I guess median mileage of cars in UK is around 10k per year.
How does it compare with other European countries? Do they use car more or less on average?
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I would hedge a guess at less mileage overall as other countries public transport systems are better integrated, cheaper and do not have the stigma attached like in this country.
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I'd guess less as well.
Few other European countries have our attachment to commuting vast distances. Lower land values and easier renting in towns let people live near and move with their work.
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I would say more in places like the US hugely dependant on the car, and little public transport out side of the big city centres.
If it's any help I remember reading (from the NAO I think) the average UK commute is 9 miles.
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Judging how much train usage has increased over the last ten years I think it is fair to say the average mileage is less than it was ten years ago. It also depends where people live, if you live in Lincolnshire or Devon for example you will probably do a lot more annual mileage than somebody living in Manchester or London.
However this does not always mean the person in the city uses the car less, it just takes so much longer to get to places!
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Whoops saw the OP asked about Europe rather than other countries in general. I would say that people are less likely to commute the big distances that is the norm in the UK. This topic popped up on PH a while back, the general concensus was that you lived much closer to where you worked in mainland Europe. More of a mindset than anything I would have thought. I do think that some of the commutes that some people do and the mileage they clock up every year is extraordinary, but then the past few years I've been able to walk to work in less than 10 mins so I guess it would to me. I believe we have several members who live over in europe I wonder what their take on it is?
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>> I believe we have several members who live over in europe I wonder what their take on
>> it is?
I live in a fairly typically rural part of Austria, about 9km from the nearest sizeable town with any industry, which ends to be regionalised, and it's usual to find small business parks in many towns, which means there is usually a reasonable amount of local work. People here tend to start work around 8am and finish at 6pm, but the majority have a one or two hour lunchbreak, in which they go home because they live close enough to their place of work. We were discussing a building plot almost adjacent to our house with an Austrian friend who currently lives about 10 minutes walk from her office. She was interested in buying it, but told us she couldn't possibly face the 9km/15 minute commute!! In addition, most people are born, live, and die in the same village, very few of them move to find work although it's changing a bit now. This means that there aren't the long drives to visit family. All in all, I'd say the average is around 10,000 km, in other words just over 60% of the UK average. The local garage nearly had a fit when I took in my Saab, when they asked me the mileage I told them "around 250,000 kilometres"! They thought I'd misunderstood the question, but they eventually believed me!
There are of course reps who put the miles on cars, and indeed others who drive for their livelihood.
A final observation. Austrians tend not to drive long distances outside their own country. When you get past Munich it's very unusual to see an Austrian-registered car.
Last edited by: Mike H on Thu 31 May 12 at 12:54
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Interesting mike thanks, seems the work comes to the workers rather than the other way around.
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Not always sooty123 but the transport systems in Europe don't pull your trousers down either.
A couple of years ago I commuted Mon. - Thurs./Fri. from Cologne to Munich for work. Initially flying then moved onto the train as the elapsed time door to door was only 30mins. different and I could work on the train.
I paid 3,800€ to be able to jump on ANY ICE train, on any day, at any time. If trains were expected to be very busy then a recommendation to pay 2,50€ to book a seat would be flagged up to me.
You'll probably pay 3,800€ to get an annual ticket from Croydon to London.
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>> ... I do think that some of the commutes that some people do and the mileage they clock up every year is extraordinary...
As someone who spent a while driving 100+ miles each way to work, a large part of the reason was housing stamp duty. I might have moved the family up nearer to the new job if it was not for the fact that I'd have paid a fortune on this stupid mobility tax.
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>> >> ... I do think that some of the commutes that some people do and
>> the mileage they clock up every year is extraordinary...
>>
>> As someone who spent a while driving 100+ miles each way to work, a large
>> part of the reason was housing stamp duty. I might have moved the family up
>> nearer to the new job if it was not for the fact that I'd have
>> paid a fortune on this stupid mobility tax.
200 miles a day of fuel, cost far more per annum than the 2% stamp duty, even if you bought at the top of the 500k band.
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>> 200 miles a day of fuel, cost far more per annum than the 2% stamp
>> duty, even if you bought at the top of the 500k band.
>>
I was able to reclaim the mileage, and it was a company car. So the main cost was to my health, and my family time.
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Wow Tigger that's the sort of mileage I was thinking of. That to me is near unthinkable, by chance I do 100 mile journey every now and again, the thought of doing that everyday would be errr no chance unless it was some sort of directorship or some big 6 figure salary. Maybe. That journey takes me about 2 hours, was that your sort of journey time? Did you do that journey for a long time?
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Don't know about EU, but here is a table for USA
www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm
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I think Europe tends to have lower annual mileage, certainly if I get hold of any French car magazines the cars for sale are all low mileage compared to their UK equivalents.
I sometimes browse eBay motors USA site (usually when I've gone through all the classic cars on the UK one!) and it's not uncommon to see cars and pick-ups under 10 years old with 300, 400, even 500 thousand miles recorded. Indeed, where the UK site lets you search for up to 25k, 50k, 75k, 100k or over 100k miles, the US version has categories in 25k steps up to 200k+.
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It was encouraged in the Netherlands to move away from work and use the car.Drivers got a tax allowence for the mileage they did.There is a row at the moment for taking the tax allowence away or cut it.It's quicker using the bicycle for short distances lots of traffic jams.In the big city's using tram metro and buses using one ticket they call (overstap) makes sense.
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"French car magazines the cars for sale are all low mileage compared to their UK equivalents"
And yet bus services outside big cities are virtually non-existant - and they have to nip a few miles to the boulangerie 3 times a day for fresh bread.
Mind you, outside big cities there doesn't seem to much commuting
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In my experience French car mileages are high - and Hondas or anything equally reliable seem to be astronomical.
La Centrale, the French equivalent of Autotrader/Parkers, reckons an annual average mileage of 22,000km - 13,670 miles - in its price guide.
Also in my long experience, the French don't commute far, although things are changing they prefer to live close to work, but they drive absolutely everywhere. I know I've said this before but I can see all the other houses in our village but if I have a get-together everyone drives here.
One local supermarket has had to put tank traps around its entrance because people would park right by the doors instead of in the 500-space car park. They would drive into the shop if they could.
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I've noticed that in France - most towns have a free car park perhaps a few hundred yards from the town centre. It's only tourists who seem to use them however . They contain lines of neatly parked British and German cars as against the French cars littered all over the town centre.
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Off the subject why are the French in general so gready with their food portions?
We had dinner in a restaurant in Chartres got a small portion of chips for 6 euro's.Pizza average.Better value for money in the UK and Holland.Is that the reason the French are skinny Mike.>:)
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"Is that the reason the French are skinny"
They ain't - it's a myth.
Go into any MuckDonalds in France and observe. And aren't MuckDonalds in France the most profitable in the world?
Same as in Britain - go to the "posh" areas and restaurants and there are mostly "skinny" people - go to the poorer areas and "burger bars" and there are the obese.
Poor diet, lack of exercise, poor lifestyle (maybe through necessity rather than choice) - nowt to do with nationality.
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Autotrader show six cars up to one year old with more than 100,000 miles. So some people are doing serious mileage.
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% of salad dodgers by country
www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_obe-health-obesity
no of McD's by country
www.nationmaster.com/graph/foo_mcd_res-food-mcdonalds-restaurants
Population of France and UK is similar
So given the number of McD's per Population the French have, they do manage to stay thinner.
Obesity is primarily an Urban thing - so is McDs. Not sure what came first Urban, Fat or Mcd.
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>>"Is that the reason the French are skinny"
They ain't - it's a myth.
Go into any MuckDonalds in France and observe. And aren't MuckDonalds in France the most profitable in the world?
Same as in Britain - go to the "posh" areas and restaurants and there are mostly "skinny" people - go to the poorer areas and "burger bars" and there are the obese.
Poor diet, lack of exercise, poor lifestyle (maybe through necessity rather than choice) - nowt to do with nationality. <<
I'd go along with that. French women, certainly, aren't skinny any more and the kids seem as round as youngsters in the UK these days. It's not just McDo. Every supermarket breakfast cereal shelf is crammed with chocolate stuff. It's a disgrace.
And the French, notoriously, don't eat their salad - especially, it appears, girls and young women. Often in restaurants I want to go round the other tables and smack their knuckles with a ruler.
Anyway, back to comparative car mileage.
My pal from the Isle of Wight used to advise me to look for the relevant registration if I was car-hunting, because IoW motors don't have anywhere to go and don't rack up many miles.
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>> Anyway, back to comparative car mileage.
>> My pal from the Isle of Wight used to advise me to look for the
>> relevant registration if I was car-hunting, because IoW motors don't have anywhere to go and
>> don't rack up many miles.
>>
All right provided you don't mind them disintegrating sooner. IOW may be small but last time I looked you were never more than eight miles from the coast.
I only once made the mistake of buying an old mimser's car; Rover 2000TC which apparently had never been more than a hundred miles from its home since it was built, and that at a top speed of no more than 40. It didn't take too kindly to my more spirited style of driving.
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Car mileage in other countries? - diddy1234
