The top three cities in which it was most expensive to own a car are Shanghai, China; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Delhi, India. These figures are based on the three-year period from 2010-2012 and include costs for purchasing the vehicle, fuel, insurance, parking and other miscellaneous expenses. Although Shanghai’s average price for car ownership decreased by 16.3% compared with five years earlier, mainly because of lower vehicle purchase costs, it still cost about $147,000 US Dollars (USD) to own a car in Shanghai from 2010-2012 — or about three times the cost of owning a car in New York City for that same time period. Sao Paulo’s costs increased by nearly 24% from five years earlier, to almost $130,000 USD for 2010-2012, and Delhi’s costs increased by more than 45% to $120,000 USD.
More about car ownership and costs worldwide:
- London has the highest vehicle parking costs in the world, with an average monthly cost of $940.99 USD.
- In 2010, the number of registered vehicles in the world surpassed 1 billion for the first time.
- The United States has more vehicles than any other country, at an estimated 239 million vehicles in 2011, followed by China with 78 million.