Cars & fuel · understand the whole bill
The sticker price is only the beginning.
Transport and communication is a broad CPI category. It includes more than cars, and household “fuel and light” is not a petrol-price index. Neither provides a comparable 30-year series of car prices.
Compare total ownership: on-road price, loan interest, depreciation, insurance, maintenance, parking and annual kilometres × fuel cost per kilometre. Car finance instalments can hide the full lifetime cost.
Keep vehicle class and specification constant when comparing old and new prices. A switch from a hatchback to an SUV is partly lifestyle inflation. Fuel prices also vary by city, tax changes and date.
Build a like-for-like comparison
Write down the same quantity, quality, location, season and payment terms for both dates. Record the source and actual quotation date. Then add your proposed upgrade as a separate scenario.
Test the effect on your budget →Evidence and limits
Historical inflation is not a forecast. A national index cannot predict a particular family’s school, medical, property or travel bill. The 2026 CPI base change means old and new index levels must not be directly spliced together.
Sources checked 5 Sep 2026. World Bank / IMF annual inflation series ↗ · MoSPI CPI releases and methodology ↗