New study on vehicle ownership costs

The price of the mass entry level car used for the study in SA is equivalent to 95% of a teacher's annual salary.

In Brazil it amounts to 122% of a teacher's annual salary, while in the United States and Australia it amounts to just 23% and 26% respectively.

This means a South African teacher will need to spend 11.5 months of their annual salary to pay the full purchase price of the car, while for a teacher in the UK it will be equivalent to just four months of their annual salary.

The teacher in the analysis is a high school mathematics public school teacher with five years' experience.

The ownership and operating costs monitored in each region included the initial purchase price of the vehicle; fuel and maintenance costs; government taxes, levies and licensing; insurance; cost of finance and the fixed residual value.

WesBank executive head of sales and marketing Chris de Kock said the reasons behind the high mobility cost in SA could be attributed to factors such as labour and transport costs, economies of scale, taxes and compliance and government incentives.

One area in which costs to South Africans compare favourably is fuel.

Of the countries surveyed, the United Kingdom had the highest fuel cost at R20.05/litre. The United States was the lowest at R7.36/l, while South Africa was second cheapest at R9.93/l.

"From the study, it appears that while the mobility costs for vehicle owners in SA are reasonably high when compared to other countries, this is due more to economic factors, rather than higher margins along the supply chain," concludes De Kock.