Car running costs: what it costs to keep a car on the road

Running costs are the ongoing, year-to-year costs of keeping a specific car on the road — fuel or energy, tax, insurance, servicing, repairs and tyres. 73 Auto estimates each of these for a specific UK vehicle and your own driving, then shows them as one annual and monthly figure.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-13

Estimate a car's running costs

Enter a UK registration number to see its running costs, personalised to your mileage and location.

What counts as a running cost

  • Fuel or energy

    Follows your mileage, driving style and fuel/electricity price

  • Vehicle tax (VED)

    From official rate bands and the vehicle’s CO2 figure

  • Insurance

    Follows your profile, postcode and the vehicle itself

  • Servicing (including MOT)

    Scheduled maintenance over the period

  • Repairs and maintenance

    Wear items and an allowance for unscheduled repairs

  • Tyres

    Based on typical tyre life and your mileage

Running costs vs. total cost of ownership

“Running costs” usually means the recurring, day-to-day costs above — the ones you pay to keep driving the car you already have. It leaves out two large costs that only apply if you bought the car: depreciation (the value it loses while you own it) and finance (if you didn't pay cash). 73 Auto's full total cost of ownership report adds those two in, for the complete picture of what owning — not just running — the car costs you.

Personalised to how you actually drive

Fuel or energy, servicing, repairs and tyres all scale with your annual mileage and driving style; insurance follows your postcode and profile; tax follows the vehicle's official CO2 figure. Add your own details for a closer estimate, or leave them out and 73 Auto falls back to standard UK driving assumptions. See methodology for exactly how each category is modelled, and data sources for where the underlying data comes from.

Checking tax and MOT specifically

For just the tax side, see car tax check. For MOT status and history, see MOT check.

Other vehicle checks