Worked Examples
Three purchases where the hidden cost behaves in
completely different ways. Every number below is what the calculator returns —
this is what it looks like before you type anything in.
What does a ₹15,00,000 car really cost over five years?
Sticker ₹15,00,000 · kept 5 years · registration
and road tax ₹1,20,000 once · fuel ₹6,000/month · insurance
₹28,000 a year · servicing ₹8,000 every 6 months.
Over 60 months the fuel alone comes to ₹3,60,000. Insurance renews five times
(₹1,40,000), servicing lands ten times (₹80,000), and the registration is
paid once (₹1,20,000). That is ₹7,00,000 that never appears on the price tag.
True cost ₹22,00,000 · ₹7,00,000 beyond the sticker
Effectively ₹36,667 a month for five years. What moves this number
is the running costs, not the fees — fuel by itself is more than half the hidden
total. Keep the same car for ten years and the true cost climbs to ₹27,80,000,
yet the effective monthly falls to ₹23,167: the purchase price spreads
further while the running costs keep stacking.
A ₹12,000 printer — how bad can it be?
Sticker ₹12,000 · kept 5 years · ink
₹800/month · paper ₹200/month · repairs ₹1,500 every
2 years.
Ink runs to ₹48,000 across 60 months, paper another ₹12,000, and repairs
come round twice for ₹3,000. Hidden cost ₹63,000 — over five times what
the printer itself cost.
True cost ₹75,000 · ₹63,000 beyond the sticker
The cheapest purchase here has by far the worst ratio: 6.25× the sticker
price, about ₹1,250 a month. This is the shape where the calculator can
change the decision rather than just describe it — a dearer laser printer with
cheaper toner can end up costing less to own, which the price tags alone will never
tell you.
What sits on top of a ₹60,00,000 flat?
Sticker ₹60,00,000 · kept 10 years · stamp duty
and registration ₹4,20,000 once · brokerage ₹60,000 once ·
society maintenance ₹3,500/month · property tax ₹12,000 a year
· repainting ₹80,000 every 5 years.
₹4,80,000 is due before you have the keys. Maintenance adds ₹4,20,000 over
120 months, property tax ten payments of ₹12,000, and repainting comes round
twice for ₹1,60,000 — ₹11,80,000 in all.
True cost ₹71,80,000 · ₹11,80,000 beyond the sticker
At 1.20× this is the gentlest multiple of the three, and still the
largest sum — nearly half of it payable before you move in. Sell after three years
instead of ten and the true cost is ₹66,42,000, but those same one-time charges now
spread across 36 months, pushing the effective monthly to ₹1,84,500. One caveat worth
holding onto: this counts what leaves your account, not what you get back on resale, so
for something you intend to sell, read it as cost of ownership rather than money gone.
These are illustrations, not advice. Your own numbers are the only
ones that answer the question — the calculator above is free and needs no account.
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