The good news for budget-strapped motorists is that lower gas prices and still-cheap financing rates have caused the annual cost to own and operate a car to drop by two percent in the past year, falling to $8,698 according to the 2015 Your Driving Costs study conducted by the AAA in Orlando, Florida.
Overall, a motorist can expect to spend around $728 a month - that’s 58 cents a mile - to cover both fixed and variable expenses on a typical sedan driven 15,000 miles annually. These include fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance premiums, license and registration fees, taxes and depreciation and finance charges.
“Fortunately, reduced gasoline and finance costs more than offset rising costs in other areas,” says John Nielsen, AAA’s managing director of automotive engineering and repair. “As a result, car owners can look forward to saving approximately $178 this year.”
