Quote:
Originally Posted by hellmet I stay 21km away from work which is 42km round trip commute daily, in the most dense urban traffic (Hyderabad, Tarnaka->Madhapur). A few months ago, I went ahead and bought a new BEAT, petrol prices hovering around 57 (?). In the winter, I was juggling between bike and car to keep a check on expenses.
But now, summer is full on (AC always on), and petrol at 65.18/- it's going to become extremely expensive to feed my car. At an average of 12kmpl which is optimistic for the kind of traffic I drive in, I will be spending this summer, close to 5000 per month just for commute. The fact is, I've this car on EMI for the next few years at about 7100 pm. All this is adding close to 12K per month, which is unbearable.
I can ride my bike and survive my commute with about Rs1100 per month, but it is highly inconvenient in the summer heat and seems to be getting increasingly dangerous riding one in this city
Maybe I shouldn't have hurried to get the car, maybe I should sell it away (for a huge huge loss due to depreciation). Maybe I should buy a better/safer bike (with disc brakes). Maybe I should have bought a diesel.
What would you do in my situation? I'm starting to consider selling the car away and buying a decent bike. What use is paying EMIs for a car you can't afford to drive? |
I have a feeling you have over extended your financial capabilities irrespective of petrol price.
ok doing the math on the beat, your daily running to office is 42 kms
so per month you will be doing 42x 22 days (excluding sat/sun) =924 kms
petrol used for office commute is 924/ 11 kmpl (with A/c) = 84 ltrs
Fuel cost per month to work when petrol is at Rs 57 = Rs 4788
Fuel cost per month to work when petrol is at Rs 65 = Rs 5460
Difference = Rs 672/ month
So my point is with a small difference due to the fuel price hike i dont think the higher cost of fuel is the reason for you struggling.
Ok lets say for a second you had bought a more fuel efficient car, lets say an alto k10, whose average with a/c is probably 15kmpl in traffic (being very generous here)
your fuel expense would have been as follows:
924 kms per month for office commute divide by 15 = 61.6 lts
total fuel bill for Alto k10 61.6 x Rs65/ltr =4004
Diff between fuel price of beat and alto k10 @ Rs 65/ltr = Rs 1,400
So with the Beat your cost of ownership with petrol price at Rs 65 is Rs 12,000 pm.
and so if the petrol price was still at 57 the cost of ownership would still be a high Rs 11,000 p.m (7,000 emi + Rs 4800 petrol).
Even if you had bought an alto k 10 your running cost would be about Rs 8,500 p.m (4500 emi + 4000 petrol).
So what i am trying to say here is that i think maybe you were not in a position to buy a car costing over 4.5 lakhs. If you had bought a smaller car, you would have saved Rs 1,400 pm in fuel bill but more importantly you would have saved a massive 2,500 pm on emi and i think it is the emi that is causing you problems.
so what to do? well if i were u i would use my bike as often as i can to save money and use that saved money to pay off the auto loan ASAP! Only use your car on weekends for recreation. If you manage to pay off your loan early then that is an automatic saving of 7,000 pm, and your running cost will be reduced to 5,500 p.m (excluding servicing, taxes, insurance), which i think is more than acceptable for u.
selling the beat or selling it to get a smaller car is not a financially sound option as you will lose lakhs in the transition and its just not worth it. So hang in there for a few years, try to pay off your 3 year car loan in 2 yrs and then enjoy your beat after that. You are already a few months into your emi's so not long to go
.