Overdrive undertook a survey to find out how much a person actually spent on his car - its price, its maintenance costs, insurance premium and fuel costs to determine its TRUE VALUE. It did a cost comparison with the other cars in the market. The study was conducted for vehicles that logged 50,000 km over three years - the amount spent in buying the car, maintaining it, insuring it and putting in fuel.

You would then be left with a car that would fetch you some money in the second­ hand market. Suppose you sell the car at his juncture – you be would be left with a certain outflow of money that would be specific to each car depending on its price, maintenance costs, fuel consumption and resale value. The study tried to find out which car gave the best value for the money spent. The Reva scored maximum in two parameters - money spent on fuel and cost of ownership.

In the money spent on fuel parameter, the Reva has come out right on top. With the Reva the cost of electricity one would use for every kilometer works out to be half a rupee per kilometre even if you buy really expensive electricity.

The cost of ownership has been computed by adding the invoice price of the car added to the total insurance cost (for three years) plus the total maintenance cost, the fuel cost over fifty thousand kilometres minus the resale value of the car. This gives you the value you put into your car.

Pulsating at the top of the order is the Reva, thanks to its electric nature. The lowest economy figures however are what help the Reva scale this peak in spite of having higher maintenance costs as compared to the Maruti 800. The tried and trusted 800 comes second in this standing. Though the resale value may not be great, low maintenance costs and low fuel consumption keep the bills in check and the lowest insurance premiums ensure that it is a car into which you pump small amounts of money, around Rs 2.50 lakh.

The best thing to do is to start from the car that has the lowest percentage of costs to the price of the vehicle and keep going on to higher percentages till your budget matches the price of the car. That will be the car that will give you the best value for your buck!