Arthur Griffin's New Car - 1920

From Arthur Griffin's farm accounts, are the following entries for 1920:

April 4 - Ford sold to A. Tinker $490

April 18 - Auto license for Dodge car $10.41

May 4 - Dodge turing car bought $1185.00

May 4 - 1 inner tube $4.25

May 4 - 5 gal gasoline $1.65

For the year 1920, Arthur paid from 31 cents to 36 cents per gallon for gasoline.  According to his records, the price of gasoline actually declined over the next several years to as low as 16 cents per gallon.

Total auto expenses for 1923:

Gasoline bought in year - 290 gallons

Amount paid for gasoline for year $60.92 [average 21 cents per gallon]

Repair on car for year including new battery, spring, bolts & boxings,

    spark plugs, other parts and overhaul $96.89

Paid out for tires, tubes, and on repair of tires and oil etc. $52.65

[Total operating costs $210.46]

According to Mr.Traffic (http://www.mrtraffic.com/millennium.htm), the average car mileage in 1920 was 20mpg.  At this rate Arthur's Dodge probably was driven about 5800 miles in 1923.  Operating costs would have averaged 3.6 cents per mile.

The US Department of Energy (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/fsheets/RealMogasPrices.html) estimates that the nationwide average gas price for 1923 was 22 cents per gallon however when this is adjusted for inflation, the real price was $2.52 per gallon in 2005 dollars.

The same inflation adjustment would have meant that Arthur's 1920 car would cost $13,574 in 2005 dollars (not bad) and his annual total operating costs would be $2,411 or about 42 cents per mile. 

AAA estimates that for 2006 the national average operating cost is 52.2 cents per mile or $7,834 for the year [based on 15,000 miles of use and excluding depreciation, insurance and financing] (http://www.aaanewsroom.net).