Cost to drive goes up, Iowans aren’t cutting back

The rising costs of gasoline and insurance are two of the main factors in the latest jump in an annual study on the cost of driving a car. Triple-A Iowa spokeswoman Dawn Duffy says the study factors in all of the costs of driving and maintaining a vehicle, without including the car payments. There are owner and operating costs every year, including fuel, maintenance, tires, insurance, license and depreciation. Duffy says the cost of driving a car this year is up about four-and-a-half cents a mile from last year. The average cost of driving in 2004 is about 56-cents a mile or about 84-hundred dollars, based on an average of 15-thousand miles a year. A decade ago, that cost was about 39-cents a mile, or about 59-hundred dollars. Despite the higher prices at the pump and in virtually all other categories, Duffy says Iowans are -not- driving less — to the contrary. She says they have increased the amount they drive and are buying bigger vehicles.The largest component of vehicle cost is vehicle depreciation, estimated at nearly 38-hundred dollars per year of ownership for an average new car. The second biggest expense is full insurance coverage, estimated to average 16-hundred dollars per year. Gasoline runs about 975-dollars, while routine maintenance and tire expenses cost about 915-dollars a year.