Breaking Down Britains’ Costliest Cities to Own a Car

Do you know where the cheapest place is in Britain to own a car? If not then this is will be a real eye-opener for you, as we have a comprehensive list of which UK city is the lowest and highest priced place to own and run a car. The information has been provided by car servicing company Kwik-Fit as part of their #UKCarCosts campaign, and they have unearthed some pretty interesting information about the varying costs associated with car ownership throughout the nation.

Factors

There are many cost factors which must be looked at when it comes to car ownership, as there is much more to it than simply looking into fuel costs. For this piece of research the cost of every aspect of ownership was considered from fuel costs to MOT prices, parking fees for residents and for on-street parking, as well as the cost of car insurance which of course varies wildly depending on where you live.

Priciest

Before we get into the cheapest location in the UK to own a car, we are going to first take a little look at which is the costliest, now what would your guess be? Contrary to what many believe we have a surprise city in at number one which is Birmingham, in second place it is Manchester and making up the top three is London. The key driver of this cost in Birmingham is the incredibly high fees which must be paid for resident parking, which is £785, to put that in context, London’s is just £155.  All told drivers in Birmingham are looking at an average annual cost of £3,326, Mancunians face average costs of £2,994 and those in the capital have an average yearly cost of £2,921.

Cheapest

The cheapest place to own a car in the UK is Exeter, in the south west, where annual fees of car ownership are just £1,675, almost half the cost of Birmingham. Insurance, resident parking and fuel are all low cost in the city whilst there is just £25 separating Exeter and 2nd cheapest Southampton, there is almost a £200 gap between these cities and 3rd cheapest Newcastle, which costs £1,879 per year.

Have any of these results surprised you? Let us know what you think about this fascinating research, we’d love to hear from you.