Charlotte, N.C. — Rising gas prices and other costs will result in the average North Carolina driver paying an extra $2,000 this year, AAA Carolinas said Tuesday.
Drivers will pay an average of 63 cents for every mile they drive their car in 2008, the organization said. The amount is 14 cents per mile higher than 2007 and is the largest one-year increase ever reported, AAA said.
The rate, which includes higher gas prices, car prices and insurance costs, translates to an extra cost of more than $2,000 for a person driving the average car 15,000 miles.
“The price of gas is the most uncontrollable factor in operating costs for motorists,” David Parsons, president and chief executive of AAA Carolinas, said in a statement. “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.”
Car prices have risen, on average, more than $2,000 in the past year, and insurance costs have gone up as well, about $190 on average, AAA said.
Based on driving 15,000 miles a year, a car owner would spend about $9,415 for insurance, maintenance, gas, tires, taxes, registration, depreciation and finance charges this year.
Separate calculations were done for sport utility vehicles, which would cost $12,027 a year to own and operate, and for minivans, which would cost $11,040 a year to own and operate.



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Meanwhile, oil producers such as Russia, Canada and Mexico are showing drops in oil production, and rising costs to get what oil they can from their fields. BTW, gas prices have not risen at the same rate as oil because there's a surplus of gas at the refineries. That surplus is almost gone, so watch the price start flying higher real soon now...
April 30, 2008 7:29 a.m.
You need to take your blinders off and look at who has stood in the way of domestic supply and refining.
April 29, 2008 7:44 p.m.
The Dems used high gas prices as an issue running up to the 2006 election. They claimed they had a plan. Ah where is it and how long is it going to take to implement? President again is calling for more drilling as he did in 2002. The Dems are using the same tired arguments they did in 2002. We need refineries, we need to drill; there is a technology that converts coal to gasoline. We need that. So what are the Dems doing besides as usual disagreeing with Bush. Oh yeah and helping to drive up food prices. Corn for ethanol - how lovely.
April 29, 2008 7:43 p.m.
The price of gas in January 2001: $1.39 per gallon The price of gas today: $3.60 per gallon
Please don't insinuate that this upward trend began with the last Congressional term. That's absurd.
April 29, 2008 7:04 p.m.
April 29, 2008 7:03 p.m.