If you were asked this question, should you buy a car post-pandemic, what would you answer? Apparently, from the news, more Filipinos are actually saying yes and purchasing vehicles these days.
Last week, I attended a blogging event for the first time after two years. I was excited because after a long period of time, I’ll be able to see some of my blogger friends again, mingle with more people who are not my relatives, see and do more things that I couldn’t do in the time of pandemic. I went to the venue via a shuttle that was provided by the PR agency but I had to take a Grab car to go to the pick-up area where the shuttle was. That was when I realized that Grab fare had leaped at least twice higher two years before.
Then I saw how traffic goes and compared it to the way it was as I remember it. The kids are on vacation at this time of the year and if I am not mistaken, a part of the labor force are still working at home. I was already surprised by the sheer volume of vehicles, especially the motorcycles. Then I saw the huge crowd in the street waiting for buses for people to get into. I thought that it was very ironic that there are so many vehicles and so many passengers waiting at the same time. I got goosebumps thinking of how the streets will look when the school season opens now that face-to-face classes are announced to be resuming.
After the event, I hailed a Grab car again using the app and it took me more than an hour to get one. Waiting is really my pet peeve, so my husband had to take all my rants and swears while he got the Grab car for me. I was so frustrated by how a couple of Grab cars canceled the trip in the app so I had to let my husband take one for me. I also told my husband that we really need to buy another car soon.
When I got home and was able to relax, I contemplated more if we really need to buy another car for our family, a smaller car that is. As of now, the odds are more into buying than not buying, however, as I searched for more reasons to justify this new purchase, I realized that there’s actually a lot more that I need to consider.
Using CarPaymentCalculator.net, I was able to jot down 5 things that my husband and I need to consider first before deciding to get a new car:
- Monthly loan payments – with the loan amortization schedule that I extracted from the website, I realized that we will need to add at least P12,000 more into our monthly expenses if we will buy a new car.
- Option to refinance our current car – the vehicle refinancing calculator gave us an option to free up more money in paying our current car and put the budget for a new car
- Consider car operating cost – we almost forgot that even if we have the money to buy another car, the cost of operating and maintaining a car should always be included in the budget. This means that having two cars will also mean twice the operating costs.
- Increasing fuel price – this one hit me the hardest. Bloomberg says that expensive oil is here to stay and the Miles Per Gallon (MPG) Calculator gave me an insight into how expensive it will be to travel using our car this year.
- Considering the alternatives – eventually, going the other way around from buying another car means considering alternatives
- Using our current car and commuting on other days
- Picking blogging events that are located in commuter-friendly places
- Making travel plans way ahead to cut on fuel
- Consider car-pooling when going to school or other areas
- Maximizing time while waiting – reading a book or learning another skill will keep me from being stressed out while waiting for my Grab car
Finally, after considering these things and more, my husband and I decided to just let these heated desires to buy a car, making sure that we won’t be deciding out of sheer impulse. After all, having less cars means spending less in fuel, less maintenance and less harm to the environment. But we are not totally discarding the idea because our family lies heavily in car transportation and we live in a place which is far to the business and school areas. With the way things are going in the country, we still choose to be more optimistic, with better roads to use and better public transportation which means less traffic and less headache when using a car. I guess it really boils down on what kind of mode of transportation will work in each family.
What about you, will you consider buying a car this time of the year? What do you think is the best transportation mode for you and your family?
