To celebrate Auto Express' 25th anniversary, we thought we’d wind back the clock to see how the cost of motoring has changed since our first issue hit the shelves back in 1988.
Our research shows drivers have been hit particularly hard in the wallet over the past five years. The cost of car insurance has reached new heights, with the average policy costing £1,193. Go back just four years and it was almost half this price. And in 1988, we were paying an average of just £150 a year.
Fuel hasn’t fallen below £1.30 per litre for over two years. But a decade ago, we were paying just 76p – so the average 55-litre tank would have cost £42 to fill up; in 2012 it was £75.
It’s not only motorists who’ve been hit; drinkers and smokers have, too. A pack of 20 cigarettes has shot up from £1.48 in 1988 to £7.10 in 2012; a pint of bitter has gone from 88p to £2.80.
But how have car costs fared when compared to inflation? Have drivers really been clobbered hard? Our chart below reveals all.
| Litre of fuel | Car insurance | Price of a car | Average wages (gross weekly earnings) | |
| 1988 | 36.7p | £150 | £12,207 | £218 |
| 1993 | 49p | £304 | £16,400 | £316 |
| 1998 | 65p | £343 | £19,152 | £393 |
| 2003 | 76p | £588 | £19,585 | £489 |
| 2008 | £1.07 | £650 | £22,399 | £578 |
| 2012 | £1.36 | £1,193 | £27,919 | £609 |
| Pint of draught beer | Cigarettes | Price of a house | Newspaper | First-class stamp | Cinema tickets | Pint of milk (pasteurised) | |
| 1988 | 88p | £1.48 | £49,355 | 25p | 19p | £2.17 | 26p |
| 1993 | £1.36p | £2.24 | £64,239 | 45p | 25p | £3.42 | 34p |
| 1998 | £1.69p | £3.19 | £86,835 | 45p | 26p | £3.69 | 34p |
| 2003 | £1.94 | £4.24 | £155,485 | 55p | 28p | £4.44 | 36p |
| 2008 | £2.39 | £5.31 | £211,388 | 80p | 36p | £5.20 | 42p |
| 2012 | £2.80 | £7.10 | £233,000 | £1.20 | 60p | £6.37 | 46p |
Disqus - noscript
What figures are used for "Price of a car"?
Industry averages?
Or price of, say, a Sierra - Mondeo (mk1 - 2 - 3 - 4)?
Interesting that this has just over doubled, whereas fuel prices have more than quadrupled, as have house prices!
Perhaps the rise in 'budget' brands over the years, such as Kia, Hyundai, Skoda (all 3 are now more or less 'mainstream'), Dacia have helped keep car prices down?
The car insurance costs are very strange. Plot them on a graph and you'll see they shoot up, then slow down, then shoot up. Considering car theft has plummeted, does that mean it's personal injury that is to blame?
I notice you fail to include the inflation you've put on your magazine... If memory serves it used to be 40p a week....
Where can you go to the cinema for £6.37. That is what I want to know.