COMMUTING

APRILIA V HOLDEN
TAKING IT TO THE REAL WORLD
WORDS – STUART WOODBURY PHOTOS – THE BEAR

Facts

PRICE OF 95 PREMIUM
UNLEADED – $1.60.9

TOTAL WEEKLY
KILOMETRES (5 DAYS X 64KM) – 320KM

2015 Aprilia Scarabeo 200

NEW PRICE – $4850 (+orc)
AVERAGE FUEL USED PER 100KM – 3.72L/100km
AVERAGE FUEL USED PER WEEK – 11.9 L – $19.14
AVERAGE WEEKLY RUNNING COSTS – $84.87
AVERAGE TIME EACH WAY – 34 minutes

2003 Holden Commodore S

NEW PRICE – $36,995 (drive away)
(Current second hand price – $7000)
AVERAGE FUEL USED PER 100KM – 14.2L/100km
AVERAGE FUEL USED PER WEEK – 45.44 L – $73.11
AVERAGE WEEKLY RUNNING COSTS – $240.75 (NRMA Motoring & Services)
AVERAGE TIME EACH WAY – 1 hour and 6 minutes

The leader of the pack!

You may have seen a number of commuting “tests” done over the years where a car is run against a push bike and/or public transport.

For some funny reason none of these “tests” include a motorcycle or scooter, so we decided to grab a reasonably priced scooter – an Aprilia Scarabeo 200 – and compare it against a run of the mill Holden Commodore from 2003, which would be priced on the market just slightly more than the Aprilia. It’s a car that’s still highly popular with the general population.

The route was from north-west Sydney to the AMM office at Lane Cove West.

A 32km door to door route (each way) smack bang in the middle of peak hour traffic in both the morning and afternoon peaks. Our picture was taken right at the start of the afternoon peak as it was only just starting to build up.

Despite having to brave the varying weather conditions when commuting on a motorcycle/scooter, you can never factor in the amount of fun it is to be on two wheels. No matter how good a car is, sitting in traffic is as boring as the proverbial and wasting hours away in traffic is only going to drive you mad.

The 32km, each way commute was done over a period of two weeks for each vehicle so we could get a really good average time of the trip in varying traffic conditions which can obviously fluctuate on different days and different periods.

There always seems to be more traffic on a Monday, Tuesday; then the amount of vehicles on the road seems to drop off on a Thursday and especially Fridays – everyone having a long weekend?

The Aprilia was very stable in its average time. Traffic never really made any difference, as lane filtering keeps things fl owing, with the longest commute time being 37 minutes. The Holden on the other hand had a couple of really long commute times, the longest being 1 hour and 41 minutes.

To put this into perspective, this is an average speed of just 19km/h!

Most people could ride a push bike faster than that!

The only “positive” thing an outsider might see as a bonus, driving a car, is that you don’t get wet, or more to the point, have to put all that wet weather gear on and have somewhere for it to dry when you get to your destination; the one word is, convenience. Apart from that we cannot see any benefit to driving a car to commute in peak hour traffic. The Aprilia is much cheaper to run, has you on the road around half as much and is much more fun to be on.

As for running costs, this is where owning a scooter (or motorcycle for that matter) comes into its own. Roughly a quarter of the cost of a car, which is astounding. In monetary terms over the course a year, this equates to an $8105.76 saving!

The cost of fuel per week used for this commuting distance equates to $995.28 per year (assuming you work every week of the year) for the scooter and $3801.72 per year for the car.

A $2806.44 saving, just by riding the Aprilia. And that doesn’t include any charges for parking, which would favour the scooter enormously.

Hello? Stuart! You’re in there somewhere!

We used 95 Premium Unleaded from the same service station for each vehicle. As most people are aware, the price of fuel can vary from day to day, and if you’re at the right time of the cycle, 95 Premium Unleaded can be around 15 cents cheaper. We found the average at the time of this test was $1.60.9.

As for the amount of time saved per year by commuting, you’re looking at 177 hours and 20 minutes total riding the Aprilia and for the car, 276 hours total travel time (again, assuming you’re working every week of the year). The saving in travel time is 99 hours and 20 minutes. That’s a lot of time to be wasting away in the car and more time you could be relaxing at home, enjoying time with family, or tinkering on that special project you’ve got in the garage.

As I type out all of these facts, it becomes even more clear that commuting on a scooter (or motorcycle) has massive benefits. Sure, you might think your car is more convenient, but think about the convenience next time a scooter or motorcycle zips by while you’re stuck in traffic, and they’re sitting at home with a cold beer, feet up, relaxing!

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