TS must be those who only buy cars because can afford the monthly instalments but failed to include maintenance.

The more expensive the car, the higher the maintenance. If u never bother to add those up when calculating the monthly instalments, it will bite u in the ass after 6 months.

The right way is the get the total cost of the car + yearly maintenance + road tax + insurance & divided by how many years u plan to keep it.

Example.

Car: RM 165K
Yearly maintenance: RM 5K
Road tax: RM 400
Insurance: RM 2K
Tires: RM 2K

Say u plan to keep the car for 7 years and just add up to become RM 159400 (loan RM 150K). Divide this amount by 84 months and u get RM 1867 monthly. This does not include the loan interest rate. With a 3% per annum, the monthly comes to RM 2272 plus the maintenance.

Car dealers will advertise the car as RM 1785 monthly without the interest rate or RM 2160 monthly with 3% per annum interest.

Of course, some parts will go up in price over time but since u already have a budget, it would be a lot easier to calculate. Some items such as tire only change every 2-3 years or insurance which gets cheaper yearly due to NCD.

By not bothering about the discounts, u will have a surplus which can be use for emergencies.