Its going to cost more for those looking to buy a new car this year. According to new AAA research finance costs on new car purchases have jumped 24 percent in 2019, pushing the average annual cost of vehicle ownership to nearly $9,300. State AAA spokesman Nick Jarmuscz tells WFDL news the spike in finance charges was fueled by rising interest rates and higher vehicle prices. Jarmuscz says of all costs, depreciation, a measure of how quickly a car loses value, remains the single biggest cost of ownership. Average maintenance and repair costs climbed marginally to 8.9 cents a mile, up 8.9 percent over last year. The increase was fueld by the growing complexity of vehicle systems and updated methodology for calculating repair costs. Based on 15,000 miles driven annually the least expensive vehicle to own is a small sedan with average annual costs of $7,100. The most ex pensive is a pickup, at nearly $11,000 a year.
