Sunday, May 26, 2013

My next four wheels will be...

I know the speculation is rife but the dust has settled now. Need not to speculate anymore. Now i'm gonna reveal the next car of mine. Ladies and gentlemen; i present you "Volkswagen Scirocco".

Sadly, that's not the case. How i wish i could say the line above to you.

I believe you have read my blog on 1st January that changing my car will be one of my resolutions for this year. Well,  it's already middle of the year and i believe it's about the time to scout and research on my next car - i'm gay and i cannot believe i'm blogging about straight men's toys - cars.

Please don't be a diva like me - it's pretty headache to choose the car that i really like. Yes, you may have your own dream car but preference is not the key factor in choosing your car, unless you are loaded. Other considerations - price tag, performance, size and etc (end of thinking critically).

I promised myself that my next car will not be a local car (don't get me wrong, i love my country). Look, i have been driving local cars for more than ten years now and it's about time to change to a whole new level of driving experience.

I know right, Toyota Vios is the best choice - value for money, good performance and it's non local. Well, i used to be a humble pie to consider Vios but after much researching, there are many options out there instead of Vios.

Okay, what are the considerations for me in choosing a car?

Well, i'm not a rich kid, so yeah..let's say below RM 80k? Yup, the price tag is always the key consideration in choosing my next car. I don't want to end up to eat bread for rest of the month just to pay my installment.

Performance wise, erm, i'm not the car person so i can't judge much.

However, lately i'm kinda fascinated by the hybrid technology. Aside from environmentally friendly, hybrid cars could save helluva petrol consumption. On average, my petrol consumption is around RM 400 per month but to my surprise, petrol consumption for hybrid car is only RM 100 - RM 150 per month!

Sounds so good right but the price tag doesn't look so good. Prius C after discount is around RM 91 k. Will you buy a rather small car at RM 91 k? Well, with the price tag i could buy Honda City (i'm not a big fan of Honda but its white Honda City can just kill me - so stylish!). But if you look at bigger picture, the amount you need to pay doesn't bring much difference. Let's do the math for car usage over five years:

Toyota Vios (basic spec): RM 72,000
Yearly fuel consumption (RM 400 per month X12 X5): RM 24,000

So the total amount to pay: RM 96,000 (minus the maintenance)


Toyota Prius C : RM 97,000
Yearly fuel consumption (RM 100 per month X12 X5): RM 6,000

So the total amount to pay: RM 103,000 (minus the maintenance)

So will you pay extra RM 7 k just to save the environment?

Earlier today, i had a test drive on Prius C with my mom. Maybe the car i'm driving right now is really old car, so whatever new car i drive, of course it will be good. But the setback is, aside the price tag, the space behind is rather small. And rumour has it that once hybrid car reaches five years of usage, you need to change the motherboard or battery and it's not cheap.

Though Prius C has captured my attention but my options are still open. Below are some of the cars that i might consider. But it won't be anytime soon, perhaps end of Q3 or Q4 or it won't happen this year at all. I have strong feeling that i will still drive the old saga and being a taxi driver for 2013.

Toyota Vios


Ford Fiesta - this might be the one, the car defines chic
Kia Rio
Flinstone's car - no petrol needed, only kinetic energy from my feet

3 comments: