What are the biggest costs of running a car, and where can the most significant savings be made without undue risk or compromise? Several readers.
There can be no exact answer because the variables between vehicles, owners, and use are numerous and often extreme.
Are we talking about an old banger bought for Sh200,000, or a brand new limo costing more than Sh20 million? Is the vehicle comprehensively insured by a gilt-edged insurer or covered for third party only through a back-street broker?
Does the car do 5,000kms per year or 50,000? Is the car used mainly on tarmac streets and highways, or does it do a lot of rough-road and even off-road work? How sympathetically is it driven, and how diligently and regularly is it serviced? How popular is the make, and how suitable is the model for the work it is subjected to?
The over-riding principle is that owning and running a car costs money; how much depends on a combination of all those factors and more - e.g. how purchase of the vehicle was financed, and what might the money otherwise have been spent on or invested in (the “opportunity cost”). Even in the broad middle range, all these factors combined can easily vary the cost by tenfold (1,000 per cent).
Generally, the biggest single cost items are likely to be depreciation (the difference between purchase price and resale value), insurance (which can readily range from shs 10,000 per year to more than shs 2,000…per day!) and fuel (with consumption ranging from 5 kpl to 20 kpl depending on engine size and driving style, applied to hugely variable overall mileages).
Next come routine service, tyres and, most variable of all, spare parts. Neglecting service saves you a little on one day (only) but costs you more (every day) thereafter.
Tyre wear is most affected by how the car is driven. On safety and performance-critical parts, cheap spares are not usually a “saving” over quality OE parts in the longer term.
On expensive new cars depreciation can be 30 per cent in the first year, and 20 per cent per year after that. On an old runner, when condition becomes more import at than age, it can be nil – if the car is well maintained.
Bottom line, you have to do the sums for your car and your driving patterns to get your own overall costs (per year or per km) and interrogate the answers - how they might change if you made different choices of what you drive, where your drive and how you drive.
And therein lies the nearest thing to an answer to your question – how much owning a running a car will cost you depends, above all, on those three things. The What, Where and How of your own driving choices and patterns.
Within that, there are lots of ways to save or waste. Do what you wish, do what you need to and do what you can on that score. A lot of littles can add up.
Buy a make and model that is appropriate for your life and budget. Get any fault fixed and keep it fixed. Drive moderately, service diligently and regularly.
Know that popular brands will have a premium price (whether you are buying or selling) …probably for a good reason.
