Melbourne the most expensive city for comprehensive car insurance

Melbourne remains the most expensive city in Australia to insure your car with a comprehensive insurance policy, according to a report from the Australian Automobile Association.

The AAA’s Transport Affordability Index takes a quarterly snapshot of transport costs in Australia’s major cities, based on a hypothetical household with two cars.

In the first quarter of 2017, the cost of comprehensive car insurance dropped slightly overall, to a national average of $22.26 per week, down from $23.58 at the end of 2016.

There were small decreases in price across all major cities, except Darwin where costs rose marginally. Despite this, comprehensive car insurance remained the most expensive in Melbourne, at $30.99 per week, followed by Sydney at $28.29.

Cost of comprehensive car insurance by city

Perth is currently the cheapest city for comprehensive car insurance, and has been for four quarters running, at just $14.09 per week at the start of 2017. That’s less than half the cost of a policy in Melbourne and according to the report, a Melbourne family spends almost $880 more on comprehensive car insurance each year, compared to a family living in Perth.

It’s a different story in regards to CTP insurance. Melbourne is only fourth most expensive for CTP and licensing costs, at $31.28 per week, after Sydney, Canberra - and Perth, where the average cost came in at $33.23 per week.

Hobart was the cheapest city in this case, at just $22.49 per week. An average Hobart family pays $20 less each week than one in Sydney, adding up to a $1,000 saving over a year.

Cost of registration, CTP and licensing by city

AAA Chief Executive Michael Bradley said that Australian households allocate an average of 13.6% of their budget to transport costs but that “in comparison, household expenses relating to electricity and gas consume a far smaller share of that budget, ordinarily around 1% - 3%.”

So if your car insurance is sucking up more of your household budget than it should, head over to our car insurance section to check out some of the top discounts on offer from leading insurers.