Cheap Fuel – There’s No Such Thing, But Here’s The Solution!

Cheap Fuel – No Such Thing, But There Is a Solution.

With the world being a bit uncertain, we have found there has been a huge shift in Sydneysiders thinking when it comes to transport.  Regularly, two car families are moving into a one car, one scooter alternative.  

There are a lot of reasons for making this switch, including the obvious huge reduction in expense, but we have noticed customers often mentioning the ease of parking and storage of a scooter is a big factor, along with the efficiency of a scooter as we get to ride in the bus lanes and are provided with a lot of free parking.  The fact that it’s also a bit of fun comes for free also.

An excellent case study is David who lives in Church Point on the Northern Beaches.  David mentioned that his wife (and two young children) used their bigger car and he drove a smaller second car.  As his mortgage interest rates started to rise, David and his wife sat around the kitchen table and discussed their outgoings.  Their bigger expenses, apart from the mortgage, were medical insurance (that they decided to keep) and their car/transport expenses.  They couldn’t do much about the mortgage, but they could review their transport expenses and look for a solution there.

David realised that 5 days a week, he drove his car to the B Line bus and parked it in the parking area for the day while he commuted to the city.  On the weekends they mainly travelled together as a family in his wife’s car.  This had him thinking the second car expenses was a good place to start making savings.

Now Sydney has a lot of scooter riders , so David had always wondered if the one car, one scooter setup would work for his family, so they did the math.  

The second car cost them an average $3940 a year for rego and insurance, maintenance and servicing and roughly $2000 a year to have the cost of its $25,000 value out of the bank.  Fuel wasn’t too bad as it only travelled 4000kms a year, so fuel costs were about $785.  Depreciation was in another column at 10% annually on a second hand car so another $2500 expense.

This made the costs of the second car $9225 annually in real terms.

David came into Scooter Central (armed with his spreadsheet) ready to do a comparison.  We asked him how far and fast he needed to go and as it was domestic traffic speeds and distances, we all arrived at a Kymco Like 125 being a good choice of a brand new scooter at under $4000.  Its registration, insurance, maintenance and servicing costs are about $1250 annually, the costs to have the $4000 out of the bank $320 a year, and fuel for 4000kms is $210.  Depreciation was adjusted on the scooter at 15% in the first year ($600) and 10% beyond that time.

One thing that blew David away was the cost of the B Line Bus came to almost $1600 per year.  

This made the costs to have an own a new scooter around $2380 per year while his second hand car costs him $9225. making the scooter option $6845 a year cheaper to have and hold.

I have to thank David for the use of his figures.  Here is the overview of his costings.

David soon realised that he could ride the scooter to work occasionally  ,and it would be far less an expense than the bus.  Scooters are allowed to ride in the Bus Lanes in NSW which greatly speeds up commuting times.  David also purchased an E Rider pass making the Bridge and Tunnel Tolls capped a $90 a quarter ($1 a day). Riding to work was a saving he hadn’t calculated, but was a bonus (plus a lot quicker to commute on a scooter as you won’t be standing waiting at a bus stop each morning).   

I rang David 3 months after he had sold the car and taken to riding the scooter.  As it turns out David used the scooter far more often than he had thought.  He often would use the scooter to duck into Mona Vale for some light shopping and meeting friends for coffee.  He even found himself riding to work on occasion and said he looked forward to his daily bit of fun on his scooter.

While cutting $6845 of expenses out of the family budget was a big deal, it also removed a lot of financial stress, and it was interesting to hear David say he should have done it years ago, partly for the money side of things but mainly as it added fun to his life each day.

I have to thank David for allowing me to publish his figures.  Its worthwhile noting that these figures were compiled before the current fuel costs spiralling upward, so the savings are obviously far great at the moment.

If you are feeling the impact for increasing fuel prices, or mortgage rates, or simply the effect of the cost of living crisis, I can highly recommend spending 30 minutes working out your transport costs in a similar way.  You too may find that the one car one scooter option works for your household.

The fact that it is also a lot of fun, as I said, comes for free!

Murray

Check out the heavily discounted E Rider system HERE

Check out the Kymco Like 125 that David chose HERE

Check New Scooters HERE

Check out my Piaggio Medley 150 HERE (I spoiled myself with this scooter)