$11,578 a year at 15,000 miles — about $965 a month. The part most people miss is the split: 68.9% of it is fixed cost that accrues whether the car moves or not, and gas is only 16.8%. 39 years of the federal series, and what it does and does not measure.
Last updated .
Running an average car 15,000 miles cost $11,578 in 2025 — 77.2 cents a mile, about $965 a month, or $31.72 a day whether you drive it or not.
That figure is the American Automobile Association’s, from its annual Your Driving Costs study. What makes it quotable is where it is kept: the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the federal statistical agency inside the US Department of Transportation, republishes it as Table 3-17 with every year back to 1975 attached. AAA publishes this year; BTS keeps the run of 39 of them, which is the part almost nobody cites because it is buried in a spreadsheet.
Split the 2025 figure the way BTS splits it and the shape of car ownership changes:
People budget for a car as though fuel were the expense and depreciation were something that happens later. The federal table says the reverse: roughly 69% of the cost is already committed the day the car is on the drive, and the pump is the small end of it.
The peak was 2024 at $12,296. 2025 is $11,578 — 5.8% below it, and still 36.7% above 2017, the last year the methodology changed.
| Year | Cost per year | Per mile | Fixed | Variable | Gas share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $11,578 | 77.2c | $7,973 | $3,605 | 16.8% |
| 2024 | $12,296 | 82.0c | $8,541 | $3,755 | 18.2% |
| 2023 | $12,182 | 81.2c | $8,318 | $3,864 | 19.6% |
| 2022 | $10,729 | 71.5c | $6,578 | $4,151 | 25.1% |
| 2021 | $9,666 | 64.4c | $6,624 | $3,042 | 16.6% |
| 2020 | $9,561 | 63.7c | $6,593 | $2,968 | 16.7% |
| 2019 | $9,282 | 61.9c | $6,201 | $3,081 | 18.8% |
| 2018 | $8,849 | 59.0c | $5,960 | $2,889 | 18.7% |
| 2017 (method changed) | $8,468 | 56.5c | $5,742 | $2,726 | 18.2% |
| 2016 | $8,558 | 57.0c | $6,350 | $2,208 | 14.8% |
| 2015 | $8,698 | 58.0c | $6,102 | $2,596 | 19.3% |
| 2014 | $8,876 | 59.2c | $6,021 | $2,855 | 22.0% |
| 2013 | $9,122 | 60.8c | $6,058 | $3,064 | 23.8% |
| 2012 | $8,946 | 59.6c | $6,000 | $2,946 | 23.8% |
| 2011 | $8,776 | 58.5c | $6,114 | $2,662 | 21.1% |
| 2010 | $8,487 | 56.6c | $5,976 | $2,511 | 20.1% |
| 2009 | $8,096 | 54.0c | $5,783 | $2,313 | 18.7% |
| 2008 | $8,121 | 54.1c | $5,576 | $2,545 | 21.6% |
| 2007 | $7,823 | 52.1c | $5,648 | $2,175 | 17.1% |
| 2006 | $7,834 | 52.2c | $5,569 | $2,265 | 18.2% |
| 2005 | $8,410 | 56.1c | $6,295 | $2,115 | 14.6% |
| 2004 (method changed) | $8,431 | 56.2c | $6,541 | $1,890 | 11.6% |
| 2003 | $7,754 | 51.7c | $5,789 | $1,965 | 13.9% |
| 2002 | $7,534 | 50.2c | $5,764 | $1,770 | 11.8% |
| 2001 | $7,654 | 51.0c | $5,614 | $2,040 | 15.5% |
| 2000 | $7,363 | 49.1c | $5,534 | $1,829 | 14.1% |
| 1999 | $7,050 | 47.0c | $5,460 | $1,590 | 11.9% |
| 1998 | $6,908 | 46.0c | $5,303 | $1,605 | 13.5% |
| 1997 | $6,723 | 44.8c | $5,103 | $1,620 | 14.7% |
| 1996 | $6,389 | 42.6c | $4,949 | $1,440 | 13.2% |
| 1995 | $6,185 | 41.2c | $4,745 | $1,440 | 14.1% |
| 1994 | $5,916 | 39.4c | $4,551 | $1,365 | 14.2% |
| 1993 | $5,804 | 38.7c | $4,424 | $1,380 | 15.2% |
| 1992 | $5,824 | 38.8c | $4,474 | $1,350 | 15.2% |
| 1991 | $5,601 | 37.3c | $4,146 | $1,455 | 17.7% |
| 1990 | $4,954 | 33.0c | $3,694 | $1,260 | 16.4% |
| 1985 (method changed) | $3,484 | 23.2c | $2,371 | $1,113 | 24.0% |
| 1980 | $3,176 | 21.2c | $2,033 | $1,143 | 27.9% |
| 1975 | $2,154 | 14.4c | $1,186 | $968 | 33.4% |
Source: American Automobile Association, Your Driving Costs, as published by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Table 3-17, read 12 September 2026. AAA’s own current fact sheet is here. Full series as CSV. Figures are current dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
It is an average, and nobody owns the average car. BTS states the assumptions: a composite of vehicle types driven 15,000 miles a year in stop-and-go conditions, financed, insured and depreciated over five years and 75,000 miles. A paid-off ten-year-old car has almost no depreciation and no finance charge, which is most of the fixed half gone.
The series has three joins in it. BTS flags methodology changes in 1985, 2004 and 2017 and says plainly that costs may not be comparable across them. Before 2004 the fuel line included oil; from 2017 maintenance absorbed tyres, which is why the tyre column stops. Treat the long run as three segments, not one line, and do not quote a 1975-to-today percentage as though it measured one thing.
It is not a repair-cost table. Maintenance here is 11.0 cents a mile on an average that assumes a car under five years old. If the question is whether a specific repair is worth doing on a specific car, that is a different page.
Free to reuse with a link back. If you are replacing a dead link to AAA’s cost-of-ownership pages — several of them went in the last year and a lot of articles still point at them — this carries the same AAA figures from the federal table that archives them, with the history attached.
If a number here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed or removed; the address is on our press and data page.
$11,578 in 2025 for an average car driven 15,000 miles, which is 77.2 cents a mile or roughly $965 a month. That is AAA's figure as published by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Not fuel. Fixed costs — insurance, depreciation, registration, taxes and finance charges — are 68.9% of the total. Gas is 16.8%.
The American Automobile Association's Your Driving Costs study, republished by the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics as Table 3-17 with the series back to 1975. The CSV on this page is that table.
No. The figure assumes a car financed, insured and depreciated over five years and 75,000 miles. A paid-off older car has little depreciation and no finance charge, so most of the fixed half does not apply to it.
Not directly. The methodology changed in 1985, 2004 and 2017 and BTS says costs may not be comparable across those years. The figures are also current dollars, not inflation-adjusted.
It peaked in 2024 at $12,296 and is 5.8% below that now, though still 36.7% above 2017.
Yes, with a link back. The whole series downloads as a CSV from the link above, and if you think a figure is wrong the corrections address is on our press page.