The Economics

Everything comes at a price. Even good things. Here I have considered only two factors. Buying price, and fuel consumption over the 3-day, 460 km shootout.

The following petrol consumption figures - in kms per litre - were obtained :

Here again, among the four 2-stroke scooterettes, the TVS Scooty gives the best fuel average, by a margin of between 3.83 km / L better than Pride to 0.41 km / L better than Spirit.

As expected, the 4-strokers did better on the fuel consumption front. While the Street gave @3.5 kms more per litre than the Scooty, the K4 gave over 12 kms per litre more than the Scooty. What is astounding however is the K4 gave almost nine kms more per litre than the Street !

Thus Kinetic K4-100 is without doubt THE mileage champion among all bikes in India. The second ECONOMIC criterion is the buying price.

Following are the on-road Pune prices of the six bikes on 7 October, 1999.

Observe that the cheapest self start scooterette Trendy, is almost Rs.7,500/- cheaper than the most expensive Kinetic Style and almost Rs.6,200/- cheaper than TVS Scooty.

Taking into account the fact that the TVS Scooty has emerged as the best in performance, how significant is the Rs.6,200/- price difference between it and the cheapest Trendy? To determine significance, just put Rs.6,200/- in fixed deposit with (say) Telco at 13% p.a. This will fetch you an interest of Rs.806/- per annum which @Rs.30/- per litre of petrol+2T, will buy you almost 27 litres, which will give you 1050 kms of extra travel per year on the Trendy, while your Rs.6,200/- fixed deposit stays intact.

Thus on pure economics, ignoring performance,Trendy is the best buy among the four scooterettes.

Among the 4-strokers, on 7 Oct. 1999, the Street kick start costs Rs.36,373/- on road Pune, while the K4 costs Rs.34,368/-. Thus the K4 is cheaper by Rs.2,005/-, which if kept in fixed deposit at 13% p.a., will give you Rs.260/- per annum forever with which you can buy an additional NINE litres of petrol with which you can travel an extra 500 kms on K4, while your Rs.2,005/- fixed deposit remains intact. In addition the K4 also gives @ nine kms more per litre than Street.

Thus on PURE economic basis, the K4 is a better buy than the Street.

On performance parameters, the Street is (274 - 270 = 4 divided by 272 = @) 1.5% better. Whether this 1.5% better performance of Street is significant enough traded off against the above economic criteria, is a matter of personal opinion.

Doing the same trade-off between K4 and Scooty, the K4 costs Rs.6,644/- more than Scooty. Yet the K4 gives over 12 kms more per litre than Scooty and does not need 2T either. The Rs.6,644/-, if kept as fixed deposit @13%, will give you Rs.865/- per annum forever, which will buy you 28 litres of extra petrol+2T every year with which you can travel almost 1,200 kms extra per year, while your Rs.6.644/- remains intact. Again the trade-off is a personal choice.

Fact Sheet:

Trade off is between comfort, convenience, price and performance.

These vary from person to person depending on body fitness, application, economic status and age of person.

NOTE : For the money trade-offs under ECONOMICS, current prices in Pune have been used. In order for YOU to do the trade off when making a buying decision, please get the current prices in YOUR town/state on THE DATE of making your decision, since prices change anywhere, anytime without rhyme or reason.

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Scooterette Wars -
Background | The Bikes | The Riders | The Journey | The Performance | The Economics