July 3rd, 2008
preface: why am i typing so much, because i am so happy, why ? because gina bought me a 991ES ?! (Nope its not a car, its a calculator that I’ve been drooling over but ran out of stock around the island). So all these calculations are dedicated to her.
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i’m sure that recently, many of my peers have been serverly affected by the fuel hike. in such times it seems that the cost to buy a car is only half the cost of ownership (the other half being fuel cost).
after refilling the car this morning before i head out to school, i’ve decided to do some maths to put a number of the uncontrollable spiraling cost of fuel.
shell 95, $2.236/liter
my last calculation have revealed that my car has a fuel consumption rate of 12.011 km / litres.
which means, my car can travel 708km before coming to a halt. and will cost $131.924 to make it do it again. travelling to school (14.1km) will use 1.174 litres of petrol costing $2.624. consider if i school 20 days a week and back. i will consume 46.96 litres of petrol, costing $105.002. amazingly around the same price if i take mrt + bus concession.
as i last recalled, i refuel every 2 weeks, which means i have a consumption rate of 4.214 liters a day. which translate to approximate average 50.61km/ day. In perspective to the 28.2km required to go school. i spent an excess of 22.41km driving to nowhere, means 44.3% of unproductive driving a day.
however, in the last 4 days, i have consumed a tank of petrol. which translate to 14.75 liters a day, a staggering 177.162 km a day ! If i continue at this rate, I would travel around the earth (equatorial) in 226.2 days which is 2.15 ntu semesters, and would probably have spent $7460.3 to do that.
but oh well, its part and parcel of life behind the wheel.
but as recently, most of my friends have consulted me on the the economic requirements to possess 6 wheels. (4 wheels, 1 spare type and 1 steering wheel), i told them if they just buy the circular ornaments, they only have to spend 2-3k. (okay i was being lame).
firstly, this is a rough guide, because i’m not really that keen on buying cars anymore, since my babyEX is sitting outside the gate now.
say you buy a simple reliable car, toyota vios @ $53388 (Toyota Singapore’s website price). say you are a poor fresh graduate, so you probably have to do something as stupid as taking a 10 year loan, at maybe 3% ? That translate to a final price of $69404.4. this translate to $578.37/mth. road tax as far as i know is about $500/6mths which is $83.33/mth. insurance maybe $1500 a year, depending on how dangerous the world perceives you. this also means $125/mth. So just to have the piece of cheap Japanese car infront of you, it would cost $786.7.
say with the vios, you can real good fuel economy, like 13km/liter (i’m barely having 12, and if i decide to drive at the speed people expect my car to, it would be 10). If you travel from town to ntu 20 times a month at 24.9km per trip (a reasonable assumption, if u live further then that, good luck to you). Which means you cover 996km/mth (reasonable again) you would spend up to $171.312. Using myself as a gauge, you would waste 40% mileage for useless driving, you would end up spending about $285.52/mth on petrol consumption. life becomes abit worse if you live in a hdb, or park in ntu paid carpark. it would cost you another $160 (90 for ntu, 70 for season parking at your residence). maintenance of the car would be about $200/6 mths which translate to $33.33. hence to put your car to good use, you would spend $478.85/mth
and you don’t need to be too smart to put the 2 figures together and come to a realization that you are perhaps going to spend $1265.55/mth on your little humble car. this figure probably leaves most fresh graduate freshly out of breath. (note, this does not include zheng-ing your car at all)
so say, (i’m not finger pointing), you are a upper honors computer engineering graduate, which has a respectable starting pay of $2700. take away the cpf contribution, you are left with about $2160. If you are wise enough to save 30% of your pay and invest them accordingly (buying a house for you and your loved ones). you would be left with $1512. depending on whether you are a filial child, u may want to give your parents a very modest sum of $300 for household expenses. this means you are left with $1212. Assuming you eat chicken rice at $3.00 at every meal. 3 meals a day, 28 days a month, would mean a disgusting $252 worth of chicken in you every month. So you are left with $1260. If you borrow $5.55 from your colleague every month, you can probably buy your car. although do note that you won’t have a hand phone to call back when your car breaks down, or have any electricity to read my post. the worse, if that the only possible source of air-con would be in your humble vios.
so what does that spell for a fresh graduate ?
oh wait, i totally forgot about the downpayment. that you figure out yourself okay?
reason being because i’m suddenly wondering with what kind of paycheck would i spent my money on a gtr. (For those who have no idea whats a gtr, knock your head on the wall, and google it “gtr 2008″)
as usual there are 2 days. 1st, the throw a suitcase of cash at the sales agent and drive the car away, which is how we got babyEX, alternatively and just for discussion sake, we take the other extreme which is the 10 year loan.
the gtr was last quoted at $273000. With a ten year loan, you would easily have to pay up to $354900. This means a hefty $2957.5/mth Insurance would be through the roof for this super car, probably around $3000 per anum, which translate to $250. The road tax for this 4.6 litre twin turbocharged ride would be about $2000/6mth, which translate to $333.33. no point buying a gtr and move like a vios, so with my current distance travel and a probably fuel consumption rate of 5km/liter (Considering the number of times, you’re going to 0-100km/h in ~ 3s with their special launch control). if i do what i do now, i travel about 1500km/mth. This translate to 300 liters. and you wouldn’t put shell 95 into a gtr. you put v power ($2.429/liter), which means $728.7/mth. So the summation results in $4269.53/mth.
So how much would i have to earn to afford wasting $4269.53/mth. I always think we should only spend 10-15% of your money on such a liability. This means i should receive a monthly paycheck of at least $28463.533/mth. Moral of the story, don’t be a salaryman, you can only drool at the gtr as you smell the exhaust waste.
so okay, abit occupied now, shall continue next time.
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