I think I am in about the same situation.  I bought the car at 80K miles.
50K miles later the transmission went out: $2,000 (with clutch, etc.).  20K
miles later, the fuel pump went out: $750.  Wear items such as tires,
battery, struts, brakes, filters aren't even included in this tally.

Walt Kienzle
1991 9000T, 154K miles

Call that three pence a mile, which is certainly not excessive.

Hmm.  Not really.  If the car is now worth say $4,000 you've "paid" (lost)
$24,000 on it, twice the service costs.

What are your other costs?  Fuel?  Depreciation?  Finance, if applicable?
Road duty / plates / tags?  These should put the service costs into
perspective.

EPA mileage for the manual "S" is 21 mpg city / 29 highway, so,
assuming 25 mpg at current national average price of $2.99/gallon, fuel
would be 11.96 cents/mile (with your mileages, you probably did more
highway driving and this overestimates your fuel cost).

You paid $24k, and Edmunds says  a "clean" 900 with 220k miles has a
trade-in value of $1319, so your depreciation is 10.31 cents/mile
(ignoring finance costs or whatever).

I'll assume $1,000 insurance per year for 10 years, or about 4.55
cents/mile.

Your maintenance (including tires?) of 4.95 cents/mile brings the total
to 31.77 cents per mile (ignoring capital costs, licenses, time value
of money, washes, and anything not in your 4.95 cents) for a total cost
of $69,883.

The IRS deduction for business use this year is 44.5 cents, so $97,900
to drive an "average vehicle" (whatever that is), or $28,017 more than
you paid.  Granted, your mileage is pretty high so you'd have a good
shot at beating the averages in anything, but less than 5 cents per
mile is incredibly good, especially since it includes the high-mileage
phase of the car's life...is this the first car you've owned or
something?

replies to user k.l.bailey at the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers