ISSUE: The cost of driving

OUR VIEW: More and more dollars to ride fewer and fewer dollars for other

Here’s news: The cost of operating your vehicles is increasing.

Beyond the obvious, the news is just how painful the rising costs are.

South Carolina motorists will pay an average of 58 cents for every mile they drive their car in 2008, an increase of 11 cents per mile over 2007. That is the largest one-year increase ever, according to AAA Carolinas.

At today’s prices, that translates to an extra cost of more than $1,668 for a person driving the average car 15,000 miles due to increases in car prices, insurance, as well as gasoline.

Operating costs are sure to rise, as gas prices are the most volatile component of a vehicle’s operating expenses. Gasoline shows no sign of getting any cheaper.

Of the 58 cents a mile, 17 cents are calculated as operating costs, including gas, maintenance and tires.

With a current state average price of $3.479 a gallon, the average sedan driven 15,000 miles this year, and getting 31 miles to the gallon, would spend $1,704 for gasoline.

 “The price of gas is the most uncontrollable factor in operating costs for motorists,” said David E. Parsons, president and CEO of AAA Carolinas. “Driving less miles will actually increase the cost per mile driven because two-thirds of the dollars spent in operating a motor vehicle are fixed, but a person’s out-of-pocket expenses will be less.”

AAA’s calculation of driving costs looks at the total operating costs per mile and the total ownership costs per mile, adding them to get the total cost per mile with the total cost per year is based on driving 15,000 miles a year.

South Carolina statistics include using typical car prices that have risen, on average, more than $2,000 in the past year. Also added in are state license and registration fees and the state’s first-year sales and property taxes (also up due to the higher average price of a new vehicle).

Based on driving 15,000 miles a year, the car owner would spend, on average, $8,765 for insurance, maintenance, gasoline, tires, taxes, registration, depreciation and finance charges, this year.

The most expensive ownership cost per mile is depreciation, $3,952 a year, or 26 cents a mile, for a motorist driving 15,000 miles a year. Depreciation accelerates if the vehicle is driven more and decreases when a vehicle is driven less.

Other ownership costs include insurance at 3.6 cents a mile, finance charges at 7.9 cents a mile, and license, registration, and taxes at 3.8 cents a mile.

Other operating expenses include maintenance at an average of 4.6 cents per mile and tires at less than a penny per mile, or .7 cents.

AAA calculates typical finance charges to be $3,952 car average per year based on a five-year loan at 6 percent interest with a 10 percent cash-down payment.

AAA compared the cost of vehicles in three separate car categories, small, medium and large sedan, and then also looked at the costs of operating a sports utility vehicle and a minivan.

Separate calculations were done for sport utility vehicles, which would cost $11,252 a year to own and operate ($2,487 more than the average sedan) and for minivans, which would cost $10,354 a year to own and operate ($1,589 more than the average sedan).

The numbers get you down? Yes! And still too few talk about the overall impact on the economy of the escalating travel costs. More money for the road (remember the average per-person increase is $1,668 annually) translates to less consumer dollars for other things. And the hammer is higher costs for those “other things” (how about food costs?) brought on by increased fuel prices.

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