CASE STUDY – AUDI A1

Introduction:

We will be considering here the old car of our colleague Valentin Picavet. Valentin currently drives an
Audi A1, but some reparations need to be done. Indeed, the car has gear box issues, and the car body
also needs to be renewed. In this context, Valentin has two clear options: either he faces the cost of
repair for the gear box and the car body, or he considers buying a brand-new car.

To replace his car, Valentin is thinking about a new electric car that would eventually get him a rid of
fuel costs.

Accounting for the total cost of each of these options should Valentin undertake the reparations, or
should he completely replace his car ?

Option 1: Repairing the car

Direct costs Indirect costs

Gear box €1,245.00 Transport fees (2 weeks) €20.00
Hood (car body) €359.93 Yearly check-ups every 2 years €140.00
Front doors (car
body) €979.02 Insurance fees for 5 years €9,290.20
Paint (car body) €65.80
Gas costs for 5 years €18,200.00
Labour €1,707.00
Total direct €4,356.75 Total indirect €27,650.20
Total cost €32,006.95

We estimated the total cost for the repairs on the car. Links to websites will be mentioned below.

Direct costs:

• Firstly, we try to account for all direct costs. This includes the gear box replacement according to
Eden Boites official site (1). The car body and more specifically the hood and the front doors were
to be replaced too. This also engaged some costs to paint the new elements of the car body. We
sought for cheap and good quality paint on Peinture-Voiture site (2) costing 32.9€ per bottle usable
on a two square meters surface – two of them were needed. Concerning the front doors and the
hood they were on discount on the Piece-Carrosserie French web site (3) prices are detailed in the
table above.

• For the labour, we chose a garage named Good Meccano located in Marseille and the total labour
cost for the repairs was estimated at 1707€ (4); We considering here that the cost to drive the car
to Marseille is insignificant.

HUSS – PICAVET – CAMBAUD – MOKHNACHI – DIARRA

 CASE STUDY – AUDI A1

Indirect costs:

• Some indirect costs were also identified. Indeed, we had to account for the use of public transport
during the repair time that should be around 2 to 3 weeks. In this case it would be more profitable
to take a monthly subscription at 20€. Finally, we considered the fact that such important repairs
on the car will impose yearly check-ups of 150€ over 10 years (5). This is a relevant cost because a
new car with the original car parts does not require such often and expensive check-ups.

• We added insurance fees and gas costs for 5 years assuming that we will drive the car about
10000km each year.

All in all, this brings us to a total cost of repair of 32,006.95€

Option 2: Buying an electric car

Direct costs Indirect costs

Electricity for 5 years in Nice €1,040.00
Bonus -€6,000.00
Peugeot e-208 €33,250.00 Insurance fees for 5 years €5,155.90
Yearly check-ups every 2 years €180.00
Sale of Audi A1 (€9,900) minus repairing costs (€4,356.75) -€5,543.25
Total direct €33,250.00 Total indirect €375.90
Total €33,625.90

• We assume that this new car will be amortized on 5 years and that we can afford to buy it counting
on the revenues from the sale of the Audi A1 and from our savings. So, there is no loan and no
interest fees. Furthermore, parking costs are the same so we will consider them as irrelevant costs.
This kind of car provides us some revenues (bonus) that we will account as a negative cost.

• We have seen in Peugeot’s website (6) that the e-208 model worth €33,250. Furthermore, we have
calculated the ecological bonus that we will pull out from this precise model. According to the
public services website (7), the amount of our bonus is about €6,000 and we will legally be able to
reclaim it 6 months after the purchase.

• We estimated the cost of energy for an electric car, as it costs €4 per week in Nice (assuming we
use one full battery charge each week), that is €208 per year (according to (12)). Moreover, we
calculated the costs of insurance fees (which are lower than those for a non-electric car) and the
yearly check-ups costs, which are higher for electric cars.

HUSS – PICAVET – CAMBAUD – MOKHNACHI – DIARRA

CASE STUDY – AUDI A1

Conclusion:

Our choice is to buy a new electric car, less polluting and more eco-friendly.

• We can see here that the cost of repairing the old Audi A1 is smaller than buying the new model
we have chosen (Peugeot e-208). By looking only those short-term costs, we could choose the Audi
A1, but we can forecast other costs that may be added to those one in the future.

• We can suppose that the bonus (malus) for electric (thermic) cars will increase in the next few
years, thermic cars will be forbidden into some downtowns (like in Paris soon for example), the
more time goes the cheaper the Audi will be sold, etc.

• To sum up, we will choose the second option instead of the first because it seems more
advantageous even though the cost is a little higher.

IV- Sources:

(1)https://eden-boites.com/blog/produit/boite-de-vitesses-audi-a1-1-0-tfsi-5-vitesses/

(2)https://www.peinturevoiture.fr/1486-kit-bombe-peinture-audi.html

(3)https://www.piece-carrosserie-discount.com/fr/audi/a1-01-2015/porte/

(4) https://www.goodmecano.com/reparation-automobile/bouches-du-rhone/audi-a1-165

(5)https://www.vroomly.com/vehicules/audi/a1/revision/#:~:text=En%20moyenne%20le%20prix%2
0de,du%20mod%C3%A8le%20%C3%A0%20l'autre

(6)https://www.peugeot.fr/nos-vehicules/e-208.html

(7) https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F34014

(8) https://devis-auto.direct-assurance.fr/assurance-auto/tarif/selection

(9) https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/2098004020.htm

(10)https://devis-assurance.allianz.fr/tarif-auto/collect-data

(11)https://reassurez-moi.fr/guide/assurance-auto/controle-technique/nice

HUSS – PICAVET – CAMBAUD – MOKHNACHI – DIARRA

CASE STUDY – AUDI A1

(12)https://www.nicecotedazur.org/deplacement/prise-de-
nice#:~:text=La%20recharge%20rapide%20est%20tarif%C3%A9e,batterie%20d'un%20v%C3%A9hicul
e%20%C3%A9lectrique.

HUSS – PICAVET – CAMBAUD – MOKHNACHI – DIARRA