How much should we buy that car ?

Most personal car purchases are sentimental and relate to quality of life ... however if purchasing a car is mainly a transport and finance matters then it could be iron out this way ...

First lets start with some facts of transport life around me;

• Taxi is as good as my own car if not better ( its my own car + a driver ) but its costly
• Bus stations are near by and can go almost anywhere but it takes too much of my precious time
• Intra city trains are fast and efficient but only after you are IN the city
• Car rental gives the highest flexibility but it could be expensive if park aside too long

So I will need a hybrid solution if I don't have my own car. For me, I will use Taxi - Train - Light Rail during normal days and Bus and Car Rental during weekend and holidays.

First I take a taxi to the near by train station (KTM), once in town I use light rails ( PUTRA, STAR, MONORAIL etc.) to travel almost anywhere within the city. Typically I would need to exchange once within the light rail systems to reach my destination. Return trip same path.

$8 : Taxi to station

$1.40 : Train to Town

$1.80 x 2 : Light rails within city

One way = $13

Return or one day = $26

5 days week = $130

50 weeks a year = $6,500

By weekend, I would rent a car and run away for 2 days ...

$180 / day x 2 days = $360

4 weeks or 1 month = $1,440

12 months or 1 year = $17,280

Adding both up is $23,780 a year.

If $2,000 a month of transportation fee seems ridiculously high, you probably do not need to rent a car every weekend, perhaps every bi-weekly or even every month if at all needed. Run your own numbers for your own scenarios. This example is trying to mimic the same lifestyle with a car.

Now if I do all that with my own car, I would need to pay for

• petrol : $400 a month
• parking : $10 / day x 5 days x 4 weeks = $200 a month
• maintainence : $100 a month

That is a total of $700 a month burn. That leaves $1,300 a month for the car itself. So if I can find a car that I have to pay monthly less than $1,300, it may just be a good deal.

So if I take 3 years car loan at 3% interest I probably should buy a car less than $43,000

if I take 5 years car loan instead, I could spend up to $67,826 for a car.

Consider the resell value as a bonus or final fund consolidation just in case maintainence shoots up or you ended up not using that car that much after all.

Bus Fares

Taxi Fares