Getting from A to B and elsewhere is a major cost for most, and therefore an obvious area for savings for many. It’s also one of the cost areas that have increased the greatest in the last year, with rising fuel costs and creeping ACC charges included in the annual relicencing fee.
So we have been running the motoring cost numbers using figures published by the AA (in late 2011 so the figures will be even more now) and this is what we have come up with. In all of these figures we have only looked at actual cash costs incurred in any one year. We have excluded depreciation, which is a whole story in itself and would make the figures much worse.
Fixed costs (registration, insurance, and warrant of fitness) range from about $1,100 for a small car (under 1500cc) to $1,650 for a large car (+3500cc). You pay these costs even when the car is parked up in the garage. Fixed costs represent roughly about a third of the total cash cost for the average 14,000 km a year motorist.
Running costs make up the other two-thirds, and of this between two-thirds and three-quarters is fuel. The petrol cost alone of running a small car is 13 cents per km click, 15 cents per km for what’s called a compact vehicle (1501cc to 2000cc), 21 cents for a medium sized car (2001cc to 3500cc) and 25 cents for a large car.
On top of that there is the cost of tyre wear, repairs, oil and so on which takes the running cost per km to 20 cents, 22, 28 and 33 cents for a small, compact, medium and large car respectively.
Just think of your bank account clicking down every time your odometer clicks up and you will get the general picture of how the numbers work.
The other thing to consider is the cash cost of a vehicle you are not using. For example, having a large vehicle (like the ones people use to tow a boat or caravan) just sitting in the garage for a year costs about $1,600, or $30 a week. For example, a large car that is only used for say 2,500 kms a year is actually costs $1 a km in cash per every km travelled! On top of that, time is eroding its value so when you eventually sell the vehicle the loss in resale value is crystallised.