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Motors

09th Aug 2017

The cost of keeping your car on the road for a year in Ireland has been revealed

Wow.

Alan Loughnane

cars

It’s expensive…

The average cost of running a family car for a year is €10,671.37 according to AA’s annual survey of motoring costs.

While this may seem expensive, the figure is actually down €178.05 or 1.6% on the figure from last year.

Each year the AA calculates average prices for each of the respective tax bands and illustrates the total cost of owning and running an average family car. They take into account factors like the cost of motor insurance, tax, driving licence, depreciation, interest on capital, parking costs and NCT costs.

While fuel prices have increased slightly in the last year, a slight dip in insurance premiums in the last 12 months been responsible for much of the drop in price.

But it’s worth noting, that this is just a dip in insurance premiums since last year. Consumers faced a sharp increase in prices from 2014-2016 and the prices have remained high ever since.

“Motorists renew their motor insurance once per year so depending on when you pay you may not have seen any fall off in the cost yet.” Says Director of Consumer Affairs Conor Faughnan. “The best we can say is that when we compare August of this year to August of last the cost did not get any worse overall.”

“Rising motor insurance premiums have been the main issue faced by motorists for over two years now, and something which the AA has highlighted to government since the publication of our five point plan to tackle rising insurance costs in November 2015.

“While it appears some progress is being made in this space, in order for the trend to continue into the future and for motorists to ultimately start seeing their premiums drop it’s important that government continues to give this issue the attention it deserves.”

“In the meantime there are some things you can do to lower your car insurance costs,” Faughnan added. “If you have a spouse or partner then adding them to your insurance policy, as long as they have a clean driver record, can net you a discount of up to 20% and separately it’s always worth shopping around.

“Even if you receive a renewal quote which seems competitive, call your current insurer and others to see if anyone can do better for you.”