Cheapest Country to Own a Car

FiestaST

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
Messages
119,677
Pretty interesting study.

Where is the Cheapest Country to Own a Car?

For most of us, owning a car can mean freedom. It means getting to go, see and do what you want, whenever you want. Whether that’s going to work each day or on a road trip, cars really are a part of essential daily life for many, but they also come at a cost… and we’re not just talking about purchase price either.

Getting insurance, fueling up and paying for repairs all bump up the cost of ownership, but as cost comparisons are so high on the agenda for us here at Scrap Car Comparison, we wanted to find out how these costs differ around the world.

The Most Affordable Countries to Own a Car

To find out where the cheapest and most expensive countries to own a car are, we took the average car costs (for the same car models) and added them to the average cost of car insurance, repairs and current fuel prices to evaluate just how expensive it is to own and run a car around the world.

These costs were weighted against average yearly earnings in each country, to give a fair gauge of affordability – enabling us to calculate the percentage of a country’s average yearly salary required to own a car!

Once all that math was out of the way, we found that it’s Australia that stands tall as offering the best value for money for drivers. Requiring just under half of the average Australian yearly salary (49%) the costs to own and run a car are lower here than any other country.

The likes of the car-centric United States, as well as multiple countries in Europe also ranked within the top 10 for automotive value, too. With a higher cost of living than many other countries in our research, the UK fell outside of the top five, however still managed to prove its value, sneaking into the top 10 in ninth place!

Of course, within the United Kingdom alone, prices do vary, with costs of purchase, fuel and repairs coming at a higher cost in the likes of London and Brighton, but like most things, cheaper in Northern cities such as Manchester and Sheffield!

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The Most Expensive Countries to Own a Car

On the other end of the scale, salary of course plays a huge part in how affordable anything is going to be, so it was no surprise to see that countries where average salaries are lower, being much more expensive to own a car, even when new car prices are comparatively cheap to the likes of the UK and U

Turkey, ranked as the most expensive place to own a car within our research and requires more than 6 times the average Turkish annual salary to buy and run a car, while it is also particularly hard to buy new in South America.

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FiestaST

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
Messages
119,677
Australia Is The Cheapest Country To Own A Car, Not The United States

These figures take into account car costs, insurance, maintenance, and fuel.

Considering the fact that America’s infrastructure was basically built with cars in mind, it’s not surprising that car ownership here is less expensive than it is in most countries — but we’re actually not topping charts when it comes to being the cheapest country to own a car. Those accolades go to Australia.

These figures come from Scrap Car Comparison, a UK website dedicated to selling or scrapping damaged cars. The company says that it used the same car models across the board for its comparison (a Toyota Corolla and a Volkswagen Golf) before then factoring in the average cost of car insurance, repairs, and fuel prices in each country to determine the cost of ownership. Scrap Car Comparisons then compared those costs to the average yearly salary of the country in question to see how much of one’s yearly pay it would take to own and operate a vehicle.

I was actually pretty shocked by the disparity. Australia clocks in as the cheapest country to own a car; it takes 49.48 percent of a person’s average yearly salary to own and operate a vehicle. It’s the only country under the 50 percent marker. The United States is the second cheapest country to own a car, but it costs 54.87 percent of the average yearly salary to do so.

 
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