The American Automobile Association (AAA) reports in its most recent “Your Driving Costs” annual study that — surprise, surprise — the average price of owning and operating a vehicle in the U.S. has gone up.
The AAA says you can expect to shell out as much as $9,519 per year, assuming 15,000 miles of driving in a medium sedan. The main culprit? Again, no surprise: higher fuel prices. To determine the overall comparative figures, the AAA factored in insurance, license and registration fees plus taxes, depreciation and finance charges as well as the direct operational costs of fuel, maintenance and tires.
That’s more than most of us spend on groceries or utilities, travel, entertainment, clothes and shoes, and hobbies — combined.
Conversely, a typical I-GO member spends only about $2,520 per year on transportation.
That bears repeating: Less than $3K yearly. And many I-GO members spend far less by biking and walking more and using public transit more frequently.
Big difference. And in this economy, it’s an especially big, helpful difference.
All the more reason, we say at I-GO, to support car sharing and adopt it in more communities across the country. Car sharing not only saves money, it’s also good for the environment and makes our communities cleaner, less congested, more beautiful places to live.
And that’s priceless.
