2022 Jeep Meridian
Service Interval:
The service interval of Jeep Meridian is every 15,000 km or 1 year. This makes Jeep a more hassle-free product than Tata Safari as it has to be serviced after every 6 months or 7,500 kms. The Toyota Fortuner sits in the middle with a service schedule of every 10,000 km or 1 year.
Tata Safari
Service Cost:
For this comparison, we will consider each model’s fourth paid service estimate as it does not require us to account for any free service components offered by any manufacturer.
On an average 45,000 kms or 4th year of service for the Jeep Meridian will cost around Rs 16,000. In comparison, Tata Safari’s paid fourth service will be in 2 years, or just 22,500 km, as it has a 7,500 km service schedule. While every alternate service of Safari will pay only Rs 4 to 5,000 for a minor checkup, replacement of engine oil and filter will cost Rs 18 to Rs 20,000 every next 6 months. This is slightly more than Meridian’s service cost.
The 40,000 km or fourth scheduled service of the Toyota Fortuner with its shorter 10,000 km interval will cost Rs 11,008. In terms of retail, which makes the Fortuner the cheapest in 4th service, the Meridian’s service interval of 15,000 kms balances out the cost of ownership and gives it a slight edge.
2022 Toyota Fortuner
60,000 km ownership cost:
Assuming that each vehicle in this comparison is serviced regularly at prescribed intervals, the cumulative ownership cost after 60,000 km of a Jeep Meridian would be around Rs 64,989. The same assumption gives Tata Safari an estimated ownership cost of Rs 92,527 for 60,000 km. The Fortuner sits in the middle for Rs 79,903 with a service interval of 10,000 km.
It is clear that the Meridian’s longer service interval will result in compounding gains in terms of cost of ownership over time and the claimed 15.7 kmpl fuel efficiency will only add to that. However, this is where the Tata Safari with its 16.1 kmpl efficiency scores better than the Meridian. The Fortuner’s 14.4 kmpl per liter puts it at the bottom of the comparison. Overall, after adding up the maintenance and fuel costs, the Jeep Meridian owner will spend the least in this comparison.
Insurance:
Another important factor to consider before buying a new car is the insurance cost. Assuming a base price of Rs 29.9 lakh for Meridian, Rs 15.35 lakh for Safari and Rs 34.9 lakh for Fortuner, the insurance cost for Toyota will clearly return the most to an owner over 4 years of ownership. Tata Safari will be the cheapest to insure and will sit in the middle of Meridian.