ROME – In the last year the cars of the Italians have remained stationary for most of the time, but the annual deadlines, including insurance and maintenance have remained unchanged, for this automobile.it, site of ads for used cars, new, Km 0 created a list of items to keep an eye on to understand how much it costs to maintain a car.
Every year individuals and families have to pay for the expenses related to third party liability insurance, road tax, service and especially fuel. These costs are not identical throughout the Peninsula, but vary from region to region, especially when it comes to insurance premiums. To these costs are added those for ordinary maintenance (tires, oil change and filters, brakes, etc …)
How much does it cost to maintain a car per year? Here is a national overview and, below the individual items, between fixed and variable.
Average annual cost
The coronavirus pandemic has slightly changed the maintenance costs of a car in Italy. In 2019, the average annual cost of maintaining a car stood at 1,600 euros, while in 2020, this figure dropped to 1,492 euros, or 7.4% less.
One of the components with the heaviest weight on this figure is represented by fuel, which affects an average of about 775 euros, while insurance is needed on average 532 euros.
However, these figures can vary, even considerably, depending on the region in which you live. The best region from this point of view is the Aosta Valley, which in 2020 recorded an average cost of 1,240 euros. The most expensive one for the maintenance of a car was Campania, with an average annual price that reached 2,032 euros.
RC Auto
The Motor TPL policy represents one of the main items of expenditure every year for Italian motorists. In 2020 it accounted for an average amount of 532 euros, down from 2019 when the average cost was 573 euros, while still representing 35% of the total annual maintenance cost of a car.
Again, the cost of Motor TPL varies considerably from region to region. Campania holds the black jersey of insurance costs, with an average of 1,505 euros, or 50% of the total cost of car maintenance. The most virtuous region as far as RC Auto is concerned is Valle d’Aosta, with an average cost of 340 euros.
Fuel
Another important expense item in the annual maintenance budget for a car in Italy is fuel, the average price for refueling in our country is around 775 euros. A figure, however, down compared to 2019 when this expense item weighed 891 euros.
The region where the average cost of fuel is lowest is Molise, where an average of 678 euros is spent per year. On the contrary, the regions where this item of expenditure has the highest price are Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In both these regions, the average cost of fuel stands at € 985.
Coupon and stamp
Another item to consider when calculating the costs of car maintenance is that inherent in the expenses for the overhaul and the car tax.
The influence of these costs is marginal compared to the other annual expenditure items. On average, around 242 euros were spent on the entire national territory in 2020 for road tax and inspection. In this case, the region where you spend less is Liguria, with an average price of 189 euros, while the most expensive is Lazio, with an average price of 443 euros, or almost double the national average.
Mechanical maintenance
In this case it is difficult to calculate an annual average because the data depends very much on the age of the vehicle, on the kilometers traveled, on the characteristics of the car itself. One of the highest costs, however, is given by tires, with an expense trend of at least 200-300 euros per year between full replacement (for example for winter and summer tires) and / or for damage (road holes, etc.) of the single piece. It must be said that if a tire is damaged so much that it cannot be repaired, the Highway Code establishes that it must be replaced with one equal to that of the other corresponding wheel, which often requires the replacement of both.
Another fixed cost is topping up or changing the oil, with consequent change of the filters as well. Usually the complete change is carried out at least once a year, with an expense that can be between 75 and 200 euros, again depending on the type of car.
Then there is the brakes chapter, the change of the pads, linings, the grinding of the discs, etc which, on average, is also carried out once a year, for distances of more than 20 thousand kilometers. The average expense is difficult to quantify because it depends a lot on the car. In any case, at least 200-250 euros between spare parts and labor must be considered.
Even air conditioning, now essential, represents a fixed annual expense, usually for refilling and changing the filters: it ranges from a minimum of 65 euros to a maximum of 150-200 euros for cars equipped with particular filtering.
To all these raw figures, labor must be added. Here, regional differences are particularly felt, even if in some cases inversely proportional to the costs of the fixed figures illustrated in the previous paragraphs. The regions where mechanical labor costs the most are Lombardy, Lazio, Sicily and Piedmont. Where it is possible to snatch lower prices are Campania, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Puglia and Calabria. To give an idea, we go from 20-25 euros per hour for Campania, to 50-65 euros for Lombardy and Lazio. The differences are then much more marked if you carry out maintenance from a dealership or your trusted mechanic.
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