to see a Volt frame pick up - I'd buy one - it would last forever - put it on the S10 body - which was a great little pick up in its day- if you can find an S-10 or a 1980's Ranger or Mazda/Toyota small pick up they are worth more today that they cost.
Seriously. 15k car old and ugly. Ygtbsm, you can buy 1 to 2 year old cars that are the same generation as the latest year with 30k miles or less for 15k. That's not old and ugly.
Even 15k is ridiculous in my mind. Tomorrow I am buying a new to me car for $1,500.
As to your challenge that's incredibly easy. Have you actually looked at car prices?
I just found:
2012 Honda Civic LX, 10k miles, $16,000
2009 Honda Civic LX, 85k miles, $14,000
Many examples of that. So you own it for three years, put 75k miles on it, and then sell it for a total loss of $2,000.
Yeah, leasing new, makes total sense...,
The best lease deals are minimum cash out of pocket and a payment less than an extended term buy.