Editorial: When you buy a car, ensure you can afford to maintain it out of warranty regardless of anything

These days, nothing much surprises me in terms of car maintenance and repair costs. The figures I once thought to be reasonable for spare parts are actual figures that may have existed in the year 1975. In the days of GST, expensive tax and excise duties, high shipping costs and very high technology utilised in the parts (whether in the construction or in the materials used) have made spares cost a bomb. Which is why these days many owners end up maintaining their cars at the authorised service centers to ensure that their warranty is intact.

Of course, sometimes warranty is not claimable if it is not a manufacturing defect. Like the recent story going around Malaysian social media were a Volkswagen Passat owner is hit with a quote of over RM52,000 for a replacement wiring loom and installation. Yup. Quite incredible for a wiring loom to replacement one that had been eaten by rodents. This is like if your car is hit by an act of God. No way in hell the insurance company or even a manufacturer is going to replace a part that got eaten or struck down by the hand of God (i.e. earthquake, avalanche, God's hand suddenly appearing out of nowhere and swatting your car like a fly, etc.). These are uncontrollable accidents that are usually not covered. If you do not belive me, try reading that stupid fine print in any warranty or insurance cover note.

So the prudent thing to actually do is that you actually need to have some reserve cash lying around even if you bought a new car as nothing is cheap these days. I remember writing earlier that even a Toyota Camry air-conditioning compressor costs over RM3,300 brand new. Now I shall give you more incredible figures that I have heard over the years.

The crate engine or boxed engine of an Audi RS6, the one with the V10 twin turbo and the W12 engine fitted in the Bentley Continental R will cost over RM150,000 with around RM250,000+ for complete work done on it if you happen to blow one of these engines. A Porsche Cayenne short block, or bottom end would cost you over RM50,000 if you're lucky. Total repairs could hit RM100,000 easily if its an engine out job and everything is brand new. Of course, being Malaysia and Malaysia means 'semua boleh' or everything is possible, you could get a lot of 'kedai potong' or chop shop parts easily. Just don't ask where it came from. Although sometimes if you mean get parts cheap by hook or crook, the crook part means that somewhere in Malaysia, a similar car may end up getting stolen. So don't. Your friend in the same car club may end up missing a car. But if you think I am exagerating, the you could just believe that the supplier somehow managed to avoid tax on the items. Depends on what you want to believe to comfort your soul.

But you now argue that I am talking about Porsches and Bentleys. These are cars over RM1 million. How can a RM178,000 Passat have a wiring loom that costs so much? Let me just say that when Mercedes Benz cars in the 1990s suffered from wiring loom failure due to Mercedes Benz using biodegradable wiring that disintegrated a bit too early some cars were not covered under warranty. The authorised centers charged a cool RM20,000 those days with specialists asking anywhere between RM8,000 to RM13,000 for it. But don't ask how they got their hands on the cheaper option. You know how that happened now if you read the paragraph above.

So even in pre-multiplex, before CAN-bus systems (Controller Area Network) were in use like in a Passat of today it costs a bomb to replace wiring looms. Things were not really cheap then. Usually when such a spare part is requested (almost never) it has to come off the assembly line or it would have been kept in a central storage unit of the manufacturer. In this case, that would be Germany. And flying it in would mean that the customs will tax the darn thing and local taxes are expensive (spare parts are minimum 20%+10%). So imagine the final part cost. Of course, you could get the local wireman to do spot repairing but it would be a cut and patch up job with lots of problem solving by the wireman who has to figure out which wire goes where and it would be hell with multiplex CAN-bus wiring looms. Unlike a complete wiring loom change which is just plug and play.

In fact, things were so not cheap then as I remember my friend informing me that in the early 2000s his company Proton Perdana V6's gearbox died on him and he had to send it in for a replacement. Since the car was covered under insurance, the car was sent to Proton and the bill, althought covered by insurance cost RM23,000. This for an archaic 4 speed automatic with fuzzy logic. The car costed RM102,000 at the time and the gearbox was 20% of the cost of the car. Things were not cheap then.

Things were also not cheap then as a friend whose father was a director in Proton's holding company at the time also wanted a new gearbox for his Proton Wira 1.5 automatic. This was a 1995 Wira 1.5 automatic and those days the Wira 1.5 had a truly prehistoric 3 speed automatic gearbox. His father was quoted RM13,000 minimum for it. He straightaway told my friend to source a second hand one from the chop shop which eventually costed him about RM1,200 with installation. The Wira costed RM51,000 or there abouts and the gearbox was a good 20% of the cost too.Seriously. Parts that do not easily break down or rarely have problems with them cost a heck of a lot. Even back then.

I have to add that car ownership is not cheap these days. You have to add in the amount of technology that your car has and these days most of the cars have tons of tech built into them. The Volvo XC90 has six, I repeat six CAN-bus systems that come on line just when you unlock the car. A new car basically has over 1.5km of wiring in the car. So do not let your pet rat eat your car's wiring no matter how tasty it is. And also make sure that when you run a car, you have some means of being able to afford expensive repairs. As I mentioned above, even some parts in an ancient Proton can cost a bomb when it was brand new. In fact, the photo at the start just shows the engine wire harness and not the complete set of a 1990s Volkswagen Passat. You can imagine the harness in the dashboard, the harness that goes through the transmission tunnel and other wiring that runs through the front to the rear of the car. 

Maybe it is wise if most of us Malaysians would actually factor in maintenance costs when buying a car. A continental car would be slightly more expensive because parts come from Europe (further away means more shipping costs). Those from Asia are always cheaper. Not by much these days, especially when inflation always sets in due to taxes, increased GDP and other economic mumbo jumbo situations. If you can afford buying a RM175,000 car which has been severely discounted to about RM120,000 one should remember that the car is still a RM175,000 class car with RM175,000 leve of technology. More tech and stuff means more high priced equipment which means pricier replacement parts. In fact, more goodies in the car means more high tech parts which cost more if it needs to be replaced. A lot of thought must go into the purchase of your new car. Not just the purchase price. That is secondary to what you need to maintain the car – petrol, yearly insurance, yearly road tax, able to afford the authorised service center's bills (which are usually more than if you service at the specialist or normal workshop) and other incidentals. When you work backwards, you may end up only being able to afford a Volkswagen Polo 1.6 instead of a Golf TSI. Not even a Polo TSI actually. This usually gets you in trouble and you end up with the loudest voice on the internet where you voice out your complaints.

Note that BMW and Audi owners face temperamental cars almost throughout their ownership experience. If not BMW cars would not be called 'Banyak Makan Wang – Eat A Lot of Money, or Big Money Waster by some. They occasionally do complain about their cars but in the end buy the newest model again without a care. They actually can afford their cars unlike some people I hear. I consider these cars are troublesome as some Volkswagens, but...... Do you see them going crazy on the internet? Not really. But are their cars extremely reliable? No they are not. I have heard so many BMW tales of terror over the years that I think they are as good or as reliable as some Audi and VWs out there.. But they, the owners can afford maintaining it and they don't really complain. 

So you have to ask yourself whether you can really afford that car of yours.  Always, always, always factor in the cost of maintaining and repairs into the purchase price and over the length of time you want to keep that car of yours. It's as simple as that. 

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