Malcolm Kinsey is not what one might call conventional; during his career he has been a motor sport and powerboat photographer, a publishing editor, a motor racing and rally driver, a freelance motoring journalist and, more recently, an avid cyclist.
Aside from the above, he’s widely known for two things, his luminescent shoe laces and the Kinsey Report on car parts pricing. His most recent review pits 72 of South Africa’s most popular vehicles against each other to determine which offers the best value for money in terms of parts. It’s not something many people consider when buying a new car; but it is a factor people are most likely to moan about during subsequent years of ownership.Â
In the coming week we’ll go through Malcolm’s report section by section – giving our view on the vehicles therein – finishing off with the 2015 Car of the Year parts review (in lieu of the upcoming winners announcement on March 18). Â MD
From the Kinsey Report
The Kinsey Report on parts pricing is now a quarter of a century old and provides a guideline to owners and prospective vehicle buyers on the costs involved in servicing, repairing and fixing accident damage. The 2014 report includes for the first time a section on entry level single cab bakkies in addition to the traditional sections, and this year I have combined the City Cars and Entry level together. With 72 vehicles in the study this year, we have had to leave out a number of cars – some good sellers like the Renault Sandero which has a proven track record of reasonable pricing and other brands, where the yearly sales are either dwindling or very small.
There are a few surprises in this year’s results with new brands featuring in the top three positions. Many manufacturers and importers work extremely hard to improve the affordability of their vehicles. Volume plays a large part in pricing – and a new brand entering  the local market inevitably has a low volume, but as this increases so does the need for parts, – so volume discounts from the parent company kick in. With new models there is sometime confusion with parts pricing until the electronic parts catalogues at the dealerships are stabilized and glitches are sorted out. Everything should be OK before your new vehicle needs parts (with the exception of crash parts if you are unlucky.)
Sourcing of parts is also crucial – a vehicle and parts sourced, say, from Europe, can have a vastly different cost structure from the same vehicle manufactured in some of the Eastern countries. India has shown itself to be a good source country recently with a number of brands featuring in the top four.
As always, the service/maintenance plans plays a big part in running costs up to 45,000km and more, as do the warranties offered by manufacturers. The cost of crash parts however, is more critical – the insurance excess and write-off point of a vehicle are linked to the cost of an accident repair – and the panel beater’s bill can escalate very quickly even for a seemingly minor bump.
A point here, which could save a good few thousand rand of repair costs, is to not carry anything heavy on the passenger seat if it is not occupied. The vehicle can be “fooled” by those kilograms into deploying the airbag, which often breaks the windscreen – and that could be R20,000 more on the account.
As we have mentioned before, crash parts may seem similar, but the price says otherwise. Rear fenders, for example, on many vehicles extend from the front door apertures right to the back of the vehicle – a far cry from a panel round the back wheel!
Headlights too, vary considerably from a fairly simple halogen lamp to high intensity discharge systems costing R15,000 or more a side.
When buying an older vehicle, or when your own vehicle no longer has a warranty/maintenance plan in place, the cost of repairs becomes an important consideration. Clutches for example, have become expensive to replace ( the advent of pricey duel-mass flywheels, which are known to give trouble sometimes), could turn a routine repair into a very expensive business.
It pays in the long run to do some solid investigation before buying, particularly a used vehicle.
Notes:
The method of compiling this survey has not changed over the past 25 years. I first find out which vehicles the manufacturers and importers consider to be their highest volume sellers. Obviously some of the really big players could have several vehicles in any one category if only based on the numbers sold, so there has to be as fair as possible a selection to include as much variety as is practical.
A list of parts is either taken to a dealer, or emailed or faxed, so that all quotes are written. Only queries are done telephonically. These days, for a large number of vehicles we actually supply a VIN number for the vehicle we want, which does away with any confusion as to which model we want.
The figures are what a customer should pay on the day the quotes were done – we ensure that all quotes are completed within the same calendar month to avoid end-of-month price hikes or reductions.
