Average miles per year

[MikeInWimbledon]

In my mind from years ago I had a figure of 12k -


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Obviously we NEVER trust “AI generated numbers” because they’re often misquoted rubbish in 2024. (They’ll get better)

BUT the AA, RAC and ONS have been talking about this level of use for some time now

It’s very different to 30 years ago because we have more cars on the road, more “wife’s cars,” more pensioners’ cars, fewer cars in the hands of the under 30’s, more people flying for their holidays rather than driving, and more people WfH and doing client meetings by phone or video.

And yes I know “there’s a bloke in your pub who….” But the generalisation is still valid.

Myself, I’m doing 12,000 in the family car and 2,500 in the MX5, with actual driving split 90% 10% with the SteeringCommittee. So that’s an average of 6,250 per vehicle or per person.

Buzz around Autotrader and you’ll find a lot of remarkable mileages around. Ferraris seldom do much more than 2k a year, 911’s are higher but still comfortably low. (Maybe 6k ?). Ditto Bentleys & Rollers.

Even tax-free company cars aren’t doing big mileages any more. The Manager / Accountant / IT manager is probably only doing a modest 12-15k in her Tesla 3 or Y

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Is that your driving, or does it include other family members, and mileage done without you in the car?

That’s just me for the cars only I drive. I’ve not included Mrs D or Junior D, or cars that I very rarely drive. It surprised me, I expected it to be less than 20,000 miles.

 

[st13phil]

assuming an average speed of 50mph

As an aside, in all the cars I’ve owned with trip computers that record average speed (in other words all of them over the last 25+ years) the average speed tends to around 32-33mph. Bearing in mind that I live in a rural(ish) area and tend to do much of my driving on fast A- and B-roads at around the national limit it's always been a surprise to me that the average is as low as that, but it’s remarkably consistent.

 

[V12cat]

A car spends approx 95% of its life parked.

With respect, in the context of this discussion that is irrelevant. Change in that figure over the timescale would be relevant.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

I’ve quickly checked the MOT history on the cars I use most and it adds up to around 27,000 miles, but that’s split across a few cars.

I just noticed that the OP’s screenshot was per car, and I have a total across multiple cars. The average across the cars included in the 27,000 miles was just under 4,000 miles per car per annum.

 

[Mactech]

As an aside, in all the cars I’ve owned with trip computers that record average speed (in other words all of them over the last 25+ years) the average speed tends to around 32-33mph. Bearing in mind that I live in a rural(ish) area and tend to do much of my driving on fast A- and B-roads at around the national limit it's always been a surprise to me that the average is as low as that, but it’s remarkably consistent.

Yes, as I now keep one car for predominantly long distance and one for local work, my average speed can look very different to that!



In the 18 months we have had the 'local' i3 the average speed in that car is at just 31mph.
Total average mileage in the cars is now looking like 5k in the i3 and a projected 7k in the long distance car.
A decade ago living in Norfolk and working in the Lakes and Crewe I was doing almost 30k a year and my wife about 10k in her ML.

 

[MSG2004]

Years ago when the children were a lot younger, we'd almost always go to the seaside every other week in the summer etc and in colder weather about once every 4 weeks - visited my siblings more often - I and Mrs MSG have worked locally since the day we started work took the car and or dropped off Mrs MSG - we avg 10/11k a year - recent years up to both of us leaving working together ie early retirement - the car did about 6 to 7k max - since covid, sub 2k miles and first year of covide 1k miles - now, it is shy of 3k.

NB. For the longer trips but not always we go with one of our sons and their family resulting in less miles on my car as they have newer and bigger cars than we do

 

[BTB 500]

Wow this is a revelation for me, there’s a thread on here called ‘EV Facts’ or something along those lines… (I must add it contains very little facts!) and some people on there seem to insinuate the vast majority are regularly doing journeys of over 300 miles.

I suspect not that many people regularly do long trips, but you have no way of knowing that from annual mileage figures. An argument regularly seen in the 'facts' thread you mentioned is that UK average mileage is 'only' 22 miles a day / 154 miles a week. But of course 8,000 miles a year could be two 300+ mile trips a month instead. And obviously lots of people do more than 8,000 miles a year (that's how averages work ).

Many people don't commute by car (they work from home, commute by public transport, or don't work). So their journey profile largely depends on hobbies/passtimes/family commitments/etc. For example I'm retired and my elderly parents (one in a care home, the other living at home on his own and then in hospital) were both a 350 mile round trip away. So yes for a good few years I was regularly making long runs, without actually racking up a high annual mileage. Our hobby is competing with the dogs and the van we have for carrying them to shows is mostly used for trips of 100-300 miles at weekends. The rest of the time it's parked, so again the annual mileage isn't far off the UK average. Etc.

 

[BTB 500]

As an aside, in all the cars I’ve owned with trip computers that record average speed (in other words all of them over the last 25+ years) the average speed tends to around 32-33mph. Bearing in mind that I live in a rural(ish) area and tend to do much of my driving on fast A- and B-roads at around the national limit it's always been a surprise to me that the average is as low as that, but it’s remarkably consistent.

From Mercedes Me our C Class has averaged 47 mph over the last 800 miles or so. As above it depends what the car is used for as much as where you live.

 

[HappytalkAgain]

W

Yes, as I now keep one car for predominantly long distance and one for local work, my average speed can look very different to that!

View attachment 165849

In the 18 months we have had the 'local' i3 the average speed in that car is at just 31mph.
Total average mileage in the cars is now looking like 5k in the i3 and a projected 7k in the long distance car.
A decade ago living in Norfolk and working in the Lakes and Crewe I was doing almost 30k a year and my wife about 10k in her ML.

disappointed Alistair. You of all people should know that closing the drivers door significantly increases MPG.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

As an aside, in all the cars I’ve owned with trip computers that record average speed (in other words all of them over the last 25+ years) the average speed tends to around 32-33mph. Bearing in mind that I live in a rural(ish) area and tend to do much of my driving on fast A- and B-roads at around the national limit it's always been a surprise to me that the average is as low as that, but it’s remarkably consistent.

Maybe, but from the EV thread, EV sceptics do all their journeys averaging 70mph on a five hour 350 mile trip,

with no time to top up the charge in the car or take a comfort break

 

[Mactech]

disappointed Alistair. You of all people should know that closing the drivers door significantly increases MPG.

What a mishtaka to maka
But then I also stupidly bought a car with a much larger frontal area, much higher drag coefficient, a much more powerful engine and an extra door to leave open
....but it's easier to get the dogs in...

 

[pioneercollector]

I used to do travel 80 miles to from work every day for years and years, which was around 20k per annum.
Now i travel much more akin to those figures from the original post.
Work EV Van around 7k
SL500 around 800 miles
Honda CR-V around 2k
Yamaha XJR1300 around 500 miles
Honda Shadow 1100 around 400 miles

I put 30k on the XJR1300 in 18 months around 22 years ago, the mileage was very high for a newish bike, now it is 44000 for a 24 year old bike ..... quite low average now!

So i do around 11k per annum shared between 4 vehicles with the majority being the work EV. The average MPH in the works van is 19 MPH !! That is a mixture of A roads and B roads, but mainly traffic laden roads!!

 

[Dryce]

Maybe, but from the EV thread, EV sceptics do all their journeys averaging 70mph on a five hour 350 mile trip,

with no time to top up the charge in the car or take a comfort break

I suspect that if you look at those actually clocking up long journeys as a substantial proportion of their mileage then you'll find these are the people who are more sceptical.

 

[BTB 500]

I suspect that if you look at those actually clocking up long journeys as a substantial proportion of their mileage then you'll find these are the people who are more sceptical.

And of course a 350 mile trip is typically 175 miles each way ... I can certainly manage that without needing to stop for a comfort break (or a coffee, or a burger, or anything else) en route.

 

[ALFAitalia]

So can most EVs...you can charge when you get there.

 

[BTB 500]

So can most EVs...you can charge when you get there.

Depends where you're going to. No ability to charge at any of my destinations.

 

[TC350]

Our household of three has just one motorised vehicle. Had it from new coming up for 13 years ago and it’s covered a mere 55,000 miles, roughly 4,230 miles a year.

These days it’s mostly used for ferrying our 9-year daughter to her various after-school activities (piano lessons, dancing, choir, swimming.)

In its early days we also used it on a grand tour of Europe, covering over 3000 miles in just over two weeks. That equates to 200 miles a day, which is what my daily commute was in a previous Mercedes 29 years ago.

Averages don’t mean a lot, but despite my low carbon footprint resulting from road miles I still have to endure flack from many for my family’s air miles!

 

[ALFAitalia]

Depends where you're going to. No ability to charge at any of my destinations.

Right......not one three pin plug anywhere you are going that you can plug into.......you off the the North pole???? Nowhere is that far from a charge point or at least a 13amp socket these days.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Averages don’t mean a lot, but despite my low carbon footprint resulting from road miles I still have to endure flack from many for my family’s air miles!

Shush !!

We pontificate on reducing CO2 from driving 7,500 miles a year, while

forgetting that "some of us" also fly 10,000 miles a year.