One of the biggest considerations for settling on a choice of car to purchase these days is that of the total cost of running and maintaining the vehicle, this of course in addition to the cost of the purchase itself. Generally speaking, the higher the cost of purchase, the higher the cost of maintenance itself, because usually what makes one car more expensive than another would be something like a bigger engine, which likely guzzles more petrol, would cost more to take out auto insurance on, would have more expensive spare parts to replace and repair, etc.
Going beyond what can perhaps be referred to as these primary costs, however, are subsequent secondary and tertiary costs. Many vehicle owners don’t even consider these costs which can add up quite substantially based on factors such as where you live and where you subsequently operate your vehicle for the bulk of its lifespan.
Quite interestingly, Birmingham tops the list as the city with the highest costs of owning a car, followed by Manchester and London. Considering where Birmingham ranks on the list of the most expensive cities to live in, particularly in comparison to Manchester and London, perhaps it’s not too much of a surprise that Birmingham makes the top-three…
At the other end of the scale is Exeter, which comes in as the least expensive city in which to own a car, with Southampton taking second spot, followed by Newcastle. This is when the comparison with the cities’ overall cost of living goes right out the window, because these aren’t the top three (cheapest) cities when it comes to overall cost of living.
Sure, there are indeed some clear correlations between economic factors which spill over into the vehicle running costs, like the mentioned overall cost of living, but what tends to set the cat among the pigeons is perhaps a factor such as the costs around auto insurance, which in turn are dependent on factors such as how good drivers in that region are, overall, figures around auto theft, average driving age, etc.
Either way, it helps to take into account these costs associated with maintaining a vehicle when seeking to make the purchase.
