Cars are expensive and getting more and more. Even a cheap car requires thousands of dollars a year just for insurance and gas.
America is a land of cars, but cars have become an expensive necessity with many financial responsibilities.
The average new car in America sold for a record $49,507 in December, according to Kelley Blue Book, and that’s just slightly less than what the average American worker brings home in a year: about $54,132.
The average monthly payment on a car loan in the US is around $700-$748 for new vehicles — depending on who you ask, and $525 for used, and interest rates have been going up.
The price of a car is just the beginning. From there, the cars lose value and keep asking you to spend more money on them. You have to pay to insure them, pay to feed them, and pay to keep them running.
This list looks at the cost of insurance and gas for some of the most popular cars in America. They range in price from $16,645 to around $35,400 for gas cars.
But these days, the economy car options are fewer. Two of the lowest cost cars at the top of this list are no longer in production, the Honda Fit and the Toyota Yaris. These subcompact workhorses were low-priced and got good mileage, and are among the cheapest cars to run.
To compile this list of cheapest cars to run, you humAn online driver’s education resource for new drivers, it used a variety of sources to find the most popular vehicles, the cost of gas per mile, average miles driven per year, and average insurance rates for each vehicle.
There are five electric cars at the bottom of this list, starting prices ranging from $25,600 to $46,895. Zutobi used the same calculators for EVs, except instead of the cost of gas they used the one from ChooseEV. Electric Vehicle Savings Calculator to find the car’s utility kWh rate for estimated costs per mile.
Averages are based on a 40-year-old male driver commuting 12 miles to work, with policy limits of $100,000 liability for one person’s injury, $300,000 for all injuries, and $50,000 for property damage in one accident, and a $500 deductible for collision and comprehensive insurance, and uninsured motorist coverage. Rates have been averaged across multiple zip codes and insurance companies, so your own rates can be very different based on a variety of factors.
Gas cost is based on the US average of 12,724 miles per year.
based on by Zutobi research, here are 25 of the cheapest cars, followed by the top five electric vehicles.