Having your own car involves a series of expenses that we often overlook. Insurance, road tax or the price of fuel are some of the factors that determine the final cost of owning a car. All of these elements vary depending on the place of residence, since the price of maintaining your own vehicle can vary significantly depending on the region or city in which you are located.
A study carried out by Rastreator to determine the most economical provinces to own a vehicle indicates that Jaén, Cáceres, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas and Córdoba are among the most favorable options. On the contrary, Cantabria, Huelva, Málaga, Castellón and Burgos are the most expensive provinces to own a car. This is because the accident rate in these provinces is high, as well as the high probability of suffering a vehicle theft or the average cost of car insurance.
To make this ranking, various aspects have been taken into account that differ depending on the province of residence. To this end, the annual price of the road tax, the average annual price of basic third-party car insurance, the price per liter of 95 unleaded gasoline, the accident rate, the fines per inhabitant and the average cost of the Technical Vehicle Inspection (ITV) of each province.
There are a series of variables that decisively influence the price that insurers establish to set the insurance premium. One of them is the location of the vehicle, so the area where it is insured, the accident rate in that place, the theft rate in each province and even the weather will determine the final price of the insurance. All of these factors mean that car insurance can vary up to 32% from one province to another.
Zaragoza (278 euros per year), Segovia (280 euros per year), Cuenca (284 euros per year), Salamanca (285 euros per year) and Cáceres (286 euros per year) are the cheapest provinces to insure a vehicle. All of them boast little traffic and, consequently, a low accident rate.
On the other hand, Cádiz (408 euros per year), Almería (404 euros per year), Murcia (403 euros per year), Pontevedra (397 euros per year) and Seville (393 euros per year) are the provinces with the price of basic third-party car insurance highest.
The Rastreator study also takes into account one of the factors that varies the most in each province: the price of fuel. To analyze its impact, the price of a liter of 95 unleaded gasoline in the different provinces has been taken as a reference, with which differences of up to 24% have been found depending on the place of residence.
Thus, filling the tank twice a month for a year represents a difference of up to 500 euros per year between the cheapest region to refuel (Las Palmas, 1,531 euros per year) and the most expensive (Balearic Islands, 2,027 euros per year). Along with Las Palmas, the most economical provinces to refuel are Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1,531 euros per year), Córdoba (1,856 euros per year), Almería (1,859 euros per year) and Lleida (1,859 euros per year).
On the other hand, having a car in the Balearic Islands (2,027 euros per year), Asturias (1,969 euros per year), Gipuzkoa (1,966 euros per year), Vizcaya (1,948 euros per year) and Madrid (1,939 euros per year) represents a greater economic effort in terms of total fuel expense.
As we have seen in previous information published in Moveo, the price of the road tax varies significantly depending on the place where the vehicle is registered, which leads to the appearance of true tax havens where it is cheaper to pay this tax.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife (71 euros per year) is the province where it is most economical to pay ‘the fee’. Behind the Canarian province are Badajoz (113 euros per year), Cáceres (113 euros per year), Jaén (114 euros per year) and Pontevedra (118 euros per year).
On the other side of the scale are the provinces of Granada (144 euros per year), Huelva (144 euros per year), Gipuzkoa (147 euros per year), Vizcaya (158 euros per year) and Álava (158 euros per year).
As is the case with the tax on Mechanical Traction Vehicles, the rates for the Technical Vehicle Inspection also differ, although not by locality but by autonomous community. In this sense, Extremadura, Asturias and the Balearic Islands are the cheapest regions to pass this inspection, while the Community of Madrid, the Region of Murcia and the Valencian Community are where it is most expensive, according to the Rastreator report.
