The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1916-03-15
COST OF OPERATION
Great Disagreement as to the
Expense of Maintaining
a Car.
FEW KEEP ACTUAL FIGURES
One Who Has Done So Gives His Ex.
perience, and It May Well Form a
Basis on Which Intending Buyer
May Form an Estimate.

! One Of the actual necessities of the
farmer of today is an automobile of
some sort, writes A. +. Tenney in the
| Orange Judd Farmer. The expense of
maintaining car after it is bought is
question much more serious than
the first expense of the car ! find
there is very great disagreement
among those who are using cars, even
if the cars are of the same class. One
man | know maintains that he knows
1t costs ten cents per mile to run
light car. He owns one, but | have not
seen his figures to prove this, nor do
believe he has such figures. Another
man thinks l ought to run my car for
21s cents mile. The truth of the mat
ter is very few people keep an accurate
account of the cost of maintenance of
their cars. | have always done this
and have friend who has kept an ex-
act account of all expenses since he
first had car, some six years ago. Be-
tween the two of us think we can get
at the average expense quite accur-
ately.
My friend has always owned light
four-seated touring car which he
drives a little less in mileage each
year than do my car, which is light
runabout. For the past two years
have used light car made over into
truck. The yearly cost to him runs
from about 5000 to $3.50. Last year
mine cost for ordinary upkeep and
repairs $156. In addition to tbs paid
about $37 more for things that could
hardly be counted necessary, such as
shock absorbers and other things for
my own comfort, rather than necessary
for the operation or good of the car.
have no exact data of mileage that
year, but it was not over 1000 nor less
than $500 miles. The tire cost was
about $45. The cost for repairs that
year was very light, while for the year
just past it was very heavy. The
total expense necessary to running the
car the past year was $1S3. In addi-
tion to this | built truck body, the
material costing me about $5. Since
! had good truck body before and
built this for special purpose and
have not yet sold the old body l did
not count in this expense, nor did
include a fire extinguisher at $6.53,
this being, properly, Of more value as
a mental comfort than necessity.
In general the expense for the past
year was divided about as follows:
Gasoline $43.50, oil and grease SIS.
tires $25, repairs $74.50. The above
do not include some minor expenses
and are hardly fair sample of the
ordinary yearly expenses of these va
rious items, but as a whole the varia-
tion from this would not be great
think. Since my car was never before
thoroughly overhauled in the three
years it has run repair expense is
much above the average. ! bought 55
gallons gasoline Just after the year be-
gan and at its close had on hand quite
supply Of gas and oil.
My mileage the past year was 4,700,
nearly 1000 miles more than the pre-
vious year / think. The average cost
per mile was about 1-3 cents. While
| would not advise the use of second"
tires, found thus far my tire cost has
been lowered by using second from
firsts," which are seconds thrown out
from high grade tires because of
slight blemishes that do no great harm.
A new car costs very little to run the
first year and any car weighing not
over ton ought to make 1000 miles
yearly at an average expense of $500,
or S cents a mile. A very light car if
loaded light will do even better.