Driven off the road
Drivers counting cost as price of motoring soars
ALMOST one in five motorists have considered giving up their car in the past year due to rising costs.
And a quarter of these said the price of repairs were amounting to more than their vehicle was worth. Meanwhile almost two-thirds of British drivers said they had noticed the cost of car ownership going up in the past 12 months.
Many car-ownership costs such as insurance, road tax and fuel have risen in recent years, adding to motorists’ misery during the cost of living crisis.
For example, car insurance prices reached record levels at the end of 2023, with the average price now £995 for UK drivers according to Confused.com.
The comparison site said this means insurance prices have increased by £366, or 58% in just 12 months and £71, or 8%, in the past three months. The firm also found 16% of drivers had skipped a service or MOT to cut costs, decisions that can put other road users at risk.
MOT costs are up by 19%, with the cost of a full service and MOT having risen from £184 to £219, on average, between 2018 and 2023.
Road tax usually increases to keep in line with inflation and this April it is expected to go up by around 6% for most new and used cars.
The war in Ukraine and rising demand from China have both pushed up forecourt prices, as have cuts to fuel production in Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Drivers had been hit by the biggest monthly jump in five months, reports the RAC. A litre of petrol rose by 4p in February, and diesel by 5p.
Louise Thomas, a motor insurance expert at Confused.com, said: “Millions could risk being priced off the road.”
Separate research by MoneySuperMarket found it costs the average 17 to 20-year-old £7,609 to get on the road – counting all costs such as driving lessons and buying a car – which takes them around 1,000 hours to earn.