Saturday, March 24, 2012
The real cost of owning a car
Recently, I have been having quite a few people asking me why I don't own a car. The simple reason is I can't afford it but then a comparison comes up on why my colleagues can afford it and I can't. I guess I spend too much feeding myself.
Anyways, this is just a quick calculation on how much a car would potentially cost me. We shall assume a new CAT A car on a 10 year loan.
For the new CAT A car, I have chosen the Hyundai Elantra. It's a little pricey at 105999 currently but it makes more sense to account for something mor expensive than something cheaper.
Monthly installment: $1018
Amount paid for 1 year: 12216
Total amount paid at the end of 10 years: $122160
Road Tax: $738 a year.
Insurance: $3000 (best guess estimate since I can't really go get a quote)
Maintenance: $5000 (I'm really flying blind on this one.)
Parking: $90 (Season) + $100 (elsewhere)
Petrol (Pegged at $2 / litre, consumption at 14 km / l) : $200 / month.
Annual Total: 12216 + 738 + 3000 + 5000 + (190 * 12) + (200 * 12) = 25634
Monthly outlay: $2136.16
o.O
Ok.. so maybe I overkilled on the maintenance costs... so let's cut that out since a new car is unlikely to have much maintenance out of pocket....
Annual Total: 12216 + 738 + 3000 + (190 * 12) + (200 * 12) = 20634
Monthly outlay: $1719.50
And I hadn't even added in things like ERP, lunch bills (come on!! Got car confirm lunch costs increase one!). Even if I had chosen a cheaper car like a Kia Cerato, it would have chopped off at most 200 from the monthly bill and I'll still be looking at about $1.5k a month. O.o.
So you guys who bought a car when an Avante could be had for under 40k.... lucky buggers!!
