I had read many forum threads about affordability on motoring and there are many well-meaning advice from friendly forummers. I had shared my tool Cost of Ownership at my main blog but it only addresses the financial cost. There is much demand for more information on total cost of ownership so I am going to embark on this project to add all other cost consideration into a spreadsheet for better analysis over the full 10-year lifespan that will help fellow residents here to make a more informed decision as to buying (or upgrading to) a new car.
I will need the opinion, ideas and votes from all of you. Please feel free to comment and I will update each section.
Deadline? I have not thought about it … so let’s set it to be completed before end 2007.
The other cost factors that I would like to include into a Total Cost of Ownership analysis include the followings:
This page has the following sub pages.
Nice to know you are working on an update. Looking at the other factors listed for “total” cost might make your spreadsheet too ‘informative’. I am not sure if I get the meaning of total correct. It would be better to segregate ownership cost from running cost.
For ownership cost – to some it is just the price of car; some owners have no idea what is OMV, ARF, duty apart from the infamous COE. Car loan should be factored in. Therefore, for the same car bought about the same time may not have the same ownership cost. Ownership cost is calculated once and is used for depreciation and book value. Comes in handy when disposing the vehicle.
Running cost should be separate and on its own, so that it can be monitored periodically and for expense budgeting. Since, it is running and varies period to period, there is no need to look at these in the total cost concept. Again, I am not sure what the ‘total’ is for.
Every car owner and potential one should know the components that go into ownership cost and running cost. From these they would get an idea how much their total expenses would be.
LTA has already got the onwership cost part without financing.
See,
Thanks for your comment and opinion about “total”. I am also pondering on which items to include into the analysis – I am bending towards just showing the cashflow requirement without covering the book value and depreciation. A draft should be ready soon for review and your comments are always welcome.
skxly