UK drivers spend an average of £438k on their cars over lifetime, says new study

Ask any UK driver and they won’t be surprised to learn that, on average, us Brits pay more to drive our cars than any other country in the world. Recent analysis by the team at CarMoney (self-titled ‘car finance ninjas’) suggests we spend an average of £2,835 per year on car-related costs. That’s not even including the price to buy the thing.

Drawing data from "a variety of online sources including Statista, Nimblefins, the AA and more", the team compared the cost of the car purchases themselves, alongside the running costs of fuel, insurance, repairs, servicing, road tax and annual mandatory tests. Turns out, British drivers spend an average of almost £438,000 on cars over a 60-year lifetime - second only to the US when car purchase is factored in.

Granted, that total has been extrapolated from average car costs and the team only focused on five heavily car-dependent countries: France, Germany, New Zealand, the US and the UK. But the visibility to compare, even roughly, what the countries spend in fuel, repairs and insurance, in contrast to our European counterparts, is quite the eye-opener.

UK drivers spend almost double in repairing their cars, in comparison to French and German drivers, suggesting either a) their roads are in better nick (we’ve always said, right?) and/or b) any repairs they do carry out, they’re not charged an arm and a leg for. Or, perhaps, they’re happier to do the work themselves….the study never said.

For a kingdom as small geographically speaking as the UK, we spend almost as much as the Americans in fuel - £1,435 per year vs. £1,505 - despite the fact the USA is 40 times bigger land-wise. The Germans, with a country one and half times the size of Blighty, pay less than a grand on average.

We could go on about insurance, servicing and the looming MOTs but we didn’t want to kill the mood completely. If you’re starting to fret about budgeting for your motoring needs in these tougher economic times, though, check out our advice on saving money.