Re: Average annual maintenance cost Nice to see spread sheets of maintenance costs maintained, and I wish I had done the same. Being a heavy user this would have provided good academic calculations.
Still I am mentioning a general cost over entire usage period.
1. VW Polo 2012 mileage 29000. First service Rs 7700 second due next week. User myself.
2. Wagon R 2003 mileage 108000. Alternate service (5000/km) used to cost between Rs 800 to Rs 3000 initially which increased gradually to between Rs Rs 1200 to Rs 5500 now. Tyres changed twice, front brake pads changed twice, and rear brake liners changed once, suspension overhauled once. User my Dad.
3. Indica 2005 mileage when sold 325000 km. Serviced every 10000 km, bills were initially below Rs 5000 for every service. Bill of Rs 16000 for 80K service when struts were replaced, and tyres changed (Another approx Rs 9000). Bills continued to remain under Rs 5000 till first 1.5 Lakh km when timing belt was changed. At 1.6 lakh again suspension was rebuilt and all 4 tyres changed. The 1.7 Lakh service was also reasonable, but at 1.8 lakh the fuel pump had to be overhauled, By now service bills were close to Rs 10000 / service till about 2.4 lakh km service when a massive Rs 40000 was spent for lot of work including suspension Tyres, Ac compressor, condenser coil whose fins had worn away due to ram air impact.
After this the bills stayed just under Rs 10000 till 2.8 Lakh km when gear box had to be partially rebuilt as 5th gear was skipping. ie when foot was taken of accelerator the gear would jump to neutral from 5th. The 5th gear wheel was totally worn. At that time we removed the cylinder head and replaced the gasket got the valves re-ground too.
All done the car had many small nicks and scratches all over but no major dents, when my driver called me that some one (in Navapur Nandurbar Dist) is interested in buying the car second hand for Rs 90000. This was also the time when we were thinking of consolidating our business from operating in a large area from North Karnataka to Indore and Gujarat to Nagpur to just Pune and around. So we did a bye bye to the car that served us the most. Infact I told my driver to collect the token advance and transfer papers with transfuree signatures and sent them to the RTO for an NOC even before all the money was collected. Users. All office staff, guests, contract workers on sites,etc, etc.
4. Innova 2008. Sold at 1.6 Lakh km in 2012. Serviced every 10000 km at DSK Toyota Pune. Most bills were between Rs 5000 and Rs 8000. The only car where I found till date that wheel alignment was only checked found accurate and no changes done till the car reached 70000 km. Front brake pads changed at 60K and 1.1 lakh km. Tyres changed at 80,000 km, rear brake lining changed at 1 Lakh km with about 25% tread wear due to heavy travelling needed in rains.
This car faced two accidents,
1 When a tractor took a U turn in front of us when we were at highway speed on NH-4 just ahead of Satara. Repair cost 1,3 Lakh of which 1.14 was payed by the Insurance co.
2 When a Volvo trailer braked suddenly in Vashi, an we crashed into it and were again crashed into by a Truck behind us. The Volvo had knocked down a man who had tried to cross running across traffic, he was conscious and below the bumper but 2-3 feet ahead of the front wheels when the truck stopped. A constable nearby who was at the scene sent him to a hospital nearby in a black and yellow cab. No one got his name or any thing, as his relatives shifted him to another hospital without informing.
User mostly me. My dad used to exchange his Wagon R with me for his outstation runs.
Rahul |