this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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[–] [email protected] 96 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

This article says 8 to 11k yearly. https://horserookie.com/average-horse-cost-by-state/

While cost of owning a car is between 3k and 9k yearly according to https://www.move.org/average-cost-owning-a-car/.

I would have thought that a horse would be much more expensive, like 10 times a car cost.

[–] xploit 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Interesting, I recall a colleague in UK mention that it was costing her up to 20k a year. That was her max but not always/everywhere - would have been almost 30k USD at the time, so it sounds considerably cheaper in US but obviously a lot more land available and affordable

[–] Kushan 8 points 1 month ago

I also had a colleague in the UK casually talking in the break room if she should buy a house or a horse because they were comparatively expensive.

[–] count_dongulus 12 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Had em in a poverty state 20 years ago 🤷

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

That link about car cost is from 2021, pretty sure inflation had a significant impact on that in the last few years too, not to mention car companies getting rid of lower end options for a while now.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

cost of owning a car is between 3k and 9k yearly

Maybe if you drive a fancy new car, but an older, reliable car can be much cheaper. For example, I drive a Toyota Prius that I've had for 10 years, and I paid $10k for it (approximately, and cash, so no financing). I've driven about 100k miles, spent about $3k on repairs, and have spent about $500/year on insurance. So an estimate for total costs is:

  • gas - $7.8k (~45mpg @ $3.5/gallon)
  • insurance - $5k
  • repairs - $3k
  • depreciation - $7k (assuming $3k value if I sold)
  • taxes and fees - $2k (~$100/year registration + emissions cost)
  • regular maintenance - $500? (I change my own oil, so $20/oil change every 5k miles, plus spark plugs, headlights, etc)
  • tires - $1200 (changed them twice for ~$500-600 each time)

Total cost over 10 years is $27000, or about $2.7k/year.

So that $3k/year low end figure is actually a little high for me, and I ended up rounding most of these things up. I'm guessing a cheap EV could come out even cheaper.

So if you're cheap like me when it comes to cars, owning a horse could be about 10x the cost of a car.