The cost of car wear and tear can seem the most vague and challenging to quantify. Learn more about car wear and tear and how to calculate it for your car.
11 minutes
03.07.2024
Typically, describing wear and tear on a vehicle begins with a discussion of the magnitude of any imperfections a vehicle sustains. In other words, wear and tear describes the normal damage cars receive as you use them, from scuffs and scrapes to minor dents and dings. You can also think of wear and tear as the signs of aging all vehicles show. If a car exhibits damage to the point where it would affect its value, that goes beyond what wear and tear includes.
Wear and tear go hand-in-hand with car ownership, but with FINN, most car-related ownership costs are covered in a single monthly payment. Your subscription fee includes flexible terms and conditions, insurance, registration, depreciation, and maintenance. FINN also delivers straight to your door.
Wear and tear illustrates the damage sustained during normal use of a vehicle. Many consider indications of wear and tear to be a form of depreciation that often correlates with mileage. However, higher-mileage vehicles can show signs of less wear and tear than newer vehicles, depending on how they were maintained.
You can also think of wear and tear as related to the cost of owning a vehicle or standard operating costs. The impact of wear and tear on your car depends on your driving habits, location and weather patterns, miles driven, and what kind of use your vehicle sees. For instance, minivans typically experience more wear and tear than your average limousine or luxury vehicle.
It’s important to note that wear and tear doesn’t include costs of ownership related to insurance, registration, taxes, or maintenance. These associated costs exist outside the vehicle’s aesthetic condition, where wear and tear are most apparent. In comparing two cars with the same insurance rates, registration fees, taxes, and maintenance intervals, one typically has more wear and tear than the other based on its use.
Wear and tear on the inside of your vehicle can take various forms. Here are a few examples of what normal wear and tear looks like:
Abnormal or excessive wear and tear can include seat rips, a drooping headliner, broken plastic or rubber components, or other damage. Shattered visor mirrors, missing climate control buttons or knobs, and cracked seatbelt housings can also indicate the car in question has had a hard life.
Arguably, wear and tear is easier to spot on a car's outside than on the inside. Below are a few examples of normal exterior wear and tear:
Older cars tend to have more extensive or noticeable exterior wear and tear. Missing body panels, large dents, or deep scratches can be expected if the vehicle exceeds 100,000 miles or more. However, newer cars with normal wear and tear shouldn’t show signs of rust, collision damage, or a compromised structure.
Ultimately, your car is a mechanical object with various complex systems, many of which can also degrade under normal wear and tear. For example, your suspension and brake pads can wear out over time, requiring replacement. Advanced safety systems may require attention if the sensors fail. Your car’s emissions and fuel systems also show typical signs of wear and tear when they require servicing.
Calculating wear and tear on your car isn’t as simple as determining car depreciation or figuring out the residual value on a car lease. However, the following steps can help you approximate the cost of wear and tear on your car.
Calculating depreciation on your car helps get the most significant number out of the way first. Consider how much your car is worth at its current mileage if you traded it in for another vehicle. You can use various resources to determine the trade-in value based on your car’s condition. Plug your numbers into the following formula:
(Vehicle purchase price - Trade-in value) / Current mileage = Average cost of depreciation per mile
Keep your final total depreciation cost per mile handy for the last step.
If you purchased tires since you bought your car, calculate the average tire cost per mile with the formula below:
Tire cost / Miles traveled since installation = Average cost of tires per mile
Write this total down next to your calculations for depreciation.
Do you see a pattern emerging? Continue with the cost of changing your car’s oil:
Cost of an oil change / Miles traveled per oil change = Average cost of oil changes per mile
You can use the oil change interval for the “Miles traveled per oil change” figure in the formula above if it helps round out your calculations.
Calculating your fuel wear and tear costs may require an additional step, depending on how you want to quantify your car’s miles-per-gallon (MPG) rating. You can use a real-world reading by dividing the miles you traveled on a single gas tank by the number of gallons your tank is rated for or by using the EPA-estimated fuel-efficiency ratings. Regardless of which you choose, plug that figure into this formula:
Fuel price / MPG rating = Average cost of fuel per mile
You can use your area's current average gas price if you don’t remember how much you paid per gallon.
If you performed additional repairs on your vehicle, add them together to find the average cost per mile spent on maintenance and repairs with the following formula:
Cost of maintenance and repairs / Number of miles driven per year = Average cost of maintenance and repairs per mile
This calculation represents the final piece of the puzzle in determining the cost of wear and tear on your vehicle. Now, it’s time to put it all together.
Since each of these calculations you’ve done resulted in a “cost per mile” total, you can add them all together to find the average cost of wear and tear per mile for your vehicle:
Depreciation + Tires + Oil changes + Fuel + Additional repairs = Average cost of wear and tear per mile
Calculating the cost of wear and tear can undoubtedly put a new spin on jumping into your car for a cruise down the pavement. How much do you spend on your car’s wear and tear for every mile you drive?
If those calculations felt like a lot, here’s an example to help you determine how much wear and tear on your vehicle costs you per mile. The following calculations consider the hypothetical wear and tear costs of owning a Ford Explorer:
Depreciation: (Vehicle purchase price - Trade-in value) / Current mileage
($30,000 purchase price - $15,000 trade-in value) / 20,000 miles = $0.75 per mile
Tires: Tire cost / Miles traveled since installation
$1,000 tire cost / 20,000 miles = $0.05 per mile
Oil changes: Cost of an oil change / Miles traveled per oil change
$150 oil change / 5,000 miles = $0.03 per mile
Fuel: Fuel price / MPG rating
$3.50 per gallon / 20 MPG rating = $0.18 per mile
Additional repairs: Cost of maintenance and repairs / Number of miles driven per year
$700 in maintenance and repairs / 20,000 miles = $0.04 per mile
The total cost (per mile) of wear and tear in owning a Ford Explorer is $1.05, based on the calculations above.
Reducing wear and tear on your car requires intentional changes in your approach to driving your vehicle every time you get behind the wheel. Here are a few tips to help you reduce wear and tear on your car:
While planning for many of these strategies can require time and money, it’s often reflected in the resale value of your vehicle. Think of your vehicle as a used car you test-drove on a dealership lot. Given its current condition, would you pay a handsome sum for your car?
Calculating how much it costs to rent a car or how to lease a car online in 2023 can help you get closer to car ownership. The following questions can also help you learn more about wear and tear in general.
Daily driving puts the most wear and tear on a car, especially a new car. The more you drive and use your car, the more each component experiences wear. However, regular maintenance can help reduce heavy wear and tear associated with high-mileage vehicles.
Normal wear and tear on a leased vehicle accounts for small imperfections on external and internal surfaces. For example, normal wear and tear might include fine scratches on the car’s exterior or scuffs on the inside kick panels. Seat rips, stains, broken components, dents, or large, deep scratches are not considered normal or fair wear and tear.
The average cost of wear and tear on a car depends on the car’s depreciation, oil change costs, fuel costs, additional maintenance costs, and the cost of tires per mile. Depreciation can skew the cost of wear and tear for newer vehicles since they depreciate so fast.
Car wear and tear comes with owning a vehicle, but sometimes, calculating it can put your daily interactions with your car into perspective. When you tally up how much you spend on your vehicle and how much it costs per mile, you might reconsider passing up the car wash or putting off cleaning up that interior spill. The wear and tear your car experiences significantly impacts its resale value, regardless of age.
Ready to leave calculations of car wear and tear behind? Check out a FINN car subscription that incorporates the cost of car ownership into a fixed monthly fee. When you subscribe to FINN, insurance, registration, depreciation, and maintenance are covered. You can also choose flexible terms and mileage limits that fit your lifestyle, regardless of where life’s roads take you.