[supremeBaleno]

@girishglg, like with other things in life, we cannot put a monetary value for/against car-ownership and take a decision. The key words in your post are "had a desire to own and drive a car for a long time". For this desire to be met, he needs to buy a car of his own - no point calculating expenses involved and then deciding.

Ofcourse like others mentioned, I do agree that for most of us, it would be much cheaper and stress-free to rent a car/auto for our travel needs instead of buying a car, paying tax/insurance/maintenance, worrying about parking/damage/accidents etc etc.

P.S. : BTW, should it not be "ever" in your signature, instead of "every" ?

[girishglg]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

@girishglg, like with other things in life, we cannot put a monetary value for/against car-ownership and take a decision. The key words in your post are "had a desire to own and drive a car for a long time". For this desire to be met, he needs to buy a car of his own - no point calculating expenses involved and then deciding.

Absolutely agree with you. It was a loud discussion we had earlier and it was just about calculating the financials as well. As I mentioned it myself-
"Hence on a overall basis though the real cost of car ownership would be higher but the convenience, freedom is priceless."

The actual decision is still at large and the final decision will be mainly taken on health grounds than cost of owning it. Felt it was an interesting point of view that could be shared with all since there would be many senior people who would be contemplating to take such a decision in this stage of life.

[supremeBaleno]

^^^True. And I could connect with your post, because we took a similar decision last Dec. My FIL had plans to own a car for long time and finally we coaxed him to do it after his retirement and got an A-Star_AT.

[girishglg]

Come to think of it that is a great option going for an AT especially for senior members of the family who are getting their hands on the steering wheel for the first time and FE is not at all in consideration due to the low run.

The only catch is if one is available at that price (around 2L). There may be some specimens of the original Zen or the Santro but IMO they may be off the limit. Hence we may have to stick to the traditional entry level models such as Nano or Alto.

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by girishglg

The breakup of costs per month are (approx values) -

EMI for Rs.2l loan - 4,500
Insurance premium - 700
Petrol (20ltrs * Rs.70)- 1,400
Maintenance costs - 400
Total - 7,000

Assuming the same 300kms is done using a city taxi @Rs.17/km - Rs.5100

Exactly my dad's point of view when i used to urge him to go in for a new car(we an old M800).

Originally Posted by girishglg

freedom is priceless.

Exactly my point of view. Needless to say he won the argument always,saying that it's high price to pay for freedom. Now he has agreed to my request.

[ukderebail]

When i browsed Maruti Suzuki's website on cost of ownership, this was the first point i noticed from their public posture

The price of a car is just one-third of what it costs you over its lifetime. Running and maintaining it make up the other two-thirds. Take into account resale value and its real cost becomes clear.

Well my personal experience of ownership on Maruti 800 AC which was bought in Dec 1999 is that it cost me Rs 3,10,000 in Mumbai. Subsequently in intervals i have spent for maintainence the following :

1. Clutch plate Assembly and servicing : Rs 15,000/
2. Battery change Twice : Rs 5,000/-
3. Suspension Repairs : Rs 20,000/-
4. Oil changes : Rs 6,000/-
5. Tyre changes : Rs 10,000/-
6. Minor Repairs & Modifications : Rs 10,000/
Rs 66,000/-
Insurance : Rs 45,000/-

I had run totally 90 k kilometres in a span of 10 years and sold the car at 65 k with exchange bonus of 25 k so i realised 90 k. Does it hold true for latest cars. Expert opinion is welcome.

[swarnava.m]

I both agree and disagree with you. Firstly, I disagree because, the example given by you, is 12 years back, and in all these years, technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, and the cutting edge cars that we get now, they are much more reliable and durable than those of yester years. Hence, the costs of servicing, and especially those of parts replacement, have gone down a lot. This means that today we spend much lesser for periodic servicing of our cars, provided we maintain it properly.

Another point to be noted is, the depreciation of the actual value of the car depends on a lot of things. For example, selling a car in 4-5 years of ownership and selling it in 10 years of ownership will fetch very different sums of money. This means that if the car is sold off at an earlier date, the capital gain is two fold.
1. We spend comparatively less on service and repairs, which will definitely increase as the car ages.
2. The resale value of the car is higher.

Second point, why I agree with you is, the costs of maintaining a car is always proportional to its initial cost. For example, people buy a Maruti mainly for its FE and low maintenance costs. However, a more costlier car, say a Honda, or a Skoda, or a Chevrolet (some of them) fall under the premium category and the servicing costs and labour charges for these are much higher, plus the parts are much more expensive. Also, the insurance premium is something that we can never do away with, and hence that remains a constant too.

IMHO, the bottom line is, while certain costs of maintaining a car are no doubt fixed and compulsorily have to be encountered, with proper use and regular maintenance and adequate planning, the overall cost of ownership can be reduced by a substantial margin.

[amrisharm]

Now a days people usually keep their car for the duration of their Emi or loan and upgrade to another car after 3-5 years, so i guess we only have to contend with the depreciation of the car price. A 3 yr old car, under "normal use" will hardly require major repairs, and normal maintainance costs are quite ok to deal with.

The depreciation on the car is still quite a big part of the purchase amount, so what you say, holds very true.

[girishglg]

There is surely more to it in terms of cost of ownership. For a person buying a SUV, it is not only the vehicle cost but also other factors such as higher taxes paid for vehicles above 10L which brings it to the higest taxed bracket.

As manufacturers try bring down the length to sub 4m etc, they should try to fix the pricing so that customers are not burdened with additional taxes at no fault of theirs and in turn increased sales for them too!

[2000rpm]

There is one factor which I think surely needs to be considered while calculating the cost of ownership - Need arising for second car as a result of owning the existing car.

For example: After considering all the elements, I calculate my cost of ownership (which is affordable) but owing to various factors (like City-Behaviour, Size of car, etc) I feel the need for buying a another car. In this case, the second car is a resultant of ownership (retention) of first car. In such a case, you have two options

1. Sell existing car and buy new car which suits your requirement more (Head Decision)
2. Buy second car and keep your existing car (Heart Decision)

For example: I have a Civic and want to start driving to office, however the poor low end torque, low GC and poor city Fuel efficiency does not encourage me to use the car for office commute purposes. I am thinking of buying a Alto (CNG) as I travel alone, for city and small distance commutes.

The other option is to sell the Civic (which will not happen ) and buy a mid range diesel sedan with balanced city and highway behaviours (like Dzire / Amaze).

I am sure a lot of people with Off Roaders will be in a similar situation. Please share your views on the same.

[dr.surgeon1985]

A small calculation, I drive approx 1500 kms a month. And spend roughly 4k on diesel. If I choose a petrol vehicle then I spend 6.5k approx which is a difference of 2.5k a month. If I take a loan for 5 years on a petrol variant which costs 1 lac cheaper initially, then it would take 3 years of spending on fuel to actually reach the money that I spent extra on diesel, and calculating the interest at roughly 10% then it would definitely take a couple of years more to make diesel variant a financially better purchase. Now this is something many know but when I sell the petrol variant at the end of 5 years then eventhough I have broken even in terms of net spending ( principal plus fuel expenses and interests factored) I might lose a good 1 lac in terms of resale value ( diesel fetching better returns) . Should this be factored while chosing between petrol and diesel?? Then the whole concept of "if you drive more than 1k or 1.5k kms a month, then go for diesel" is hit for a home run !!!!

[D4D]

Dear fellow BHP-ians,
I found this article on the net and this really hit me hard. Please do check it out.
http://www.firstbiz.com/corporate/he...urce=firstpost

[Warwithwheels]

It is one of the poorly researched articles I have ever read. There are many fundamental flaws in the analysis. Looks like a person with zero knowledge about numbers has drawn the sheet. Here's what I found in the article:



1. The EMI cost should be broken up into repayment towards capital & interest. And only the interest component must be taken to the cost of ownership. It should rather be taken as an opportunity cost since not everyone buys an Alto on Loan.

2. The petrol price has been reckoned at Rs. 46.1/ liter for the base year. Looks like its a Ctrl C + Ctrl V job from some old article. You don't even get a liter of diesel for that price in today's market.

3. The fuel economy of the car has not been disclosed, which is a very crucial factor in determining the cost of ownership. Again not everyone sticks to the 30 km limit per day.

4. The interest and inflation rates used are absurd.

[iamendangered]

Hello all,

I read the following article today : http://consumerreports.org/cro/2012/...-own/index.htm

My quick afterthought was that I should buy a 12-15 month old car, take advantage of depreciation and low maintenance

[ssambyal1980]

Thanks for a very useful insight into what it financially takes to own a car. Apart from the points listed, there is one aspect which is enormously adding up to the financial burden of owning a vehicle and that is the registration cost, which has increased many fold during the last few years. In some states it is too high, that it may turn away a prospective buyer (at the entry level) to own a car.

The states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the classic examples of this where the cost of registering a vehicle is very high. Consider this, in Andhra Pradesh the registration cost is 12% of the vehicle if cost of vehicle is less than INR 10 Lacs and the it is 14% if the cost of vehicle is more than INR 10 Lacs. Similarly the state of Karnataka boasts of the highest vehicle registration costs in the country, wherein the cost of registering a vehicle priced less than INR 5 Lacs is 15% of the vehicle cost, for vehicle priced between INR 5 Lacs - 10 Lacs, it is 16% and for vehicles above INR 20 Lacs its 20% of the cost of vehicle.

And not to forget the strange rule, wherein the outstation registered vehicles are not allowed to ply in these two states continuously beyond three months period lest they re-register their vehicle in the states. Means that one has to shell out for registration again even if the vehicle he/she is owing is substantially old.