IN a time when handphones still had physical keypads, car ownership was seen as a necessity rather than a luxury. Public transport was woefully inadequate and to go anywhere back then required your own set of wheels. Part of the reason then why Malaysia ended up with two national car brands when we have a small population.
These days however, you don’t need me to tell you that with the proliferation of e-hailing and ride sharing services, the need for car ownership has significantly decreased. Add to that the improved public transport system, within the Klang Valley area especially, and so many urbanites are seeing less and less a reason to own their own car.
The younger generation in particular have been increasingly ready to shun the car ownership experience entirely. As a 20 something urban dweller myself, I can report that a lot of my peers currently do not even possess a driving license, much less a car. Many in this age group have come to terms that it is better to have just use Ride-Hailing instead or hitch a ride with a friend than deal with the allegedly increasingly unpleasant task of driving in the city.
To someone with petrol running through his veins though, it would be unthinkable for car ownership to not be a goal in life. That said, taking sentimentality out of the equation and looking at it purely as a practical and economical transportation alternative, let’s look into whether owning a car is still worth it for the upcoming generation? Or are we better off using a combination of Grab and SoCar to get around Klang Valley and other crowded cities in Malaysia.
Cost: Depreciation and Maintenance Vs Fares and Fees
From a purely economic standpoint, car ownership in Malaysia is perhaps the worst financial decision one can ever make. Simply because car ownership is not only expensive with our high import taxes, but it also is most certainly a guaranteed negative return on investment.
Even by disregarding the high car prices here in Malaysia for just a moment, the cost of running your very own car is still very costly. Especially to someone who is either still studying or has just gotten a job. Servicing the car, fuel, road tax, insurance and other odds and ends like tires already equate to thousands of ringgit each year, and that is even before adding up toll costs and parking fees incurred during the daily city commute.
And we haven’t even touched on the financial boogeyman in the closet when it comes to car ownership, the high depreciation. Driving off the showroom floor in a brand new car is equivalent to dumping away 20% of what you will probably still be paying for many years down the line. Adding to that the fact that unless you are a Ride-Hailing driver, for the vast majority of your time, the car you paid tens (or even hundreds) of thousands for will just sitting around in a parking lot slowly bleeding money away everyday.
Speaking of the Ride-Hailing driver, from a purely economical perspective, there is no denying that e-hailing will probably work out cheaper than actually driving in this context. Breaking down my own (pre-pandemic) daily schedule consisting of daily trips to and from university, and adding to that the occasional mall visit and the ‘lepak’ session, a rough estimate of the average weekly Grab fare works out to be about RM200.00.
While this figure might seem to be ridiculously high, it is worth considering that the equivalent weekly fuel expenditure is around RM35.00 already. Add to that parking fees of around RM40.00 a week, and that RM200.00 weekly Ride-Hailing fare doesn’t seem too ridiculous after all. Some additional food for thought here is that the annual insurance alone for a sub RM30k car already amounts to RM1,000 plus. Or to put it in another way, it is 1.5 months of Ride-Hailing fares. What more is that if I decide to take public transport, the RM200.00 plus figure will significantly decrease.
Moreover, using a Ride-hailing service is exactly like being chauffeured everywhere. There is no more needing to worry about the traffic ahead, or stressing to find a parking space. All one does is kick back and relax at the back of the Ride-Hailing vehicle with our smartphone.
Conclusion
We currently own a used compact car, and in the week we wrote this article, we encountered some engine trouble which cost us RM280.00 and the week before we had a small tyre puncture which was fixed for RM20.00. This is RM300.00 that was not really budgeted for and there goes our weekend away at the beach in December. – The Vibes, October 5, 2020
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