Plane vs. Train vs. Car

[MidTowner]

highlander, that marginal cost is relevant number to a discussion about you and your car , but not everyone. Still, the info's need, so thanks.

I guess what we could all agree on is that, for someone traveling for business, whose employer is reimbursing the distance, the CRA rate is of course the one to use.

[chutten]

I love that highlander did a regression analysis before purchasing a vehicle. So nerdy!

To me it seemed that the purpose of the trip was to get views on YouTube. Pulling the stunt and doing the report were just means to that end that made for a compelling narrative for the target audience and enough creative reward to avoid having one's soul leak out one's ears from making another 'prank' video (or whatever cannibalizes views these days)

What is clear to me from this discussion is that costs and value differ so wildly person-to-person that broad statements on which is better will never be close to correct. The only thing we seen to be able to say with certainty is that driving can be unpleasant, the trains are slow and infrequent, and that the air fare is a lot of money.

And, really, that's about the same as saying that water is wet.

[Canard]

Not having a car just isn’t an option for us. We road trip almost every weekend in the summer, and my family and friends are spread out across the province, mostly in rural areas. So, it’s there in the driveway regardless. So traveling with another mode is an additional cost, not an exchanged cost.

[tomh009]

Actually two cars, isn't it? Or am I mistaken?

[highlander]

highlander, that marginal cost is relevant number to a discussion about you and your car , but not everyone. Still, the info's need, so thanks.

Yes, it's just one data point but it was very helpful in my understanding of how vehicle depreciation works in reality (i.e. the "fixed" vehicle age component vs. the mileage cost). Putting mileage on a car absolutely has a marginal cost, whether you think of that as a cost per km or just in terms of how often you have to replace it.

For comparison, I did the same analysis for 2008~2014 Dodge Caravans and found a similar mileage component of $0.042/km. Those were the two vehicles we were looking at, so I don't know how much that number varies for different vehicle types. There may be significant differences for pickup trucks or SUVs, for example.