Running Costs of your Vehicle

[Chris Stoffel]

I drive a 1993 Suzuki Samurai. But the Voice(my wife's voice!) tells me that it is getting expensive to keep it on the road. Since I've had it I have spent R18 700.00 on it. That is about R4400.00 per year for 4 years. That includes a R7500.00 rust job. It needs another R7500.00 rust job. I have not included tyres. A vehicle gotta have tyres.
So when does it become too expensive to run a vehicle? Where is the cutoff point between keeping an old vehicle running and buying a new vehicle?
The new Jimny appeals to me but I find parting with money for a new car very traumatic.

[Chris Stoffel]

Another thing. The Samurai is used extensively for work. About 700km per month. I don't want to buy a new car and ride it up for work.

[KurtG]

What are the monthly repayments on a new Jimny? Probably about R6k per month over 5 years.... R4400 per year seems like a bargain to me

[Mad Manny]

Can't you replace the wife?

[Chris Stoffel]

Can't you replace the wife?

No. She handles the money.
Besides that, I love her very very much.

[Chris Stoffel]

What are the monthly repayments on a new Jimny? Probably about R6k per month over 5 years.... R4400 per year seems like a bargain to me

The thing is that new cars also have service costs but it is less than R4k per year. Maybe R2k? I will buy a new car/Jimny soon after I have retired anyways. But not now. I don't want to ride it up for work.

[Prof]

Fuel consumption of that 1.3l is not great either?

[Chris Stoffel]

I get 11.5Km/liter. I think that is good. Buying a new R300 000.00 to save a bit of fuel is not clever.
But I want to know about running costs! Where is the costs too high?

[Mad Manny]

Where is the costs too high?

In your wife's head....

[Reenen]

Is dit nie gelisensieerd of verseker nie?

[Chris Stoffel]

Is dit nie gelisensieerd of verseker nie?

Die kar het 'n liksens, ja. Maar is nie verseker nie.

[ThysleRoux]

You get to a stage where repairs outweigh the value of the vehicle. RooiTjiep reached that stage and after doing the math I took the painful decision (everybody that knows me knows that after 10 years we are attached at the hip) to put the old boy out to pasture.

I ended up buying another WJ for not much more than all the required repairs to RooiTjiep would amount too and will be keeping the old boy as a parts donor. There are many good parts on RooiTjiep that have been replaced in recent times which can be transferred to Thor as and when needed. Some, like the window winder mechanism which popped a cable last week, has already been replaced.

To get back to your original question - if you have the space, get another cheap Samurai as a parts donor, or get a good one and keep the current one as spares.

[Hedgehog]

I bought a brand new Land Cruiser V8 d4d Last year February.

R690k..

This wonderfull machine has to be serviced every 10k km - For me that means every second month.

The first service cost me R2.2k and I thought that was not too bad..
The second, cost me R10k
The third cost me R6.9k
And the fourth, cost me R13.6k...

I sold the car a week later

[Ricof4e]

Chris, I think you are not considering a crucial fact.

If you buy new, and use the vehicle for work, you can claim for the depreciation of your vehicle by 1/3 a year if I am not mistaken.

If you factor that in, the running cost of a new jimny sounds a bit better...

[Ricof4e]

Bliksem.

Het jy nie 'n diensplan uitgeneem nie?

I bought a brand new Land Cruiser V8 d4d Last year February.

R690k..

This wonderfull machine has to be serviced every 10k km - For me that means every second month.

The first service cost me R2.2k and I thought that was not too bad..
The second, cost me R10k
The third cost me R6.9k
And the fourth, cost me R13.6k...

I sold the car a week later