Cost of Commuting in Sydney If you commute from the outer suburbs, you could be burning significantly more money than you need to - particularly if you drive an expensive car. It may sound like common sense - the more expensive the car you drive, the more it costs to own and run - but new research from NRMA shows motorists could save hundreds, potentially thousands, of dollars per week by choosing a cheaper runabout. The micro-study, the results of which were released in line with NRMA's annual running costs research, show owners of high-priced, high-output cars like the $245,000 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series may pay as much as $1700 per week more to own their car than, say, an owner of a $13,000 Mitsubishi Mirage. View Full size image here The figures were calculated based on a return trip to the CBD, five days a week for 48 weeks of the year. The cost outcomes were based on a 40-year-old male driver with a good driving record, and included fuel, registration, insurance, roadside assistance membership, servicing, toll roads, the sale price of the car and how much it will depreciate over five years - and that's the key part of the equation. For commuters travelling the 120-odd kilometre return trip from Windsor to the CBD every business day, a Mirage would cost $270.37 per week. Australia's highest selling car this year, the circa-$20,000 Toyota Corolla, would cost $372.94 per week, and the nation's best-selling SUV, the Mazda CX-5 (priced from about $28,000), would cost $378.05. For the exotic Benz, the damage is $1969.74 per week - or almost $95,000 over a working year. The discrepancies were similar from other locations around Sydney. For someone living in Manly and travelling about 30 kilometres per day, for example, a Mirage would cost $120.44 per week, a Corolla $182.54, a CX-5 $204.23 and the Mercedes-Benz would be $1601.73. NRMA Motoring and Services monitoring research engineer David Carr said the results clearly show the impact that depreciation has on a car's cost of ownership. "It's all to do with the capital cost of the car," Carr says. The two main things that affect it are depreciation and included in that is the luxury car tax. Obviously with servicing it will cost much more to service, the brakes will be more expensive, the tyres cost more to replace. The major difference between the [Mercedes and the Mirage] is the cost of depreciation. Over five years and travelling 15,000 kilometres per annum, the C63 AMG would cost its owner approximately $149 per week in out-of-pocket fees, but the capital costs over the life of the vehicle are more than 10 times that amount, at $1549 per week. By comparison, the Mitsubishi Mirage was found to cost an average of $51.25 per week in terms of running costs, but just $93.29 for its capital cost. "Out of your pocket, the Mercedes-Benz isn't that expensive to run," Carr says. But it's those capital costs that really hit you.