Australia tops new-car affordability rankings, study finds

New research has revealed Australia is the most affordable country in which to own a brand-new car.

That’s right, according to a study by UK comparison site Scrap Car Comparison, new-car ownership in Australia is less expensive than in all European countries and even Canada and the US.

To keep things fair, the researchers looked at multiple factors across 40 countries including the average price of a particular new car, insurance costs, fuel prices and repair costs per country, then compared them against the average annual income in each nation.

The two models used for the study were the popular Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Golf, which are priced from $23,895 and $29,350 plus on-road costs in Australia respectively.

According to Scrap Car Comparison’s research, Aussies need to spend just under half (49 per cent) of their average salary to buy and run those vehicles, thanks to our relatively high incomes and the relatively low price of new cars Down Under.

The US ranked second at just under 55 per cent, followed by Denmark (60.34%) and Canada (64.40%), while the UK’s “much higher cost of living” pushed it down the ladder into ninth spot, behind Sweden, Germany, Netherlands and France. See below for the full table of results.

At the other end of the scale, given its lower average salary, Turkey was named as the most expensive country in which to own a new car, requiring more than six times (652.29%) the country’s average yearly earnings.

A new set of wheels is also further out of reach for those in Argentina and Columbia, where more than five times the average annual income is required to own a new car, while countries such as Uruguay, Brazil, Ukraine and Guatemala don’t fare much better.

Click here for the full report.