Last week I sold my car. It was a beautiful machine. I bought this Hyundai i10 in 2013. It became the default safe ride for work commutes, local errands and weekend joyrides. Occasionally we travelled intercity in it. Then my son grew old enough, and he learnt to drive in it. He added college commutes and meetings with friends, to the list of activities.
Now 12 years after the purchase, it was time to ring out the old. Selling your used car has also changed over the years. So a call to Spinny and another to Cars24 helped evaluate my options. I got a better offer from Cars24, so I sold it to them.

I felt a little sad to see it go. But I thought I can take my case and put some numbers to my car purchase, usage and sale decisions. And see if something useful comes out of it.
Should one really evaluate a car purchase in numbers? I’m not sure, but lets give it a shot.
Purchase, Sale and Line Items
- Purchase – Rs 5,73,000 in 2013 in Bangalore
- Annual maintenance – first year 0, from 2014 Rs 6,000, rising to Rs 12,000 recently. Lets assume no major accidents and no major parts replacements, just more repair and wear & tear recently.
- Petrol costs – My usage over 12 years was less, just 28,000 km. This can vary widely from person to person. But lets calculate for this. This usage becomes 2,333 km/ year. Petrol prices rose from Rs 72 /lit in 2014 to Rs 100/lit now. Assuming an efficiency of 12 km/lit., one can calculate annual costs.
- Sale – Rs 2,90,000 in 2025 in Bangalore
- Totaling these in excel and using the IRR function, I got a -12.3% annual return for my car purchase.
- However petrol usage is widely different for different folks, so lets remove this and recalculate.
- Without petrol, I got a -7.66% annual return on my car purchase.
- One missing factor is inflation. Obviously Rs 1 lakh was worth much more in 2014 than today. Lets factor in a 5% annual inflation to all transactions.
- The Without Petrol calculation with a 5% inflation now is -12.1% annual return on the car purchase.
Excel Snapshot
Here’s a snapshot of the excel calculations. Click image below to see bigger.

Conclusions and Closing Thoughts
- Added this point on 17/08 – Some of my blog’s brilliant followers have pointed out – Insurance and auto loan costs should be added here too. Insurance of course is mandatory, and more has to be added on if you want good coverage. I peg this at about 2% additional costs per year. A car loan is optional, so it depends on the buyer if he needs one. Here a loan costs about 9-11%, so this will add substantially to costs. Thanks Bala and Nandu !!
- So there we go. The cost of a car like Hyundai i10 for me over this period was 14.1% annualized on the invested capital, adding insurance, not including petrol and car loan.
- To some extent, a car purchase could be both a functional and a status purchase. The latter is difficult to quantify. And widely varies from person to person. Lets leave it at that.
- This was a good hatchback, but not a luxury car. Numbers could be quite different for this.
- Conversely, don’t forget how useful a car can be. It is quite safe. Its convenient and always available. Good in rainy weather. Its more useful for groups of 2-5 to travel together. Once you do own a car, you may as well use it extensively, for your work and travel.
- I haven’t factored in depreciation. Not everyone can get this benefit. The dep. rate for vehicles in India is around 15-20% every year for the first 3-5 years. The highest car dep. rate occurs in year 1 of ownership and can go up to 30%. This can certainly lower the cost of ownership.
- This is of course a 2013-25 story. For a car purchase now, all the numbers will change, but I suspect the annualized costs may be similar for a similar car.
- The option we have is to take a cab / auto / bus / train / Metro, or personal 2 wheeler for travel. In fact as public transport improves and becomes convenient, the need for personal transport reduces.
- For wealth building, buy appreciating assets. For utility and fun, go shopping, including for your car. But don’t forget that a car is definitely a depreciating asset.
Hope this was interesting. Do comment and critique below.
Regards, Punit Jain, JainMatrix Investments.
Disclaimer
- Punit Jain discloses that he has no shareholding in any of the firms mentioned in this article. This is written from the consumer PoV. He has no other financial interest or transactions, with any firms mentioned here or any group company. In addition, other than that mentioned above, JMI and its promoters/ employees have no direct or financial interest in these companies, and no known material conflict of interest as on date of publication of this report, to the best of his knowledge.
- This document has been prepared by JainMatrix Investments Bangalore (JMI), and is meant for use by the recipient only as information and is not for circulation. This document is not to be reported or copied or made available to others without prior permission of JMI. This report should not be considered or taken as an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or sell any security or asset. The information contained in this report has been obtained from sources that are considered to be reliable. However, JMI has not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the same. Neither JMI nor any of its affiliates, its directors or its employees accepts any responsibility of whatsoever nature for the information, statements and opinion given, made available or expressed herein or for any omission therein. Investment in the securities market are subject to market risks. Read all the related documents carefully before investing. The suitability or otherwise of any investments will depend upon the recipient’s particular circumstances and, in case of doubt, advice should be sought from a SEBI RIA Registered Investment Advisor. JMI has been an equity investment adviser commercially since Nov 2012, and a SEBI certified and registered since 2016, under SEBI (Research Analysts) Regulations. Registration granted by SEBI, and certification from NISM in no way guarantee the performance of the Research Analyst or provide any assurance of returns to investors.
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