01 / FUEL
Fuel or electricity
Estimate the energy required to cover your typical distance and the associated running cost.
What does a car really cost?
Buying a car is usually treated as a single purchase price. But the financial cost continues every time the vehicle is driven.
Fuel or electricity, servicing, tyres, repairs, vehicle wear and depreciation can all contribute to the real cost of owning and using a vehicle.
The purchase price doesn't tell the whole story. The way you use a vehicle can have a major effect on its overall cost.
Compare cars based on how you actually drive
A vehicle that looks inexpensive to run on paper may produce a very different result once your annual mileage, commute and typical journeys are taken into account.
02 / MAINTENANCE
Servicing & repairs
Account for the ongoing maintenance that comes with putting kilometres on a vehicle.
03 / TYRES
Tyres & wear
Tyres and other wear-related costs can become significant over higher annual mileages.
04 / VALUE
Depreciation
Consider the loss in vehicle value rather than looking only at the money spent at the fuel pump.
What about depreciation?
Depreciation is often one of the largest costs associated with vehicle ownership, yet it doesn't appear on a typical fuel-cost calculation.
A vehicle can lose value because of age, mileage, condition, market demand and changes in the used-car market.
This means two cars with similar fuel consumption can have very different overall ownership costs.
Your commute can change the calculation
Consider two vehicles that both cost €25,000 to purchase. If one costs significantly more to operate over your annual driving distance, the difference can accumulate quickly.
A daily commute is particularly important because a relatively small difference in cost per kilometre can become hundreds or thousands of euros over a year.
Annual distance × estimated cost per kilometre
= estimated annual travel cost
Compare before you buy
TrueTravelCost can be used to explore questions such as:
- Petrol vs diesel
- Petrol vs hybrid
- Hybrid vs electric
- Small car vs SUV
- New vs used
- Low-mileage vs high-mileage vehicles
The objective isn't simply to find the vehicle with the lowest fuel consumption. It is to understand how different vehicles could affect your total cost of travel.
Don't just ask "How much does it cost to buy?"
A better question can be:
"What will this vehicle actually cost me to own and drive?"
That can include the cost of purchasing the vehicle, using it, maintaining it and eventually losing value as it ages.
Calculate the true cost of your journey
Enter your journey and vehicle details to start estimating what your driving really costs.
Open the TrueTravelCost Calculator