Greensboro is nation's cheapest city for drivers and Winston-Salem No. 2, national survey finds

cars on market street at cadillac garage
The personal finance service WalletHub found Greensboro has the lowest costs to own and maintain a vehicle among the 100 largest U.S. cities.
David Hill Triad Business Journal
David Hill
By David Hill – Reporter, Triad Business Journal

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What makes Greensboro the cheapest large U.S. city to own and maintain a car? WalletHub considered factors such as costs of a new car, average gas prices, monthly insurance premiums, parking, time and fuel spent on congestion-related delays, and other factors in the nation's top 100 cities. See how the Triad's two biggest cities ranked.

Greensboro is the cheapest — and Winston-Salem the second-cheapest — U.S. city to own and maintain a car, according to a survey by personal finance company WalletHub.

WalletHub ranked 100 cities to determine the best and worst to be a driver and found Greensboro to have the lowest overall ownership and maintenance costs. It considered costs of a new car, average gas prices, monthly insurance premiums, maintenance, parking, time and fuel spent on congestion-related delays, cost of crashes in which road features contributed, and costs related to driving on roads needing repair.

For its overall ranking, WalletHub also drew on data related to traffic and infrastructure, safety and access to vehicles and maintenance services based on the per-capita number of dealerships, repair shops, gas stations and parking sites. Sources included databases from federal agencies, insurers, Yelp, advocacy organizations and its own research.

Greensboro came in as the sixth best overall place to drive, and Winston-Salem came in 11th. Tops was Corpus Christi, Texas.

Raleigh came in second overall thanks to high scores in costs, traffic, safety and vehicle and maintenance access.

The sample considers only the city proper and excludes the rest of cities’ metro areas.

Greensboro was also high on the list of places where drivers lose the least time in congestion, coming in fourth per auto commuter behind Wichita, Kansas; Lubbock, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The best city to drive in: Corpus Christi, Texas, where gas was cheapest, at $3.358 per gallon, and parking is cheap — two hours in the heart of the city costs an average of one dollar. Drivers there lose just eight hours a year in traffic versus 155 in Chicago.

It wasn’t all good for Greensboro. The city came in among the bottom third at 69 for safety, based on accident likelihood compared to the national average, fatality rate, seatbelt usage, and hard-braking events per 1,000 miles, which WalletHub determined from the Allstate Drivewise voluntary telematics program. It was 18th in traffic and infrastructure and 33rd for vehicle and maintenance access.

Winston-Salem ranked 50th in safety 23rd in traffic and infrastructure, and 95th  in access.

 

 

 

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