Been investigating buying a new car. Why? Because the old one is a 13 year old Isuzu double cab KB260 with 206000 km on the clock and it has an 85 litre petrol tank that will do about 650km in town. It’s old and it’s not very fuel efficient. In fact, last month it consumed about R1300’s worth of petrol…and the clutch packed in which cost me a futher R1500 but other than that, it is great, it is paid for and it allows us to get to places most people cant…and I almost got rid of it…
Because as I read somewhere, “the philosophy of materialism is hinged on discontentment”…and so I started investigating.
I looked at a 2008 Nissan Grand Levina – a 7 seater with 1500
0km on clock for ±R130000. It seems like a bargain and it will be much more fuel efficient! I even went for a test drive!
Well thank goodness the average car salesman is so busy that they dont get back to you when they say they will…because this gave me more than a few days to think about the whole transaction.
At the moment, the bakkie costs me ±R1300 petrol each month and every once in a while there is a mechanical “issue” but at 206000 km I guess that is to be expected.
Now on to the “new” car. At R130000 it will cost me ±R2640 pm (at 8% interest) for 60 months and on top of that I would still need to pay for petrol and let’s assume that will be R650 (half of the bakkie). The total monthly cost of the new car? ±R3300 – that is R2000 more than I am currently paying each month! Why would I do that?
So the plan is to keep the bakkie and save the R2000 that I would be spending on the new car. At 8% interest per annum and an inflation linked escalation, I should have about R170000 in 5 years time and I will be able to pay for the new car with cash.
Now I just need to learn the secret of
being content…
