The Hyundai Genesis Coupe was also featured during the football game, in which a young man drive his boss while being "educated" about business. The boss's heart suddenly stops, but he is revived with the help of the car, as you can see here. This vehicle had cost-of-ownership estimated at 61.97 cents per mile, which includes depreciation, financing, fees and taxes, fuel, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost, and repairs. It's helpfknow that we can also customize each of these costs, inlcuding maintenance, because if the driver has to brake that hard just to keep his ornery boss alive, we're sure he will be needing new brake pads more frequently than the typical driver. But for this study, let's just assume that was the only close call the boss will have and keep the maintenance costs based upon the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule and standard estimated brake job intervals.
Volkswagen hit the airwaves Sunday to promote their new Beetle, which you can watch below. Because the commercial shows the Beetle driving through the neighborhood, we considered using our Dynamic Cost to Own calculator to change the estimated city/highway driving to 80% city, 20% highway. And although that would have been easy for us to do, it would have made it difficult to compare the Beetle's ownerhsip costs to the other advertised vehicles. As a result, we hope the newly fit exercising dog doesn't chase the Beetle out onto the freeway, because our estimated ownership costs for the 2012 Beetle, which is 54.2 cents per mile, assumes the driver is on the freeway 45% of the time.
Honda made its appearance and created one of the most talked about ads this year. This commercial featured Matthew Broderick calling in sick from work so he can drive around in his 2012 Honda CR-V. Broderick could probably afford to go to the amusement park, museum, and even horse races on his day off because with its low fuel costs, the Honda CR-V costs 50.57 cents per mile to own and operate.
Ford's commercial aired before kickoff, focusing on their latest social marketing campaign, which you can watch here. The Ford Focus Rally is an interactive road rally, in which six teams compete in various challenges as they drive cross-country. These teams are playing to win the ultimate prize of $100,000 and a 2012 Ford Focus. The total cost to own this new vehicle is about 48.19 cents per mile for the winning team.
But when comparing the Focus to the Fiat 500 Abarth, the Fiat earned bragging rights with an estimated ownership cost of only 43.84 cents per mile. "You'll never forget the first time you see one" was the vehicle's slogan as a man day dreamed about a sexy woman, which can you watch here. But more importantly, you shouldn't forget that when deciding what type of vehicle to buy, you should focus on the total cost to own the vehicle, not the purchase price. That's how you win the game.
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