I was having a short discussion with a friend earlier on about pumping petrol in JB. I would like to share with whoever that can be bothered to read this right now that in my honest opinion, it is really not viable to do so. I think a lot of people are simply not able to see the big picture; they think they can save a lot of money by doing so. Not true you know, and I shall explain why. I will present my justification with explanations as brief as I can, yet as detailed as possible, along with simple calculations. Now, please bear with me ladies and gentlemen, the next few paragraphs can get abit dry.... First and foremost, let us pinpoint the consensus demographics of the kind of car that belong to the “going to Malaysia to pump petrol just to save money” *screws nose and makes face* crowd own. For the most part, I would say it is a generic run of the mill car of Asian origin (be it Japanese or Korean, even chinese) of a displacement of not more than 1.6L in displacement. I think if one can afford anything more than that, they wouldn’t be skimping on petrol price would they? Then again being Singaporeans, I am going to go with myself being half wrong. Anyway what car isn’t important; whats important is that a car like this, would have a petrol tank size of say, 45L or so. For the sake of realism, lets go with 40L for the amount of petrol we will be using as a basis of calculation. Before I get to it, I need to explain that my views are of my own, I do not represent anyone else, please read and ponder so to your own discretion. I really don’t care if you get offended; I mean, if you can get offended by plain hard facts, I mean, that’s really wtf right? Ok moving on…….. So we have established that the average person will pump 40L of petrol in JB. Now what kind of petrol then? For me, in SG, I would go with Esso x Mobil 98 Ron. If I find myself in JB, I will go with Shell V Power Racing. Lets get some things straight first. Why do I pump Esso x Mobil 98? Because I don’t pump anything less than that. Experience has taught me that anything less than 98 has no power, is a dread to drive and economy sucks balls. 98 Ron petrol on the other hand gives me better consumption, better power. Engine also runs better and burns better due to higher octane. Which also means there’s less probability that it will give up on me. The advantages already more than offset the cheaper price of lower Ron petrol or at least, even it up. And Esso X Mobil 98 is a safe fuel to run, especially for tuned cars. So, 98:1, 95:0. As to why Esso x Mobil. We will get there, eventually. Fair enough but hang on. Why am I using V Power Racing as a comparison then? Isn’t this unfair? Shouldn’t I be using a more regular petrol as a compario? Say for example Petronas 97 or any other regular 97 Ron petrol? Hold your horses, cowboys. I am using V Power Racing as a compario because even though it cost RM3.20/L instead of RM2.90 for regular 97Ron, It is the closest to 98 Ron petrol in SG. Its only fair I compare petrol that are closer, no? Another reason as to why I am comparing this particular 2 types is because, again, this is what I would pump. Now, on the main part, crunching numbers. For the sake of simplicity, I will be rounding to the nearest dollar. Esso x Mobil = $2.20/L Therefore, 40L will cost $88 Shell V Power Racing = RM3.20/L Therefore, 40L will cost RM128($52.89, or $53, factoring exchange rate of 2.42) So simply speaking, you would think that you will save $35 ($88 – $53) for every tank of petrol you pump. You would say “Wow $35?! A lot lei! 1 month is about $140! I can buy 11 packs of cigarettes wor! Or 22 if I buy in JB!” And I would say “KNN, 抽死你….” Seriously, u really think you save $35? Really? I beg to differ. Read on….. If I pump at the Mobil station outside my house, its only 500m away. For those of you who don’t know me, my car is a small white hatchie and gets a combined mileage of 11km/L. Which means, for 40L of dead dinosaurs, I can get a range of 440km. If I go to JB and pump, I have to travel 25km there and then 25km back. So my 50km SG/JB/SG trip would have drained 4.55L of petrol, When I reach home, I will only be left with 35.45L of petrol which would only be good for a range of 390km. In my terms, this is not acceptable. This also means that in the process of going to JB and back, I would have lost RM14.60 ($6) in petrol. To still be able to get my range of 440km in range, I would have to pump 44.55L of petrol in JB. Which would cost me RM142.60($58.90 ~ $59) Recalculating back, $88 - $59 = $29 You would think that this is the amount you will save. Saving $29 is also ok what! isn’t that bad right you say? Maybe. 1 other reason why I pump Esso x Mobil is because with the DBS Tiger card, I get a bloody 17% off petrol. 17%. Yes, 17%. So my petrol don’t cost $88 anymore. After 17% discount, it costs $73.04 ~ $73. So $73 - $59 = $14 Per tank, you only save $14. Tell me now, do you still think there is merit in pumping petrol in JB? “Ok la, I can 顺便 buy 2 packs of ciggies” right? Knn, 抽给你死咯。少抽点烟会死吗? Numbers, I have shown you. If I haven’t convinced you, consider this. 1. How long do u take to go to pump petrol and come back? For me, the round trip without any jam is almost 2 hours. What if you run into jam? Die cock stand lo. Your petrol won’t cost just $59, which means you save even LESSER than $14. Worth? Oh go at around midnight lesser cars? Then less chance of getting checked? Wah, u…. no need to sleep arh? U…. a lot of time har? Then midnight time go if sway sway jam. U can kiss your night’s sleep goodbye. I tell u… 林北 time better spent on other things. Time is precious, time is money! 2. Petrol quality in JB differ station to station due to their inconsistency in tank maintenance. I wouldn’t risk running contaminated fuel in my car. 3. Aiya go in pump liao can do other things also ma! Can buy ciggies *knn 抽死你* Can eat supper *u pump in SG u can save the supper money altogether u fool* can wash car mah so cheap! RM$8 only! *Ya cheap, but u know what they wash yr car with or not?! Cheap detergent that God knows from where and for what (maybe dishwashing liquid) that make your car sticky, then your car get dirty in the next 2 days swa. But what if it spoils the lacquer of your paint job? Sorry lo, not for me* 4. Every trip up North however short, always has the probability, no matter how small of you getting into some shit. Things that come to mind are getting robbed, carjacked, stuff stolen from your car, accident due to er, incident, accident due to insurance fraud. These are the few that come to mind. I dunno about you, but all these for saving $14 a week? For me, is a definite no-no. But I would like to emphasize at this point, I am not against JB trips. If you are going in for the main purpose of pumping petrol, I think the idea is plain stupid. Of course having said that if you are filling up while you are there….there’s a completely different thing altogether…….
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 00:06:22 +0000
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