[Mister_Snuggles]

Do people not look at the operating costs before buying a vehicle? Do they really just negotiate a monthly payment and get surprised at the amount they have to pay for fuel/maintenance/insurance?

When I bought my most recent car I had a spreadsheet which projected fuel (whether that's gas, electricity, or gas+electricity) and maintenance costs (there was some ball-parking here) for a dozen different models based on our driving habits. Once the list was narrowed down a bit I did some online quotes at my insurance company to add that in.

There were no financial surprises when I bought the car.

[lsy]

This is unnecessarily self-congratulating. The problem is that vulnerabilities are found in cars after they are on the market for a while and already purchased, so existing owners get their rates hiked, but the manufacturer never fixes the issue. No amount of research is going to guarantee your operating cost next year.

[vel0city]

> When I bought my most recent car I had a spreadsheet

Yeah so already different from like 90% of car buyers out there.