Owning a car is expensive. Between the price of the vehicle, financing costs, insurance, taxes, and maintenance, owning one —let alone two — cars can drain your bank account quickly.
Paying close attention to how much your vehicle costs also presents an opportunity — buy and own a car the smart way and you could save a lot of money each year.
Here, we look at how much a car really costs so you can compare your expenses to the average and find areas where you could try to save.
And we settle an old debate: Should you trade in before your car gets too old or should you drive it into the ground?
Let’s look at what AAA says about the average costs of a “typical sedan” that is driven 15,000 miles per year:
The six major costs of owning a car
AAA actually lists seven expenses, because they consider tires to be a separate category. To cut down on the number of expenses, I’m lumping tires and maintenance together. But here are the average costs for each expense:
Fuel …show more content…
This is also the main reason why total operating expenses fell by 2 percent from 2014 — fuel costs were lower by $268.50 due to the dramatic fall in gas prices since the middle of 2014. It’s important to understand that this is just an average based on national statistics. How much you pay for fuel each year will depend upon the miles per gallon that you get with your car, road conditions in your area, and the specific price of gas where you live, which can vary
Paying close attention to how much your vehicle costs also presents an opportunity — buy and own a car the smart way and you could save a lot of money each year.
Here, we look at how much a car really costs so you can compare your expenses to the average and find areas where you could try to save.
And we settle an old debate: Should you trade in before your car gets too old or should you drive it into the ground?
Let’s look at what AAA says about the average costs of a “typical sedan” that is driven 15,000 miles per year:
The six major costs of owning a car
AAA actually lists seven expenses, because they consider tires to be a separate category. To cut down on the number of expenses, I’m lumping tires and maintenance together. But here are the average costs for each expense:
Fuel …show more content…
This is also the main reason why total operating expenses fell by 2 percent from 2014 — fuel costs were lower by $268.50 due to the dramatic fall in gas prices since the middle of 2014. It’s important to understand that this is just an average based on national statistics. How much you pay for fuel each year will depend upon the miles per gallon that you get with your car, road conditions in your area, and the specific price of gas where you live, which can vary