SUV purchase-some calculations - eNidhi India Travel Blog

SUV purchase-some calculations

Of late, everyone is buying SUVs left and right. I myself was tempted to buy a big car but I've been resisting buying a vehicle, since my usage is minimal and I am unable to justify the overall cost of ownership. I've made some calculations below, let me know if you agree.

Assume you buy a 15 lakhs SUV (Like Mahindra XUV500, Tata Aria etc)
Assume a down payment of 3 lakhs and a 5 year loan for remaining 12 lakhs.
For 5 years, below will be the operating expenses:
  • Annual insurance premium: 60k per year * 5 years= 3 lakhs
  • Interest paid on loan amount:    about 4 lakhs
  • Approx spend on service and maintenance: 1.5 lakhs
  • You might also end up spending a lakh or two for parking lot at your apartment, however, let us ignore this expense.
  • Total Spend: (Excludes fuel expenses): 15 + 3 + 4 + 1.5= 23.5 lakhs
Approx resale value at the end of 5 years: 50% of original price, 7.5 lakhs
Net loss or expense in owning the car:  23.5-7.5: 16 lakhs
No of weekends in 5 years: 52*5 = 260 weekends, 520 days 
  • At an average rental amount of 4000 Rs per day, rental expense for 520 days:  20.8 lakhs
  • Usually no one will travel every weekend. Assuming travel every alternate weekend, rental expense will be 10.4 lakhs
  • If travelling only once a month:  5.2 lakhs 
Advantages:
  • No upfront expenditure
  • Option to rent different SUVs in different cities as per need (Example: While visiting Mysore/Coorg/Wayanad from Chennai, taking train to Blr and renting from Blr, instead of driving all the way from Chennai to Blr, will save about 3k in diesel and toll each trip)
  • No maintenance worries, no worries about resale value
Let us see another calculation:
Assume you buy a 10 lakhs SUV (Like Mahindra Xylo, Safari/Duster base variant etc) 
Assume a down payment of 2 lakhs and a 5 year loan for remaining 8 lakhs.
For 5 years, below will be the operating expenses:
  • Annual insurance premium: 40k per year * 5 years= 2 lakhs
  • Interest paid on loan amount:    about 2.5 lakhs
  • Approx spend on service and maintenance: 1 lakhs
  • You might also end up spending a lakh or two for parking lot at your apartment, however, let us ignore this expense.
  • Total Spend: (Excludes fuel expenses): 10 + 2 + 2.5 + 1= 15.5 lakhs
Approx resale value at the end of 5 years: 50% of original price, 5 lakhs
Net loss or expense in owning the car:  15.5 - 5: = 10.5 lakhs

Of course these calculations are based on lots of assumptions. If you are not taking any loan, if you never plan to sell the vehicle or if you’re using the SUV effectively every day etc then it might work out positive.  Numbers also vary depending on insurance rate, resale value you might get etc. Also these calculations are based on current rates. Rentals, insurance premium, maintenance expense etc might go up with time.
Instead of spending 15 lakhs on a SUV, one may buy a 6 lakh small car and rent SUV only when really needed.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for this post, guess came at a very right time :) ... Yesterday, went to check the Safari only but is is a bit off my budget. Had a max. budget of 8 Lacks, and even the dicor is costing well 2.7 above it forget about the newer version. Hence, was in big dilemma. My heart says, can go for city, once a dream car but since I travel a lot so was thinking of an SUV. Your calculations would certainly help with little such calculations I did and plus will help me with daily fuel expenses too :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for this post, guess came at a very right time :) ... Yesterday, went to check the Safari only but is is a bit off my budget. Had a max. budget of 8 Lacks, and even the dicor is costing well 2.7 above it forget about the newer version. Hence, was in big dilemma. My heart says, can go for city, once a dream car but since I travel a lot so was thinking of an SUV. Your calculations would certainly help with little such calculations I did and plus will help me with daily fuel expenses too :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post... Loved it, Just one minor change "Net loss or expense in owning the car: 15.5 - 5: = 5.5 lakhs" should'nt it be 10.5. Not trying to pinpoint the typo just caught my eye.. Great post thanks for sharing... Would be nice if you could share something like this for appartment and savings also...
    Ajeeth boaz

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ajeeth: thanks, have corrected it

    Dheeraj: Thanks for sharing your experience

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ur welcome, how bout the post i requested, even if i miss it plz share ur post with me @ ajeethboaz@gmail.com...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Ajeeth,

    haven't really thought about it. My experience is a bit limited there. Will see what I can do. Thanks

    ReplyDelete

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