Perodua Alza After One Year

On a morning trapped with my iPad. Been meaning to write this for a long time but just didn't want to sit down and go through the data. But then this being trapped situation came about. Have so much time to kill..... so I am multi tasking.

I bought my Perodua Alza last year in June last year. And this is the breakdown of the cost after one year of using it.

Got the car for RM62140 with insurance (windshield insurance included). The car is mainly for me to go to work and perhaps just send my gal for piano plus also a little gallivanting around. As of June this year, the odometer reading stands at 11507 km with a total of RM1694.44 worth of fuel burnt. That works out to about 12.52 km/L on the average. The best mileage that I got out of the car was 15.03 km/L. The worst was 9.73 km/L. The best was achieved on normal driving but I did things like turning off the air con before I arrived at my destination. The worst was achieved at the time when my car went through some problems with its computer board. So when I took it to the service centre, the car had to be left on with it's engine on idling for a long time.

When I got the car, one of the first things I did was to put in some accessories like floor mats, front seat covers (one of those slip ons to prevent sweat from soaking into the seat after my games), a steering lock, a new car horn to replace the little peep that comes with the car and of course a tint. In this hotter weather these days, a tint is a necessity. All in all the cost of the accessories came up to RM945.40.

I sent the car for service and the total service cost for 3 times during the year came up to RM600.40. The 3rd service was slightly more expensive (RM349.65) cos I got sold on the idea of using iridium spark plugs instead of the normal ones. The said spark plugs are supposed to last 100 000 km. I am a little skeptical but I won't know unless I try. So I threw caution to the wind and spent the extra... I've forgotten the exact amount but it should be in the vicinity of RM180.

I made quite a bit of savings when I switch over to the car cos my earlier car was a 2.0. So fuel consumption was generally higher. Also as with imported cars, service is more expensive. So, I am generally happy with the savings that I've been able to make with this car. Of course, if I were to use a Viva, my savings would be even more. But then again, the comfort level would go quite a lot down too.

As for car performance. I missed having more power at my disposal in the earlier days, especially when overtaking. My Alza seems to have this habit of lurching forward just as I engaged the gears. I asked the service people to look into it each time I took it for service. They couldn't do anything. Then they asked me to send the car back to have it looked. I forgot and haven't found the time. It still lurches forward a bit and my foot will have to be on the brake pedal. In the West, I guess this will be reason enough to sue if anything happens... but this is Malaysia where we pay more for less, get less for more. There is also this irritating metallic scraping sound each time my odometer hits certain figures. They say it's a problem with the air-con compressor... their engineers have not figured it it out.

Recording every expense on the car was possible because I used this app, Vehical on my iPod. I managed to record every single expense on the car for the whole year.... some might say I have an obsessive trait. LOL! But it was nice to be able to work out for myself how much a car would cost me a year, to keep. And it's not cheap. Think how much money is spent on the road year after year. This is consumerism built on desire and needs.

But if I were to look at it from the environmental point of view, my carbon footprint is still not much lesser. I still drive myself to work. The car is empty. That's still a waste. But that is something that I can't help cos the public transportation system is really bad. In fact, in the last decade, the system up north here has deteriorated quite a bit. I read yesterday that the ice shelf in North Pole is expected to disappear in the next few years. This summer alone, it's melting at a most alarming rate. And it's probably going to affect the weather in ways we probably can't imagine. My driving habit contributes to this too......