How many miles do you do an oil change

Drivers Advice, Experiences
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#1

Some tell me thier expense per mile is under 10 cents a mile. They are crazy. most don’t even know what thier true figure is. Everyone wants to believe they are making money and they don’t want to admit to themselves they are making hardly anything. Some say this expense doesn’t apply to me or that expense doesn’t apply. Or depreciation doesn’t matter.

Figure out how many miles you drove, take how much you collected (thats not how much you made). Take miles driven and times by expense per mile and subtract from what you collected. Thats your profit.

#2

Problem is most don’t even know what maintenance is needed. Most don’t even know what a strut or inner and outer tie rod is.

#3

Non-routine maintenance is really hard to account for because it’s very random. Some people blow out their transmission in 50,000 miles, some drive 300,000 miles with no transmission issue.

#4

There’s no way to really predict maintenance costs accurately with that kind of variability. I’ve owned by car since 2002 so I have an idea how much I spend on maintenance per year. If you haven’t had your car that long, there’s almost no way of knowing. It’s like trying to predict your future health costs from disease.

#5

I’m guessing that you have entered the miles you drove for Uber and the result is a tax deduction of $125. (Approximately 217 miles) You will list your business use miles on Schedule C on your federal tax return, and deduct 57.5 cents each mile.

#6

My rough math comes out for driving costing 0.17c a mile but that excludes spark plugs and coolant changes (couldn’t find info on that). Also excludes potential breakdowns (since who can predict those)?

#7

.17 is terribly low. What year make and model auto do you own. If you like I will go thru all items and approx life. I don’t iclude costs for a new transmission but I do include transmission fluid flush/fill and filter at 90k-100k miles.

#8

Radiator flush and fill at around 90k-100k. I tend to go to the low limit as ride share miles are tough miles. Tires are easy. Cost of tires and wheel alignment every 50k miles.

#9

Alignment may be needed sooner as my roads are pretty tough. Only you know that. Belts every 120k. Its not a must but I rather be cautious. If you throw a belt it costs you your days work. Battery every 4 to 5 years.

#10

Average hourly profit driving for Uber is typically $7 to $9.The Uber ads suggesting you can make $25 to $35 per hour is pure, unadulterated equine feces.

#11

Windshield wipers every 6 months. Exterior lights (high intensity lights are expensive). I think I pretty much covered everything. Some expenses might happen sooner and some later. But I believe this to be pretty close.

#12

2009 Civic. I included gas, oil, tires, air & cabin filters, transmission fluid change, cost of the car. Honda basically says “Do this and this, do that when the car tells you to.” They don’t give a mileage estimate, not even for an oil change.

#13

The Civic has a timing chain, so that wont need replacement. I did somehow forget about brakes. I didn’t include radiator flush since I heard it’s a big no no if it wasn’t done routinely. I never thought about the suspension system or the starter & alternator. I kinda assumed you’d replace those when/if they break. I also did forget a battery. I know those are finite as well. I also forgot about tire rotations.

#14

Realistically speaking, $.17 is probably about one-quarter or one-third the actual - as an average for all cars. This is the very mistake nearly every new driver makes - grossly under-estimating actual ops costs.

#15

I have a Honda Fit. Here’s what I’ve replaced/repaired: A dozen windshields, gas, oil, batteries, tires, clutch, coolant, tie rods, control arms, oil, brakes, body work & paint, window regulator, key fob batteries, windshield wiper motor, wiper blades, direct ignition coils, fuel filters, air filters, cabin filters, gear shift knob, interior detailing, exterior detailing.

#16

Also, Uber is legal in the vast majority of its markets. They are here where I am (maybe, it’s in federal court) and cops don’t look for Ubers here, they wave at us or ignore us. I do illegal stuff all the time in front of them, like u turns not at an intersection, and they don’t say a word.