How Much Does It Cost to Own a Car in Canada? (2026)

A car costs the average Canadian household more than groceries do. Statistics Canada’s Survey of Household Spending (opens in a new tab) puts private transportation at $10,292 a year, against $8,659 for food bought from stores. Gas is about a quarter of that. The rest goes on the vehicle itself, insurance, registration, repairs and tires, and they land at different points in the year, which is what makes the total so easy to underestimate.

How much does it cost to own a car in Canada?

The average Canadian household spent $10,292 on private transportation in 2023, the most recent year Statistics Canada has measured. That’s about $858 a month. Of that, $4,422 went on buying or leasing the vehicle, $5,794 on running it (fuel, insurance, registration, repairs, parking and licences), and the last $76 on rental cars.

One thing to hold on to before you compare that with your own budget: it’s an average across every household, including the ones that don’t own a vehicle at all. If you run a car, your number is higher than $10,292. What it’s good for is showing you where the money goes, not telling you your own total.

Where does the $10,292 actually go?

Here’s the full breakdown from Statistics Canada’s household spending table (opens in a new tab), 2023, averaged across all Canadian households.

Gas gets all the attention and a quarter of the money

Fuel prices move every week and everyone notices. But $2,567 is 25% of the total. The vehicle itself is $4,422, and insurance plus registration is another $1,578. If you’re trying to spend less on driving, a cheaper car does far more than a cheaper fill-up.

Why do other sites quote $16,000 a year?

Two different questions get the same headline. Statistics Canada measures what households actually paid last year, averaged across all of them. Most comparison sites model one person financing one new vehicle today, which is a much bigger number.

Both can be right. Which one applies to you depends on whether you’re already driving a paid-off car or about to sign for a new one.

The average new vehicle in Canada now sells for $56,573

Over the twelve months to June 2026, Canadians bought 1,935,725 new vehicles for a combined $109.51 billion, which works out to $56,573 each (Statistics Canada, new motor vehicle sales (opens in a new tab)).

The reason that average is so high: 88% of the new vehicles sold in Canada were trucks and SUVs. A new passenger car averaged $45,901. A new truck or SUV averaged $58,013. We buy the expensive one, nine times out of ten.

What does a car lose in value each year?

This is the largest cost of owning a car and the only one that never shows up on a statement. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada puts it at 25% in the first year (opens in a new tab), then 15% to 25% a year for the next four. On a $56,573 vehicle, the first year alone costs you roughly $14,000 in resale value.

How that turns into owing more than the car is worth

FCAC works through a scenario. You buy a $31,300 vehicle, add $3,700 in taxes and fees, and finance $35,000 at 4% over eight years. The payment is $425 a month, which sounds manageable.

After one year the car is worth $23,475 and you still owe $31,200. You’re $7,725 underwater. A year later the gap is $8,520. If you trade the car in at that point, that shortfall gets rolled into the next loan, and you start the next car already behind.

Does a longer loan make a car cheaper?

It makes the payment smaller and the car more expensive. FCAC’s own comparison: a $25,000 vehicle financed at 5% costs $1,974 in interest over 36 months and $4,681 over 84 months. Same car, same rate, $2,707 more for the seven-year term.

FCAC counts anything at 72 months or more as a long-term loan, and the warning it attaches is the one above. The longer the term, the longer you spend owing more than the car is worth.

Why does your province change the answer?

By about $2,600 a year between the top and the bottom. Here’s private transportation spending by province, with the two lines that vary most.

Why insurance and registration share one column

In British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba the auto insurer is public, and the premium is billed together with your plate. Statistics Canada reports no separate insurance figure for those three provinces for exactly that reason, and its registration category is named “including insurance if part of registration”.

So if you compare a BC premium against an Ontario premium, you’ll get the wrong answer, because most of the BC number is filed under registration. Added together, the two lines are comparable: $2,097 in Alberta at the top, $1,111 in Quebec at the bottom.

The province that spends most isn’t the province where it hurts most

Alberta households spend the most in dollars, but they also have the highest household spending overall. Measured as a share of the budget, Newfoundland and Labrador comes first: 18.0% of everything a household spends there goes on private transportation. Ontario is lowest at 12.2%.

If you want a figure for your own vehicle rather than your province, CAA runs a free driving costs calculator (opens in a new tab) built on real Canadian data by make, class and province.

A reason to keep the car fund moving

You don’t get to negotiate depreciation, insurance or the price of gas. What you do control is how much you’ve put aside before you need it, whether that’s a down payment big enough to keep you out of an eight-year loan, or just the repair that lands in February.

That’s where Lodavo comes in. It’s a free Canadian app that enters your savings in a weekly cash draw, so the car fund earns you free draw tickets while you build it. Every $25 of your balance earns a free ticket for that week’s draw, and every draw pays out at least $100, with a jackpot of up to $10,000. Your savings stay in your own bank account the whole time, earning whatever they already earn. Saving for something expensive takes a while, and this gives you a reason to look forward to Sundays in the meantime.

Ready to make saving more fun?

A car is going to cost what it costs. Building the fund that pays for it doesn’t have to be dull.

Download Lodavo free on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or the Google Play Store (opens in a new tab) and start earning tickets for the weekly draw. If you want the numbers behind the goal first, our guide to saving for a car works through the down payment, and building an emergency fund covers the repair you didn’t plan for.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.