Step 5: Maintenance and repairs

Even new cars cost money to maintain. A simple rule of thumb:

• Routine maintenance ~ 2% of car value per year (around R7,476 per year).

  • This should include services ( if you’re on a full maintenance plan, the amount might be a bit lower), tyres, windscreen wipers, etc.

• Unexpected repairs ~ 3–5% per year (Around R18,690 per year based off of 5%).

  • This will cover things like parts breaking (think cambelt, hydraulic systems or suspension components). The age and type of car you drive will greatly affect this number. If you're driving a 15-year-old car, you should probably budget 10% to 15% of the car’s value per year.

On a R373,800 car, that’s roughly R18,690 per year and roughly R2,181 per month.

All in, it’s a good idea to budget R12,500 a month to own a car like this, and that’s before lifestyle upgrades, tolls, or fuel price swings. Keep in mind that some months you’ll end up paying less or more. This is just an average of what money you should budget for.

• A handy shortcut is to double your instalment.
• Fuel, insurance, maintenance and the odd surprise tend to add up faster than people expect.

That’s the cash-flow question: can you pay all this comfortably every month?

2) Is it the best use of your money? Think depreciation and alternatives

Even if the monthly number fits your budget, that doesn’t automatically mean buying the car is a smart financial decision.

The reason is simple: cars lose value, consistently and predictably.

A car isn’t an investment in the usual sense. Technically, it’s an asset, but one you buy knowing upfront that it will be worth less over time. In practice, car ownership is better thought of as the cost of having access to a car, not money you expect to grow or even hold its value.

That’s why, when you buy a car today, a responsible question to ask is not just “Can I afford it now?” but:

What will this car be worth when I’m ready for the next one?

Whatever that future value is, minus what you still owe, becomes the starting point for your next car. Your deposit. Your flexibility. Your options.

What depreciation looks like in practice:

In South Africa, most cars tend to lose value along fairly predictable lines:

• End of year 1: ~15% down
• End of year 5: ~40–45% down in total, depending on brand, mileage, and condition.

Let’s look at the R373,800 Polo:

• Year 1: value drops by ~15%
  Value ≈ R318,700
• Year 3 (cumulative): value drops by ~30%
  → Value ≈ R261,700
• Year 5 (cumulative): value drops by ~45%
  = End-of-5-year value: ~R205,600

That change in value isn’t a monthly expense you see on your bank statement, but it’s still very real. It directly affects what position you’ll be in when it’s time to replace the car.

Why this matters when choosing a car

Once you think about car ownership this way, two useful things happen:

• You can compare cars more meaningfully. Two cars might cost the same today, but leave you in very different positions in five years, depending on how well they hold value.
• You may rethink whether you need to own a car at all. If a large portion of your monthly spend is simply the price of access, it’s worth asking whether some of that money would serve you better elsewhere, especially if alternatives like Uber, public transport, or buying cheaper/freeing up cash to invest start to look attractive.

This doesn’t mean owning a car is wrong. It just means it’s worth understanding what you’re really paying for: convenience, independence, and access, rather than expecting it to behave like a traditional asset.

So… should you buy?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Owning a car may make sense if:

• You rely on it daily
• Your monthly cash flow is comfortable
• The convenience outweighs depreciation and alternatives

But don’t confuse a “manageable instalment” with “affordable total cost” or “smart use of money.”

Quick Polo ownership snapshot

P.S. Figures are estimates. Actual costs will vary based on interest rates, driving habits, mileage, and market conditions, but this gives you a far more realistic starting point than the instalment alone.

A useful affordability rule of thumb

Finance houses often use two simple guidelines when assessing car affordability:

• Your monthly instalment shouldn’t be more than 8–10% of your take-home pay
• Your total monthly car cost (instalment + fuel + insurance + maintenance) shouldn’t exceed 16–20% of your take-home pay

What that looks like in practice

Let’s put some real numbers to it.

If you take home R20,000 a month:

• Instalment guideline (8–10%): R1,600 – R2,000
• Total car cost guideline (16–20%): R3,200 – R4,000

If you take home R30,000 a month:

• Instalment guideline: R2,400 – R3,000
• Total car cost guideline: R4,800 – R6,000

If you take home R40,000 a month:

• Instalment guideline: R3,200 – R4,000
• Total car cost guideline: R6,400 – R8,000

Now compare that to the Polo example above, which comes in at just over R12,000 per month all-in.

That doesn’t automatically mean “don’t buy the car”, but it does mean you should pause and ask whether the trade-off makes sense for your life.

Buying a car isn’t a bad decision. But buying one without understanding the real cost can be an expensive surprise.

If you only look at the instalment, you’re missing half the story. The true cost of owning a car is a mix of monthly cash flow and what that money turns into (or quietly disappears into) over time, through interest, fuel, maintenance, insurance, and depreciation.

For some people, owning a car makes complete sense. You need it every day; it gives you flexibility, and the monthly cost fits comfortably into your life. For others, a cheaper car, a used option, or mixing ownership with alternatives might buy you more breathing room, financially and otherwise.

There’s no right answer. But there is a better way to decide.

Do the maths and be honest about what you need. And choose the option that gives you the most freedom, not just the nicest spec sheet.