Average Car Mileage in Ireland

I have often wondered where people get their figures from when quoting average mileage on cars. Personally, I’ve had a figure of 10,000 miles per year floating around in my head for as long as I can remember, and think I originally got this figure from my father.

However, whilst perusing through the second hand car market recently, the issue of average mileage came up again but this time in relation to Petrol versus Diesel cars. To be honest, I’d never really given much thought to the fact that the average figure might different depending on the fuel type. However, according a Private Motoring Energy Usage report by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland in 2005, there is indeed a difference (of around 50%) between the two:

  • Average annual mileage of all cars: 16,894 kilometres (10,498 miles)
  • Average annual mileage of Petrol cars: 15,969 kilometres (9,923 miles)
  • Average annual mileage of Diesel cars: 23,817 kilometres (14,799 miles)

Whilst the report is now 5 years old, I can’t image the relative figures for 2010 are that different. It also looks like my father was not too far off the mark either!


2 thoughts on “Average Car Mileage in Ireland”

  1. That is interesting. I’ve no idea what my annual mileage is.

    I assume the extra diesel miles are because fleets buy diesel these days. Rep mobiles. Lots of BMW 320Ds and diesel Skoda’s. Good fuel consumption etc.

  2. Most people (myself included) actually have no real idea of what their annual mileage is. I guess, depending on when, where and how often you have your car serviced, you could possibly ask the garage to check for you. Alternatively, if your car is old enough, you could look back through your NCT certificates, but neither of these methods particularly appeal to me.

    On a related note, a useful addition to the car sales websites would be to show the average mileage for cars of a certain age/fuel type/model. This sort of information could be useful for haggling with car sales people 🙂

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