Which Communauto plan should I choose?

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Intro

Are you the kind of person who likes to optimize every decision? Me too! That’s why I made this document to help you decide which Communauto plan best fits your needs. By entering details about how you plan to use your vehicle in an average year, this tool will help you:

Compare the costs of different types of trips.

Determine which plan is most cost-effective.

Decide whether Communauto is cheaper than owning a car.

This is not an official Communauto document

Due to the complexity of Communauto’s pricing, the calculation formulas in this document do not represent every possible discount and surcharge accounted for in Communauto’s

online trip calculator⁠

. As a result, the data contained within this document should be used as a point of reference when selecting a plan, not as a completely accurate source of truth.

How to use this tool

Add your intended usage. Get rid of the placeholder data on the

usage page⁠

and enter your own info based on the types of trips you intend to make with your vehicle.

Find the best plan. Based on your usage and some math, the

comparison page⁠

will compare the total cost of different plans and determine the best one for you.

Get into the weeds. This document makes

several assumptions⁠

to determine the optimal plan and simplify the calculations a bit. You may want to get to know the caveats to better understand the full picture of what this tool can and can’t do.

Make your own copy. If you’d like to keep your data to revisit later or if you’d like to modify this doc, use the

Copy doc

⁠

button to create a duplicate on your own Coda account.

Share it! Know someone who might find this useful? Send them a link! And if this document saved you some money, feel free to

buy me a coffee⁠

as a token of gratitude.

FAQ

Why don’t the costs match Communauto’s trip calculator?

There are a few known situations where trips entered on the usage table won’t line up with Commuauto’s advertised trip rates. These are explained in the

assumptions⁠

and are necessary to keep calculations simple and avoid excessive data entry on your part.

The trip partially overlaps with a Saturday or Sunday, but isn’t completely a weekday or weekend trip.

The trip is a long-distance trip and is longer than one week.

The trip is a long-distance trip and takes place in the low season (October 16 to June 14).

The trip is eligible for the workday rate.

The trip uses partial hours (e.g. a 2h 15min trip).

If none of these apply, add a comment to

this Reddit thread⁠

explaining your issue and I’ll do my best to address it.

How does this suggest a plan?

The total trip price in each of Communauto’s five plans is calculated for each trip on the

usage page⁠

. This should match the amounts listed on Communauto’s online trip calculator. To get the total cost, each trip is multiplied by its frequency to get the cost per year, and then all those amounts are added up and displayed in the

comparison bar chart⁠

Is this document completely accurate?

No. Communauto’s pricing has far too many special rates and fees to account for them all. This document represents the best I could reasonably do without requiring you to write the dates and times of every trip you were planning to make in a given year.

Is this an official Communauto document?

No, it’s just created by an avid Communauto user from Montreal.

How is depreciation calculated?

First, the remaining lifespan of the vehicle is calculated (expected lifespan minus current kilometers on the odometer). Then the depreciation per kilometer is calculated by dividing the purchase price of the vehicle by its remaining lifespan. Finally, that $/km value is multiplied by your intended annual kilometers (the total trips per year on the

usage table⁠

How are interest payments calculated?

I’m not a math genius, but this is the formula I used. If you are a math genius, let me know on

this Reddit thread⁠

if I’ve made a mistake on this: [principal amount] / ([term length] / 12) * (1 + [interest rate] / 100)

Could you please add XYZ feature to this tool?

Maybe! This document is in what I consider to be a completed state, so I won’t guarantee that I’ll fulfill requests to add features or additional calculations in the future. However, if you have an idea for some other way this data could be used to provide helpful insights, drop a comment on

this Reddit thread⁠

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Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.