According to AAA, the finance costs on new car purchases jumped 24% in 2019, pushing the average annual cost of vehicle ownership to $9,282, or $773.50 a month. That’s the highest cost associated with new vehicle ownership since AAA started tracking expenses in 1950. It comes at a time when 72-month car loans have become common, meaning car buyers are paying more and longer for vehicles that lose value the moment they’re sold.

The new figures come from Your Driving Costs, which reviews 45 models in nine categories to determine the average annual operating and ownership costs. Depreciation remains the single biggest cost, accounting for more than a third (36%) of the average annual cost. It slowed this year, with vehicles losing an average of $3,334 a year, up $45 or 1.4% from last year. In 2018, depreciation rose by $117 or 3.7%. In two classes—small and medium sedans, cars that manufacturers have all but stopped making—depreciation costs declined.

Other key findings of this year’s Your Driving Costs include:

• Average fuel cost rose to 11.6 cents per mile, 5% higher than last year.
• Average maintenance and repair costs climbed to 8.94 cents per mile, up 8.9% over last year. Electric vehicles had the lowest maintenance and repair costs, only 6.6 cents per mile, while medium-sized SUVs had the highest at 9.6 cents per mile.
• The cost of licenses, registration fees and taxes rose $14 to $753 per year, an increase of 1.9%

Here are some new car buying tips from AAA:

• Know what you can afford to spend before going to a dealership.
• Minimize finance costs by getting the shortest loan term you can afford.
• The best times to buy tend to be the last two weeks of December when dealers are trying to hit year-end goals and, to a lesser extent, between July and October.
• The best time to buy is the end of the month because sales managers like to build campaigns around monthly quotas.
• Consider a late-model, gently used vehicle. New cars lose 20% of their value the moment they leave the lot, so you can save if you look for a car that’s a year or two old. Your insurance costs could be less, too.

If you’re wondering why there’s a photograph of a Dodge Challenger in today’s post it is because Mary has decided that my next JoeCar should be one of them. Now I haven’t owned an American car since my beloved 1984 Jeep Wagoneer Limited and haven’t owned a Chrysler product—my Jeep was an AMC—since a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda. As they say, we’ll see…

As I continue my quest for a new project car, the cost of cars is always on my mind. You can hear me talk about my search on this video. Update: For a short time I was chasing a Mitsubishi 3000GT and found a nice one price-wise but it had too many miles (186,000) and had led a hard, hard life.

And so I am left with this question: When did cars get so expensive? In 1970 my Fiat 850 Spyder cost a little over two thousand bucks but after a year of it’s idiosyncrasies, I traded it for a brand-new 1971 Irish Green Porsche 914-4 (shown above) that cost less than $4000. Two years later when someone crashed into the car while it was parked in front of my house, I went looking for another Porsche and was able to purchase a clean used 1968 912 for under $3000. Try that today.

Even more than the cost of the car itself is the ratio between income and car prices. At the time, the cost of my 914 represented twenty percent of my annual income. By comparison, a 1968 Dodge Charger cost $2860 when the average family income was $8630. Today with average family incomes at $60,336, the base price of a new Charger is $29,470 and that’s not an RT or Hellcat ($65,795) model. Today a new base model Charger represents 49% of a family’s income, versus 33% in 1968, so somebody in the family is going to have to do without something.

Porsches are truly wonderful sports cars but the average person’s ’s income has not kept up with their price increases as well as the prices of the few remaining sports cars that are availble. What about the Mazda Miata? Starting at $25,730 it’s not that expensive and you shouldn’t have to take out a second mortgage to own one but even used Miata prices—and used car prices in general— seem higher than in the past.

The point of this post isn’t just about money. I also believe it’s important to drive the kind of car you really want (and hopefully can ford.) Let me explain:

Back when I lived in Maryland, my friend John always wanted to own a Porsche and although he could afford one he didn’t want to spend “all that money” to actually buy a 911. Instead, he drove a series of Volkswagens. One day, when returning home from a road trip after seeing a friend in Pennsylvania, he received a phone call from his friend’s wife. She told him, “Bill had a heart attack and died the day after you left.” The next day, John went out and bought a new Porsche. Life, as they say, is much too short.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat Joe to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50), click here. And if you do, many thanks.