According to XUAN解忧树洞, a woman living with her boyfriend is questioning whether their approach to sharing car expenses is fair after he refused to contribute to the costs of a car they regularly use together.
The couple both work in the same area, although for different companies, so they usually commute and travel together using one car.
The woman owns a petrol-powered car, while her boyfriend owns two vehicles — one diesel and one petrol car.
According to her, they have always followed one simple rule: whoever's car is being used is responsible for paying for its fuel.
Before she bought her own car two years ago, they mostly used her boyfriend's vehicle, meaning he paid for fuel most of the time. However, she says she did occasionally help pay for petrol and did not completely leave the expenses to him.
After purchasing her own car, she became responsible for its fuel, maintenance and other expenses. She never specifically demanded that her boyfriend contribute because whenever she brought up the issue, he would respond, “It’s your car, so you should pay for the petrol.”
Recently, her car reached its scheduled maintenance mileage, but financial pressure caused her to postpone the servicing.
The couple therefore began using her boyfriend's petrol car more frequently because it qualified for BUDI95 fuel subsidies, making their petrol expenses cheaper. She would still occasionally pay for fuel.
However, his mother now needs to use that petrol car, so he plans to let her have it.
This means the couple will likely rely on the woman's car for commuting, going out for drinks and other activities.
Yet, according to the woman, her boyfriend still expects her to cover the petrol, servicing and maintenance costs herself unless she specifically asks him to contribute.
He reportedly said he was deliberately arranging things this way because he wanted her to understand what it felt like when he previously paid for almost all the expenses while they used his car.
The woman disagrees, saying she did contribute to the fuel costs in the past, although perhaps not as frequently as he did. She feels that he now treats her smaller contributions as if she had never paid anything at all.
The disagreement became even more heated when they discussed possible changes to the BUDI95 fuel subsidy.
Her boyfriend reportedly told her that it had nothing to do with her because she no longer had a petrol car.
When she pointed out that her Myvi was also a petrol car, he replied, “It’s not my car.”
She then asked whether that mattered when he was regularly using it.
His response was simple: “I don't have to pay for the petrol anyway.”
The woman says this attitude is also why she has continued delaying her car's overdue servicing.
She is now questioning whether their “your car, your expenses” arrangement is actually reasonable when both partners regularly use the same vehicle.
She wants to know whether couples who share a car should also share the costs of petrol, maintenance and repairs or whether the owner should remain solely responsible regardless of how frequently their partner uses it.
Jovy Jing (ndreagoh@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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