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With the cost of living skyrocketing in Australia (and everywhere, let's be real), it's hard to believe that Australia may be one of the cheapest places in the world for something. And that something? Car ownership, so it turns out.
In a study conducted by Scrap Car Comparison, it was found that out of 98 countries, Australia is wildly the second-cheapest country to own a car. The researchers came to this conclusion by looking specifically at two popular car models – the Volkswagen Golf and the Toyota Corolla – and then analysing different costs per country associated with car ownership, including the average cost of the vehicle, fuel, insurance, repairs and breakdown cover options. They then broke the total sum down as a percentage of each country's national salary.
The figures revealed that for Aussies, buying and running a new Volkswagen Golf or Toyota Corolla takes approximately 61.8 per cent of the average Australian yearly salary. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the average full-time Aussie salary is $102,741, which is influenced by some higher earners in society, with a more realistic median wage being $72,592.
To double check this accuracy, drive.com analysed a number of Aussie car costs against this median wage figure, looking at the average cost of these car models in different states, average fuel costs and servicing. The final number for how much it costs to own and run one of these cars in Australia came through at $43,382, which means in actuality, owning one of these models would take just 59.8 per cent of the median Australian salary.
Australia ranked just behind the USA, which topped the world for being the cheapest nation on Earth to own a car, with it taking just 56.4 per cent of the average yearly wage to buy a new car and keep it going for one year.
In third place was Canada, at 69.9 per cent, followed by the Netherlands at 83.5 per cent and Norway, at 88.1 per cent. As for the most expensive country to own a car? The Philippines, where it takes a wild 470.7 per cent of the median yearly wage to buy and run one of these cars for a year.
As always, it's important to bear in mind that many factors influence these rankings, with car price fluctuations always dependent on trade, import costs, tariffs and internal political and economic factors that are specific to individual countries.
In any case, in this economy, we'll take any cheap car news we can get.
Note: This study was conducted before the recent conflict in the Middle East. Therefore, the subsequent surge in global oil and fuel prices may impact the current "cost to own a car" in several of these locations.