Long Distance Winter Trip Advice

[abscate]

10 cents per mile for maintenance repairs if you do the work, 20 cents per mile if it’s paid work

Canada is cheaper, your labor rates are 2/3 of ours

[cn90]

@BlackBart,

- I rented a Kia (forgot the model but similar to Camry size, had only 40K miles on the odometer) for $35/day. Drove to Chicago and back in 3 days.
You will be surprised at the quality of Kia these days. Initially I was skeptical when I saw Kia name, but after 1000 miles, I was impressed at Kia.

- Total cost $105 + tax for 3 days.

- So, even if using abscate's conservative estimate of 10 cents/mile, it costs $100/1000 miles.

PS: Even if you do the work yourself, I think the "operating cost" is around 20 cents/mile, simply bc some items are hard to quantify, things that don't break often like tires, brakes. The stuff I find hard to quantify are:
* Steering Rack
* Suspension
* Transmission
* Engine
* Engine, Trans Seals
etc. etc.

[BlackBart]

Wet cracked headlight

First step - get the Red Sled started and moved. I found a roofing nail in this tire.

Still in good shape

Made huge progress in a couple of hours - I can see the floor! The other half is packed solid.

Betty inside! I think she's about ready now.

[abscate]

PS: Even if you do the work yourself, I think the "operating cost" is around 20 cents/mile, simply bc some items are hard to quantify, things that don't break often like tires, brakes. The stuff I find hard to quantify are:
* Steering Rack
* Suspension
* Transmission
* Engine
* Engine, Trans Seals
etc. etc.

You don’t lump big things into operating costs. Those are things you either buy in good condition or lump into acquisition costs, see below

Brakes....we roll about 50k / 5 years on ours, then $200 for new calipers, pads, rotors using decent aftermarket. Volvo parts will run about $500. That’s 0.5- 1 cpm only which is how it gets caught in the 10 cpm figure above.

Tires are $400/40000 miles....1 cpm for me typically

If you blow an engine, a used swap is $500 plus $2000 labor to put in. That 2500 will easily buy you another 100k miles if you spend another $1000 refurbish, so that would be a 3 cpm bump onto your cost of ownership.

Repair costs generally don’t include refurbishment , though. I use a model where a $1000 P80 needs $2000 of refurbishment, so acquisition cost is $3000. Depreciation on this is $1500/ 5 years so $300 per year / 10,000 miles or 3cpm. A new car will be 10x that for first five years, easily,

If you buy P80s from meticulously well maintained guys from NJ, you beat the 3 cpm.

If you do lump in the big stuff, it’s still amazing how little it bumps the number.

I had to put a clutch on my P2. $1000 in parts, 15 hours labor. At my $25 labor rate, that’s &1300 job
I’ve put 60k miles on that car so it’s cost me 2 cpm for that clutch so far. Realistically, that will fall to under 1 cpm over the clutch life. If I add it to my capital cost , my depreciation would go from 9 cpm to 11 cpm.

[BlackBart]

Good thing we're not leaving today, it's dumping snow here (but fairly warm).

Wednesday launch is supposed to be high 30s here, light snow. High 30s Billings MT. Upper 30s and very windy in northern Wyoming. 45 in Cheyenne, still windy. They're saying 60 in Denver (?). So I'm not seeing any blizzards on the way down there.

[abscate]

Have fun and be safe in that Volvo instead of the rental tin can

[Blacklab467]

Have a great trip! I don't hesitate to take my '03 XC into the backwoods or on long trips or ski trips in the dead cold of winter, thoroughly enjoying how great these cars are in the cold and poor road conditions.
I would suggest bringing along a code reader/clearer. I recently got a code P1651 on the way back from harvesting a Christmas tree in the mountains when it was about -22C, the car went into "reduced engine performance" 171 Kms from the city and outside cellphone coverage. I didn't realize the value or a $40 scanner until I limped the car to cellphone coverage and had the courage to turn the engine off to scan for codes. When the code turned up, I cleared it and the car started up and ran fine ever since. I think it might be a one time thing but I surely would have been stuck in the mountains without the ability to scan and clear that code!
Have a great trip!

[BlackBart]

Thanks all!

Took a shakedown cruise out the freeway a ways, 80+ mph. All seems good. I like these Blizzaks. I took the bike racks off the roof.

This morning on the way to picking up new wipers, I have a CEL..??? This car has never had a CEL, and the night before a trip?!

ummm....when I was fixing the drivers headlight, I pulled the airbox out of the way and unplugged the MAF, forgot to plug it back in.... oop. So that's fixed.

Wipers are ridiculously priced and don't last at all. Over $60 for a pair of wipers?

Exciting to see Wyoming conditions today. Tomorrow is much calmer but still windy, This is Wyoming, especially in the winter. It never snows in WY, it blows over and drops it all in Nebraska. When you drive south in WY, you have the wheel turned right, when driving north, you turn the wheel left, and if you're lucky you get to crab the car kind of sideways on the ice!

WY Road Cnditions.jpeg (358.3 KiB) Viewed 9207 times

Tally HO HO HO Merry Christmas!!

[volvolugnut]

The shake down cruise was a great success.
volvolugnut

[jonesg]

Good thing we're not leaving today, it's dumping snow here (but fairly warm).

Wednesday launch is supposed to be high 30s here, light snow. High 30s Billings MT. Upper 30s and very windy in northern Wyoming. 45 in Cheyenne, still windy. They're saying 60 in Denver (?). So I'm not seeing any blizzards on the way down there.

got chains ?
I've been thinking about the plastic ones, we're due for 12 inches today.
We also carry a nylon tow rope with hooks from NAPA.