Estimated Average Annual Cost Of Owning A Car In Zambia

What Do You Need to Pay Annually in Owning a Car?

Owning a car can quite be challenging when it comes to repairs and maintenance of it. The challenge itself can be overcome by adequate planning and allocation of resources. In Zambia a car owner is expected to pay taxes such as road tax, car fitness tax, carbon emission tax and insurance. These costs are all compulsory obligations to be remitted to appropriate authority and insurance company. Road tax, car fitness tax and carbon tax are some of the ways in which the government raises funds for maintenance of roads and motor insurance is meant to protect the car owner and other road users in instances of car accidents and other eventualities in life. The estimated costs for insurance, road, carbon and car fitness tax is approximately in the range of ZMK600.00 (dollar equivalent $60.00) per annum for taxes alone and the insurance cost varies according to the insurance company that one applies with but it’s within the range of ZMK600.00 to 1,500.00 (dollar equivalent $150.00) per annum.

Average Maintenance Costs Per Year

Other costs that we might definitely expect to incur are that of repair and maintenance costs of the vehicle. These are costs that one has to adequately prepare in advance as they are almost predictable and very important to keep the machine working in excellent condition. It can also be noted that these repair and maintenance costs vary according to the model, type and engine capacity of the car being serviced, however for now we’ll stick to a basic 2000 year Toyota Corolla with engine capacity of 1490cc available at BE FORWARD. Service costs such as the cost of buying oil filters, air filters, engine oil and fuel filters are just some of the items that need to be replaced in order for your car to remain in optimal health and continue getting you from one place to another. Note that these replacements are absolutely necessary and important in maintaining the good condition of the engine. An oil filter normally costs on average the amount of ZMK120.00. These filters maintain the purity of the engine oil in the car as they filter out dirty particles from the oil, which acts as a lubricant in car engines.

The air filter is another item that one has to change whenever servicing a vehicle as it keeps the engine free from dirty particles in the air entering the engine. Clean air is very much needed for complete fuel combustion in a car. Failure to replace the air filter or using a dirty one can seriously increase the fuel consumption of the car as complete combustion cannot be reached. The air filter normally costs an average amount of ZMK65.00 up to somewhere ZMK100.00 (dollar equivalent $10.00).

The other cost that one should never forget is the engine oil. The engine oil must be changed whenever the vehicle is due for service. A standard 5 litre engine oil is enough for a corolla model, however the bigger engines will probably need more than a 5 litre container to fill up the whole engine. A 5 litre engine oil costs in the range of ZMK200.00 ($20) with other oils in the range of ZMK290.00 (dollar equivalent $29.00). Note that the quality of your engine oil is very important as it can also affect or even spoil your engine due to its standard of quality. Always get quality recommended engine oil for your vehicle from reliable source such as BE FORWARD Auto Parts, as different models such as high performance vehicles always require different kind of oils. The cost of labour is one that doesn’t have any standard pricing attached to it as that normally depends on the mechanic or service garage that one is using, simple basic servicing can cost you about ZMK300.00 ($30.00) without repairs.

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