How much will running a car cost in 2010?

According to new figures released by the RAC this week, UK motorists are changing their motoring habits significantly in response to the rising costs of running a vehicle. The most common strategies in reducing costs have been the obvious ones - downsizing vehicles, and the number of vehicles per household.

Only 28% of motorists cited environmental motivations for the decisions, proving once more that financial considerations are overwhelmingly more crucial in changing habits - despite the government’s various new awareness initiatives such as the ‘drive 5 miles less a week campaign’ (which are nonetheless welcome and beneficial).

So if running a car is looking expensive at the moment, what exactly can we expect in 2010? Well here’s a few figures on the current state of play:

-Average cost of motoring for 2009 in the UK: £2,219 (down 5% from 2008).
-Of this, £2,219, around half (£1,184) is spent on fuel.

So, the general picture is that 2009 was still one of the most expensive years for motoring in the past decade, but that it was also marginally cheaper than 2008. However, two significant details promise to make 2010 possibly even more expensive than both 2008 and 09.

First of all, the VAT on new vehicles is set to rise from 15% to 17.5% - which amounts to over £200 for a £10,000 new car. However, even those of us who plan to keep our existing vehicles in 2010 will incur another unavoidable expense - further rises in the cost of fuel.

The RAC expects fuel costs to rise to the peak levels we saw in 2008, over the coming months - which means that petrol for example could once more hit a £1.15-£1.20 average, meaning that the figure stated above for annual average fuel cost would jump to approx £1,270. All this added together means that an already expensive activity, will be really stretching the bank.

The reality is that whatever your views on climate change etc, the need to reduce motoring use and habits is highly pressing. Driving less, and driving less inefficient vehicles is looking like the only way to make ends meet for many UK households, and the most important thing from the government’s point of view will be to manage public transport funding in a manner which makes this both feasible and viable in the long-term, especially with further fuel duty increases planned for April 2010…

Dejan Levi

climate change, CO2 emissions, cutting motoring costs, Dejan Levi, Motoring costs