[VWAllstar]

Morgan Housel, a great writer for The Motley Fool, says saving money boils down to making good choices on the three biggest expenses in your adult life: the house you buy, the car you buy, and how much you pay for college.

In general, the answer to “How much should I spend on a car?” is “As little as you can.” But especially with Team BHP members this is not necessarily a reality.

There is no 'one size fits all' rule but generally from the threads on Team BHP and few articles on the internet suggests the car cost should not exceed 30% of your yearly income. However, once the car has been bought what are the expenses one incur on a monthly basis has no such estimate.

Generally, on a month on month the expenses we incur on our cars are:

1. Fuels Costs
2. Toll Costs
3. Insurance Premium (Calculated per month)
4. Washing and upkeep
5. Servicing (Calculated per month)
6. Accessorize (Which we love doing)
7. Modifications (Technical & Aesthetic)
8. EMI (Should be at the top isnt it?)

Let us try knowing the expenses, which may vary from car type, usage and purpose of ownership. But keeping everything for private buyers, we should be able to derive a near estimate for all.

PS: Let us not add depreciation costs as car ownership gratification is cannot be quantified.

[VWAllstar]

I own two cars Ameo DSG and Ford Figo Diesel. My approximate KMs in a month for both cars included is 2500 Kms.

1. Approximately for Ameo the fuel costs per month is Rs. 6000 and for Figo is Rs. 2000.
2. Yearly insurance for both cars is approximately Rs. 45000 which makes it monthly Rs. 3750.
3. Tolls roughly is Rs. 1500 per month
4. I do not mod my cars often but this year have added leather seats and remapped my Figo so approximately Rs. 5000 a month
5. Washing is Rs. 1200 a month for both cars included
6. Service costs of Ameo is approximately Rs. 12000 and Figo Rs. 3000 so monthly for both is Rs. 1250
7. Biggest expense is the EMI - Rs. 8500 for Ameo and Rs. 5500 for Figo which makes it Rs. 14000

Total expense on both the cars is Rs. 34700. Typing this post has itself made me realize the amount of money I am spending on the cars, leaving aside the time and efforts spent. An eye opener for sure.

The modifications wont be there next year but still the amount I spend n cars a month would be rs. 25000 to Rs 30000 which makes it at the higher side considering the type of cars I own.

I have voted Rs. 10000 to Rs. 15000 as my Father supports expense on one of the car i.e Figo. What an eye opener typing this post has been for me.

[tharian]

Interesting thread.

For my Aspire diesel, I have chosen less than 5k excluding toll and mods. My monthly average fuel bill is 3.5k for the last 2.5 years. My annual insurance is around 12k with NCB.
On my previous car as well as this, I do all my additions and mods in the first couple of years and in later years it is just the tyre replacements.

Out of the mods, the major one was the remap from two different tuners and the latest addition was the TPMS. That was my last spend as I have other commitments and don't want to be selfish.

[2000rpm]

Washing 200 rs per month
Fuel about 3000 per month
Insurance about 1000 per month
Tyre change once every 3 years off - 2000/36 = ~600 per month
Maintainence about 1000 per month (12000 per year)

Total - 5800 per month

Car type - Polo 1.6

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by 2000rpm

Washing 200 rs per month
Fuel about 3000 per month
Insurance about 1000 per month
Tyre change once every 3 years off - 2000/36 = ~600 per month
Maintainence about 1000 per month (12000 per year)

Total - 5800 per month

Please mention the car and fuel type. That is an ideal expense but just Rs. 200 per month for washing? My society guy takes thrice the amount and minimum Rs. 300 for a pressure wash at a local garage in Mumbai.

[subuiyer]

Interesting thread!

Per month:
EMI = 24000
Fuel = 5500
Insurance = 2000
Service = 1500
Cleaning = 1000

[2000rpm]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Please mention the car and fuel type. That is an ideal expense but just Rs. 200 per month for washing? My society guy takes thrice the amount and minimum Rs. 300 for a pressure wash at a local garage in Mumbai.

Car type added to original comment.

For car wash, I dont drive my car to office, and I have a covered parking. So my car is washed only Fridays.

Plus one cleaning per month on the inside.

Try to keep the water consumption down since there is practically no need to wash the car everyday.

Saves me a few hundred bucks.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

1. Fuels Costs
2. Toll Costs
3. Insurance Premium (Calculated per month)
4. Washing and upkeep
5. Servicing (Calculated per month)
6. Accessorize (Which we love doing)
7. Modifications (Technical & Aesthetic)
8. EMI (Should be at the top isnt it?)

Thanks for the thread, with multiple cars in the house, some on loan, some loan-free and some purchased used, it is very tricky to add up all of the expense on a monthly basis. That said, for me the largest expense comes in the form of fuel (thanks to the petrol cars). With an average of 1500 + 500 + 100 km, you can estimate the fuel cost. Then you have EMI, insurance and servicing taking up the cost much higher than I would like to publish on an open forum. Tolls are also a large chunk of cost (probably) more than the annual servicing cost of one of the cars.

The bigger question is, is it all needed? Answer is No. But we are petrol heads, so if we won't spend money on things we like, who will? After all one can't take his / her money to the grave to spend in heaven right?

[kavensri]

Car – Liva Diesel; Current ODO at 107750
Average Stats since I brought (Jan 2012)

Fuel Expense (Rs/KM) ₹ 3.12
Others Expense (/KM) ₹ 3.31
Fuel Efficiency (KMPL) ₹ 18.58
Daily Fuel Consumption (L) 2.02
Daily Fuel Expense ₹ 116.9
Monthly Fuel Expense ₹ 3,566
Yearly Fuel Expense ₹ 42,679
Daily Total Expense ₹ 240.03
Yearly Total Expense ₹ 87,610
Monthly Total Expense ₹ 7,321

[ashis89]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

Let us try knowing the expenses, which may vary from car type, usage and purpose of ownership. But keeping everything for private buyers, we should be able to derive a near estimate for all.

1. Fuels Costs: 7500 p.m. based on my average running of 1500 kms.
2. Toll Costs: 200 - 2000 p.m. depending on long trips I do
3. Insurance Premium (Calculated per month): 375 p.m. for my old car. But I added a new car last month which will increase the insurance cost by 10 times.
4. Washing and upkeep: 500 p.m. (including one pressure wash every quarter)
5. Servicing (Calculated per month): 400 p.m. for the old car
6. Accessorize (Which we love doing): Varies from time to time
7. Modifications (Technical & Aesthetic): Varies from time to time
8. EMI (Should be at the top isnt it?): None as I bought both the cars without a loan. But shouldn't I take into account the opportunity cost for the money spent?

Car: WagonR 1.0 @86000 kms

[VWAllstar]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Thanks for the thread, with multiple cars in the house, some on loan, some loan-free and some purchased used, it is very tricky to add up all of the expense on a monthly basis. That said, for me the largest expense comes in the form of fuel (thanks to the petrol cars). With an average of 1500 + 500 + 100 km, you can estimate the fuel cost. Then you have EMI, insurance and servicing taking up the cost much higher than I would like to publish on an open forum. Tolls are also a large chunk of cost (probably) more than the annual servicing cost of one of the cars.

The bigger question is, is it all needed? Answer is No. But we are petrol heads, so if we won't spend money on things we like, who will? After all one can't take his / her money to the grave to spend in heaven right?

True that Kanad. But sometimes we get so carried away that it goes beyond being wise. Especially with Team BHP at our disposable there seem to be infinite expenses one can make on his/her car

Many do not keep track of their expenditure and tend to only enjoy their cars without much calculations. And probably that is the way it should be for a car enthusiast

[GTO]

A very interesting thread indeed . Thanks for sharing!

Have no EMIs and I keep my cars for long, so EMI-free for another 4 years at least. In terms of expenses:

750 = Car wash guy (cum watchman) for my cars
750 = Car wash guy (for all the test-drive cars)
Fuel = 5000 (own cars)
Fuel = 10000 (test drive cars, even though most come with a full tank)
Parking = ZERO . And I still have spare parking for 3 more cars
Toll = 4000 (my cars + test-drive cars)
Insurance = 5000 / month for the 530d & 800 / month for the Jeep
Maintenance = 4000 / month (averaged) for the 530d & 1000 / month for the Jeep

So about 30,000 each month on my + TD cars.

[sdp1975]

Average monthly expenses on my 2009 Punto MJD , odo is at 1.5 lacs :

Fuel - 4k
Maintenance - tyres/battery/service - 2k on an average
Toll - 500
Insurance - 600

I wash her myself once a week.

Total - about 7k per month

[tharian]

Originally Posted by tharian

Interesting thread.

For my Aspire diesel, I have chosen less than 5k excluding toll and mods. My monthly average fuel bill is 3.5k for the last 2.5 years. My annual insurance is around 12k with NCB.
On my previous car as well as this, I do all my additions and mods in the first couple of years and in later years it is just the tyre replacements.

Out of the mods, the major one was the remap from two different tuners and the latest addition was the TPMS. That was my last spend as I have other commitments and don't want to be selfish.

Forgot to add a couple of expenses which will actually take me to the fourth bracket!, after including the mods and tolls as well.
I have another 2.5 years of EMI left. My annual service comes to around 3-4k.
Tolls would be around 1k per year. Washing is free, since I wash it once a month myself.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by VWAllstar

PS: Let us not add depreciation costs as car ownership gratification is cannot be quantified.

1) Take 15% depreciation per year. That's roughly losing 1.25% of on-road price per month to depreciation. Use excel sheet for calculation with current value of car in one column, going down in value every month.

2) The entire EMI is not an expense. Only the interest component is.