The average annual cost of motoring has fallen in the last three years.

Research(1) from Sainsbury’s Bank reveals that the average annual cost of running a car is around £2,197.42, which is 22% - or £622 - less than 2013. 

The main reason for this change is that the cost of fuel has fallen by 37.8%(2) during this period.

Fuel makes up nearly half of the cost of running a car, and the second biggest expense is insurance, accounting for around 28%. 

Since 2013, car insurance premiums have increased by 5.2%.

Sainsbury's Bank average annual cost of motoring June 2016

1   Based on Sainsbury’s Bank analysis of various sources of data: Consumer Intelligence; petrolprices.com; direct.gov.uk

2 Fuel costs estimated on average economy of a Ford Focus (as below), with fuel costs taken from petrolprices.com on May 5, 2016

Ford focus 2.0 5 gear does on average 37.7 MPG (source: fuel-economy.co.uk).
Pence per litre, May 2016 = 108.3p (pence per gallon = 492.2p)

Average miles driven per year = 7,900 (Source: RAC Foundation)

Number of gallons to drive 7,900 miles = 209.5. 209.5 * £4.92 = 1,031.41

Cost of fuelling a car for a year = £1,031.41

3 Car insurance information provided by Consumer Intelligence

4 ONS, Family Spending 2015

5 Standard for cars, as recorded at direct.gov.uk

6 Simple average tax figures for petrol and diesel cars, as recorded at Gov.uk