The Avito Auto online platform has learned to calculate the cost of ownership. The new feature is available to all users of the platform for free in the ad cards for the sale of cars. Which models are profitable and which ruin customers
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Over the past year, the Russian automotive market, which has been forming for decades and seemed to have already begun to represent a stable and understandable structure, has turned upside down. After the supply of new cars ceased, dealers sharply increased the cost of the cars remaining on the sites so that they would last for a long time.
Following the new ones, used cars also went up in price, and this process did not always occur evenly. It is difficult for the buyer to navigate in such a market, and often the client looks only at the final price of the car he likes, and does not want to go into calculations of the cost of ownership. Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to sit with a calculator for a long time: now everything is calculated automatically in car sales ads on Avito, and it has become much easier to compare the costs of maintaining different cars. Here’s how it all works.
Tax, fuel, insurance and maintenance
Calculating the cost of owning a car is almost a creative process and does not give an absolute result. Cars differ in their attractiveness to car thieves, which means that in some cases you will have to spend money on a guarded parking lot, while in others it is quite possible to leave the car at home.
There are also statistics on the reliability of different models, which means that in addition to scheduled maintenance, in one case you will have to spend more money on repairs than in another. Yes, and the cost of body parts for similar cars from different brands may differ by multiples, and no one is safe from accidents.
However, there are basic parameters by which, using relatively simple algorithms, you can calculate the costs of a car owner. For example, these are fuel costs, the transport tax rate, the cost of an OSAGO policy, as well as maintenance prices.
This is exactly what the Avito robot thinks. There is no magic in this: armed with a calculator, using open data on the Internet and calling several service stations, the buyer will be able to obtain the same data on their own. But such calculations for each model take time. So now it’s easier to go to any advertisement for the sale of a car on Avito and immediately see the current cost of ownership.
In this case, you can manually select the region in which you plan to operate the machine, as well as the expected average annual mileage. By default, this is 13,700 kilometers, but someone drives more and someone less, so you can calculate the data to suit your needs.
In fairness, many individual indicators, such as the vehicle tax rate, are also shown in car ads on other sites. The peculiarity of Avito is that all such data is summarized in one place and demonstrated visually.
What turned out to be more profitable
Within a few minutes, you can compare the cost of owning machines of the same or different classes with approximately the same cost. Let’s say you are looking for a sedan of the most popular segment “B” in Russia with an automatic transmission at a price of 800-900 thousand rubles.
It can be assumed that the least ruinous will be the Lada Vesta, a Japanese engine and CVT. In the indicated price range, you can really find 2019-2020 sedans, but the cost of maintaining them will not be low. For Moscow, this is 6361 rubles per month or 76,329 rubles per year.
Even more expensive is the Nissan Almera, which was assembled in Togliatti. For the specified amount, sedans of 2017-2018 are offered. You will have to spend 7,227 rubles a month on such a car, and 86,728 rubles a year.
It is more profitable to be the owner of Hyundai Solaris: they spend 6,154 rubles a month, and 73,848 rubles a year. But Korean sedans are generally more expensive, and only 2014-2016 cars can be found for the specified amount.
And the most profitable offer in the class is the Kaluga-assembled Volkswagen Polo. For about 850 thousand rubles, sedans with automatic transmission of 2016-2018 are now offered. You will have to spend 5,908 rubles per month on such a car, and 70,897 rubles a year. 16 thousand rubles less than the Nissan Almera.
The same calculations are easy to make for higher-class cars. Let’s say you have a 2015 Range Rover Evoque. The car is already eight years old and you want to change it to something fresher. And maintenance costs in the amount of 8,914 rubles per month or 106,967 rubles per year cannot be called optimal.
Such an Evoque is now offered on the market for about 2 million rubles. Having sold it, for the same amount you can take, for example, a similar-sized Volkswagen Tiguan. It is not so premium, but it will be a year or two younger, and the cost of maintaining it will be slightly lower: 8,463 rubles per month or 101,532 rubles per year.
Finally, you can save even more. For about 2 million rubles, Toyota RAV4 crossovers are already available in 2017-2018. For them, monthly expenses are only 6,954 rubles, and a year it is 83,445 rubles – 23.5 thousand less than the maintenance of the Range Rover Evoque requires.
It is important to note that no general trend in the cost of ownership can be identified. Simple rules like “Japanese cars are more expensive to maintain than European ones” or “premium cars are always more expensive than mass market cars” are not confirmed, or rather, these rules are full of exceptions that are easy to find just on Avito.
For example, the same “trick” as with the change of Range Rover Evoque to Toyota RAV4 in the case of larger crossovers no longer works.
Let’s take the 2014-2015 Mercedes GL, which costs the owner 10,917 rubles per month or 131,007 rubles per year. Such machines are now sold for about 3 million rubles. It can be assumed that by selling Mercedes, you can buy a fresher and more affordable Toyota Highlander and significantly save on its maintenance. This is not entirely true.
Firstly, Toyota Highlander of the same age, 2014-2015, is offered for 3 million. Secondly, their maintenance will cost 10,063 rubles per month or 120,760 rubles per year. 10 thousand rubles a year of savings is unlikely to be a sufficient reason for such a deal.
Moreover, for 3 million you can buy a 2015-2017 Volvo XC90. And the maintenance of the Swedish premium crossover will cost the least: 9,457 rubles per month or 113,480 rubles per year.
Numbers are everything
The son of Igor Sikorsky recalled that his father, a famous aircraft designer, carefully studied the data on all models on the market before buying each of his cars and compared power and dynamics with fuel consumption, maintenance costs and the price of the car itself. Using formulas known only to him, he found a car with the best ratio of all parameters and bought it.
The peculiar method of Sikorsky when choosing a new machine can be considered the most correct, but we repeat: in such a case there are always many unknowns, so absolutely everything cannot be predicted.
The new service from Avito in this sense is just one of the tools, which, however, at least helps to save time and not to carry out some calculations on your own. It is convenient to use it when compiling an initial list of interesting car models and finding non-obvious alternatives to them.
However, before making a final decision, it is important to take into account other parameters, ranging from the cost of spare parts and Casco insurance to your own aesthetic preferences. In the end, a reasonable and economical, but unloved car can drive the owner into depression, which will be even more expensive to get rid of.
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