Georgia is the Most Expensive State to Operate a Motor Vehicle, Oregon is the Cheapest

NEW YORK, Aug. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Georgia is the most expensive state to operate a motor vehicle and Oregon is the cheapest, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report. Bankrate factored in the costs of gasoline, insurance, repairs, taxes and fees. In Georgia, a typical driver spends $4,233 per year to operate his or her vehicle. That is almost double the cost in Oregon($2,204). The national average is $3,201.

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Georgians spend a lot of time in their cars thanks in part to Atlanta's sprawling communities and a lack of public transportation. Those long commutes lead to above-average gasoline costs and insurance rates. And Georgia has the highest state automobile taxes and fees in the nation.

Oregonians benefit from the absence of a state sales tax as well as relatively low car insurance costs. Plus, the typical Beaver State resident drives 16% fewer miles than the national average.

California($3,966), Wyoming($3,938), Rhode Island($3,913) and Nevada($3,886) round out the five most expensive states.

Alaska($2,227), South Dakota($2,343), Montana($2,660) and Indiana($2,698) join Oregon among the five cheapest states.

Click here to view the findings from all 50 states:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/auto/car-ownership-costs-by-state.aspx

For every state, Bankrate determined total car-ownership costs using median insurance premiums provided by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, average repair costs from CarMD.com and average automobile taxes and fees from Kelley Blue Book. Bankrate estimated average gasoline spending using average pump prices from GasBuddy.com.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, our flagship website, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including CreditCards.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, InsuranceQuotes.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, Bankrate.com.cn, CreditCards.ca, NetQuote.com, and CD.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Ted Rossman
Public Relations Manager
Bankrate, Inc.
ted.rossman@bankrate.com
(917) 368-8635

SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.