The Cost of Owning and Operating a Vehicle!

AAA Auto Club's yearly report on the cost of owning and operating a vehicle is up 1.9 percent from 2011, mostly due to rising fuel prices.If you drive around 15,000 miles this year, according to AAA stats, you'll pay 59.6 cents a mile or $8,946.  This is based on depreciation, fuel, insurance, finance charges, maintenance and tires.

That's the bad news.  The good news is that two and three year old cars are barely depreciating in value.  Because of a soft economy, owners are reluctant to trade in older cars for newer ones.  Thus the demand for used cars is so high right now that if yours was worth $15,000 in 2011, it  should be worth nearly that much now.