Average number of miles you drive per year

[lakelover]

I recently got my car insurance renewal. Since I retired, they give me a discount for driving less than 7500 miles annually. I don't yet know if I'm actually under that figure since I haven't had the discount very long, I just requested it a number of months ago.

The thing that got me thinking was their statement on the bill that the national average of miles driven is 12,000/year. It seems to me that the insurance industry has been using that figure for 25 years or more and I don't see any way that is accurate. I think people drive way more now than ever before.

I wonder if they change their formula so it perpetually comes to an answer of 12,000 miles annually, or if they are just using vintage data.

What do you think?

 

[nlain]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

Hard to say, it could be a true national average or it could be vintage info. I will say that I drive 68 miles a day round trip 5 days a week to work, my wife only drives 15 miles a day 5 days a week to work. There are many households that the breadwinner has a short work drive and the other car sits at home rarely used. There are also many that all vehicles run a lot, so who knows for sure.

 

[bigdee]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

12k is supposedly the national average PER VEHICLE. Since I retired my mileage has increased. When I was working I only drove to and from work and most of my mileage was put on my wifes car. Now I use that vehicle to run errands and taxi the grandkids while my wife is at work so I think the insurance thing is wrong in my case but so what...i will take the discount!

 

[lakelover]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I guess my point is that they should give the discount at a higher mileage threshold!

 

[nlain]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I guess my point is that they should give the discount at a higher mileage threshold!

I agree completely. Of course if I ever retire my vehicle would not move for days at a time, I would use it only to go get supplies of some type, or on occasion to haul the boat somewhere, since I live on the water that would also be rare.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I have a 60 mile round trip commute. My wife works from home 3 days a week but goes into the office the other two. She rides with me and her office is 10 miles past mine. So that's a 80 mile round trip those days. We pile on the mileage at like 25-30k per year on the main commuter car. "Her" Jeep mainly gets used to run our son to and from pre-school and some other in-town stuff so it should be driven well under 10k a year. My truck is rarely driven at all.

 

[ajgraz]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I get what you're saying about the antiquated numbers. Here in San Diego our water and power rates are tiered starting from a "baseline" usage level that is supposed to represent the "average" usage for a household given its square footage. I don't know ANYONE, even people in newer, well-insulated homes, people with xeriscape landscaping, or those who consider themselves real "eco-types," who uses the baseline or less. I think the utilities are still using baseline numbers from the 50's or 60's.

Anyway, I drive about 10k miles a year, my wife closer to 15k. But my beater towing/hauling truck sees less than 2k a year.

 

[lakelover]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I agree completely. Of course if I ever retire my vehicle would not move for days at a time, I would use it only to go get supplies of some type, or on occasion to haul the boat somewhere, since I live on the water that would also be rare.

You've pegged my situation exactly. I might drive my car 2-4 times per week and on longer trips to the lake between April-Oct. I couldn't believe it when I first retired and I was buying gas every 3+ weeks. It's a little more frequent now that I have a routine going.

I have a 60 mile round trip commute. My wife works from home 3 days a week but goes into the office the other two. She rides with me and her office is 10 miles past mine. So that's a 80 mile round trip those days. We pile on the mileage at like 25-30k per year on the main commuter car. "Her" Jeep mainly gets used to run our son to and from pre-school and some other in-town stuff so it should be driven well under 10k a year. My truck is rarely driven at all.

When my wife was working as a nurse who did home care, she would put between 15-18,000/yr. on her car. At that time I was commuting about 175/wk. on my car, plus trips.

I think the utilities are still using baseline numbers from the 50's or 60's.

I think you hit the nail on the head. For as long as I can remember being aware of this sort of stuff, the "official" average has been 12,000/yr. Impossible that it has not changed.

 

[drrpm]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I drive my car about 7,500 miles/year, my pickup 12,500 and my wife's minivan goes aroun 15,000/year.

 

[raymondpickens]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

Mine is more towards 12,500 every couple months. I know that figure cannot be possible here in texas. If your an active person and have alot of things going on and family scattered across the state like me I usually put 100k a year or more. Some years i have easily done 200k, but I am in the oil field so thats a exception. I dont know anybody but my grandmothers car that only goes to doctor visits and grocery shopping that put that few miles. I drive more miles than that just chasing our bbq cookoff team on the weekends.

 

[Philster]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

Me alone: I pour 30,000 miles onto two vehicles. Truck gets about 10k and the Celica gets 20k.

My wife puts about 20,000 miles on her vehicle.

So, the two of us drive 50,000 miles per year.

(Tip: Whenever I buy a newer vehicle, it's several years old and has about the lowest miles for that given year. For the next couple of years, I am just catching it up!. This is actually very sound advice if you drive a ton of miles. E.g., My Celica I bought @ 10 years old with 90k miles. My truck was two years old with 10k miles)

 

[lakelover]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

Here's an interesting table by the Federal Highway Administration:

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm

This appears to be data from 2000.

From another part of the same publication:

Travel grew about 47% during the 1960's, another 38% in the 1970's, and another 37% in the 1980's, and another 26% in the 1990's.

But yet it's still "12,000 miles".

I wonder how they manage to determine any number of miles driven per year, what ever the actual figure is. People don't report their mileage anywhere. I'm beginning to think it is one of those bureaucratic made-up numbers, made up by someone who sits at a desk and their job is to make up that number.

 

[roscoe]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

miles per driver, and miles per vehicle, are two different things.

Here, insurance is bought per vehicle.

And insurance discounts are given per vehicle.

Many, probably most states require the mileage to be recorded at either vehicle registration renewal or title transfer.

10,000 miles here, spread over 2 vehicles, so only 5000 per vehicle.

Many people in small town America drive less than 20 miles a day.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

People don't report their mileage anywhere.

In PA at least, it would be easy to track since mileage is reported annually for inspection and perhaps for registration (I forget on that one).

 

[Philster]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

Here's the deal: America is an aging country. Older Americans drive less and less, and they bring the average down.

Also, averages suck. Averages are over-rated. Average flatten out what real data can do and mean.

 

[lakelover]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

In PA at least, it would be easy to track since mileage is reported annually for inspection and perhaps for registration (I forget on that one).

Yup, in NY too. So it must take a long time for data collected to be added to the big mileage pot. An ongoing project you might say.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I know we pack on about 30k miles per year between two vehicles. But, I'm not sure how that data would be collected here in TN. We don't report annually to insurance or at registration, and outside of the big cities and connecting counties there's not much emission testing.

 

[jkust]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

I'm probably right at the 12k per year mark for my commuter car. Wife's suv gets maybe 4000-5000 inclusive of towing the boat in the summer long distances. We get no discount for her low mileage. I could use the data tracker from Progressive, our car insurance company, but i'm just uncomfortable with the concept.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

All three bought new:
No commute. Worked from home office since 2003.

2010 Accord = 22,000 miles = 11,000 per year
2000 Tahoe = 130,000 = 10,800 per year
1990 Civic = 180,000 = 8,100 per year

Lots of way to calculate a nations average mileage w/o reporting individual report.

All you need to know is.....

Gallons of fuel sold
Registered vehicles
average fleet MPG

 

[kobe]

Re: Average number of miles you drive per year

Time to go metric!

2009 Silverado - just rolled over 70,000 km
2010 Terrain (Wifes) just rolled over 10,000 km

Air Canada Air Miles since Jan 1 = 38,000 miles (I travel alot for work!)