Are you sick of taking the bus or train only to bring home groceries? First, you need to know how much you'll spend on gas, insurance, maintenance, and repairs if you decide to buy a car. As reported by Statistics Canada, a whopping 29.2% of our monthly budget goes toward housing costs. Over 20% of family budgets are spent on transportation, with food costs coming in at a close second. Owning a car might be more expensive than you realize, so we've broken it down.

How Much Is Your Monthly Vehicle Payment Or Lease?

With fees and taxes, the current average price of a brand-new vehicle is $45,454. With the average annual percentage rate (APR) increase on 84- and 96-month financing to 5.67% from J.D. Power, the average monthly payment for a brand-new automobile is around $667.

If you can devise a decent down payment, your monthly payments will be cheaper. If you put down the money upfront to cover the tax on a typical new automobile, your payment drops to $590. Despite recent supply chain challenges reducing the amount you may save by purchasing secondhand, some discounts are still to be obtained.

According to cargurus.ca, the average cost of a used vehicle in Canada is $34,254, around 25% less than the cost of a brand-new vehicle. Due to the higher interest rates associated with used automobile loans, the monthly payment on a typical used vehicle is about $520.

How Much Does Depreciation Typically Cost?

Most people think of their vehicle payment as a cost, but you're just spending money on interest. Much like paying off a mortgage increases your home's value, paying off a car loan increases your vehicle's equity.

Sadly, an automobile is a depreciating asset, and the depreciation cost might exceed the monthly payment for a used vehicle. Let's look at a 2022 Dodge Ram 1500 Classic, which will likely be widely accessible at the typical new vehicle price of $45,000, to see how much it will depreciate over the year.

What Does A Typical Monthly Gas Bill Look Like?

According to data from the International Energy Agency, the average fuel usage of a new automobile sold in Canada in 2019 was 8.6 litres of gasoline equivalent per 100 kilometres.

That's 385 kilometres in a week, which seems appropriate if your commute is 40 to 50 kilometres each way and you also drive to acquire groceries, see your parents, or take your dog to the doctor. According to these calculations, monthly fuel usage will be around 143 litres.

Buying a brand-new automobile at today's average petrol price of $1.397 per litre will cost you an extra $200 monthly. If gas prices in 2022 peak at $2.097 a litre, your monthly fuel costs would be around $300.

What Does Typical Auto Maintenance Cost?

Statistics Canada reports that the typical Canadian family spends $81 monthly on automobile maintenance and repairs. However, this number varies widely from vehicle to vehicle. In most cases, you will only have to spend a little money on maintenance or repairs for the first three years or sixty thousand kilometres after purchasing a new automobile.

In that time, you'll spend most of your maintenance dollars on oil changes, typically costing around $80 every three months. Infrequent but necessary costs, including oil changes and repairing damaged brakes, are also to be expected.

What About The Cost Of Registering A Vehicle?

Your province's annual registration and licensing fee might range from $60 to $200. Starting in March 2022, yearly registration renewals in Ontario will no longer cost you anything. However, a one-time price of $32 is still required to register a new vehicle, and $59 is charged if you need a license plate. As of April 1, 2019, Ontario no longer mandates that owners of older vehicles submit their vehicles for emission testing.

What Is Your Monthly Parking Budget?

There may be less of a need to worry about parking if you reside far from the city centre. Nonetheless, it might be expensive if you reside or maintain commercial activity in a major metropolitan area.

A simple check with parking business Impark reveals that monthly parking costs anything from $200 to $300 in Vancouver and Montreal, $200 to $400 in Toronto, and $200 to $500 or more in Calgary. Depending on where you store your car while it's not in use, your monthly parking costs might be very low or very high; for this study, we'll assume $200.