AA: more is less on roads

By SCOTT MACLEOD

Fuel costs are biting hard - but it is cheaper now to own a big late-model car than it was a year ago, a new survey shows.

The Automobile Association survey investigated the cost of owning vehicles up to five years old.

It found that owners of small cars paid an average 8.7 per cent more for the privilege than they did a year ago - but the cost of owning a big car had dropped by 1.1 per cent.

The result seems surprising because of last year's petrol hikes, but the association said the extra fuel guzzled by large cars was offset by the cheaper cost of buying a new one.

The price of new big cars had dropped 5.9 per cent in the past year, whereas smaller/medium cars were just 0.6 per cent cheaper.

The survey looked at the cost of running a petrol vehicle for 12 months at the NZ average of 1000km a month. The cost included licensing fees, warrants of fitness, depreciation, insurance, petrol, oil, tyres, repairs and maintenance.

It did not include parking.

The figures were calculated on January 9 this year, using an average petrol price of $1.01 a litre.

They showed that owners of cars less than 1300cc paid an average per kilometre of 51.1c - equal to $118 a week or $6132 a year.

Owners of 1301cc to 1600cc cars paid 63.1c a kilometre, or $145 a week or $7573 a year.

For a car 1601cc to 2000cc, the average cost was 81.1c a kilometre, $187 a week or $9734 a year.

For cars over 2000cc, motorists paid 93.3c a kilometre, $215 a week or $11,199 a year.

These results appear in the latest Directions magazine, which is being mailed to 560,000 AA members this week.