I have had 2 cars till now: a Volkswagen Polo 1996 and a Honda Jazz 2008. Which one is cheaper to run and operate? I have logged every expense which I had to carry out on both of them on a Google Spreadsheet.

I bought my VW Polo at Rs 72,000 in November 2015 and I sold it for Rs 40,000 in February 2019. But, as you know, cars come with lots and lots of other expenses such as registration tax, road tax, insurance, repairs and maintenance. In all, the money to acquire and run the Polo for 39 Months was Rs 142,000 (excluding fuel). I drove 39,144km during this time. If we add fuel too, the total spent was Rs 275,000.

TCO per month for VW Polo:  Rs (142,000 – Rs 40,000)/39 month = Rs 2615

TCO per km for VW Polo: Rs (142,000 – Rs 40,000)/39,144 = Rs 2.61/km

Total cost per km for VW Polo: Rs (275k – 40k) / 39,114 = Rs 6.00/km

I bought my Honda at Rs 210,000. With all other costs taken into consideration, as of today 22 months later, the total money spent was Rs 257,000.  I estimate the resale value to be Rs 190k. I drove 24,280km with it till now. With the fuel added, it is Rs 331k

TCO per month for Honda Jazz: Rs (257k – 190k)/22 month = Rs 3053

TCO per km for Honda Jazz: Rs Rs (257k – 190k)/24,280 = Rs 2.77/km

Total cost per km for Honda Jazz: Rs (331k – 190k) / 39,114 = Rs 5.82/km

Summary

Cars cost a lot to buy and maintain. The more expensive and exotic, the cost can be drastically higher than mine.

 

 

 

I’m a poor guy. I buy the cheapest car insurance i.e. Third Party cover at Rs 4,500 per year. I pay Road Tax on a yearly basis at Rs 3500. That makes a total of Rs 8000 I have to pay just for the papers to keep my car road legal.

During the government imposed lock-down due to Covid-19, all our cars, except for essential service workers’, were parked. It stayed so for 2 months. If we were to put a number on it, we paid Rs 1,333 for nothing.

Rs 8000 / 12 months * 2 months = Rs 1,333

Now if you have Premium Insurance policies, this amount will be much higher. My car’s insurance and Road Tax expired in March 2020. Today I got them renewed. No free months given 🙁

Should we fight to get this money back in some form or another or it’s not worth it?

Getting your driving license can be one of the happiest moment of life. Now you can finally drive as much as you want. But sometimes, you will not be driving or you will have passengers with you.

https://www.facebook.com/NayarJoolfoo/posts/10215694071257795

I have my driving habits and it’s not perfect. But I can say I’m a “safe” driver. The other day, my cousin’s car broke and I had to drive him. Damn he couldn’t shut up.

When I am in the passenger seat, I try not to focus on the road and let the driver do the driving. I enjoy the view outside and trust the driver. But the other day, my friend was driving me home and for a few moment of inattention, he bumped into the car  in front of us. My hand reached to the handbrakes but it was too late.

Me survived! pic.twitter.com/Q75Uci1tBc

— Nayar (@NayarJoolfoo) December 10, 2019

Now I’m wondering, should I be co-piloting every-time, get huge decision fatigues (due to the fact that their driving style doesn’t match mine) and annoy the hell out of the driver?

How do you behave when in the passenger seat? (Other: comment)

How do you behave while in the passenger seat?

Dick: Advise the driver on each maneuver she makesNot Dick: Enjoy the view and chat with driver

Submit

 

After 39 months of being at my service, I finally sold my VW Polo. It was a car which I had intended to keep for only 1 year just to learn how to drive after getting my driving license. Yep, having a driving license doesn’t mean you’ve automatically been qualified to be a semi-professional rally driver.

The Polo never left my family stranded around Mauritius. Each year we decided to keep it one more year until I said Stop! We have to get something more decent in terms of looks, comfort and safety.

As with all cars, it wasn’t 100% problem-free. It did have some issues such as the cooling system started leaking and it costed me quite some money to fix. Other minor issues occurred such as the indicator relay got damaged thus my flashers were being ON or OFF state continuously.

Oh yes, one of the front shock absorber was damaged when I was trying to park my car in the dark at Curepipe not noticing that the curb was like really high. I went full on. I looked for shock absorbers on the secondhand market. It was like Rs 2000. One garage was going to install one but when they tested it, they found it was already faulty. I then decided to put 2 new shocks in front instead which cut me back by Rs 6000 (2 pairs of shocks + its cover). The performance and comfort was great with the new shocks.

My dad was very reluctant to sell the car but I had to convince him to. Older cars lack lots of safety features such as ABS, Airbags and also comfort features such as power steering and Air Conditioning. Parallel parking was really really tough to perform with the car.

The car’s engine is still vibrant despite having 241,XXX km on it. Lots of my friends said it feels like sitting in a rally car. Old cars can be really fun. Next I’ll be posting a detailed article on the Total Cost of Ownership of the vehicle. It takes lots of money to maintain a relatively good car. Stay tuned for more.