Stéphanie Robillard-Sarganis has lived in Saint-Eustache, in the Basses-Laurentides, for about three years with her husband, their two children (10 years old and 7 years old), their two dogs and their two cars. She says it outright and as it happens: the growing pressure on the family budget worries her more and more with galloping inflation, the rise in prices of basic products (including gasoline), the mortgage fixed rate which will have to be renewed in 2025 and the old tanks which are showing signs of fatigue.
“What we are going through at the moment is very stressful and I, on top of that, am naturally anxious,” says M.me Robillard-Sarganis in telephone interview. I’m a little waiting for the moment when one of the cars will blow up in our hands and we won’t have the choice of getting back into a wheel of loans and payments. »
According to CAA-Quebec, the annual budget allocated to a car is around $11,000, or more than $900 per month. To arrive at this sum, it is necessary to add to the cost of purchase or rental the operating expenses linked to maintenance, tire changes, fuel or electricity, but also to registration costs, insurance or driving license. The car club’s online cost calculator allows each owner or lessee to create their car budget.
The individual car represents approximately 20% of a household budget after tax, a larger expense than food. By combining the spending of citizens and the State, a pre-pandemic study by Trajectoire Québec estimated that Quebec spent between 43 and 51 billion each year on automobile transport (including roads), the equivalent of 11 to 13% of GDP.
For what ?
Most of these huge charges have increased significantly since the start of the decade in North America. Calculations of New York Times published last month establish that used cars will sell for 40% more in 2023 than in 2020. Repairs and insurance increased by 30% during the same period, the cost of used parts, new cars and trucks and parking fees increased by 22%.
Between January 2021 and July 2022, the average price of a new car increased from $25,500 to $37,000 in Canada, according to the Canadian Black Book site, an essential reference on the subject. This is still, roughly, the amount required by a dealer.
“Manufacturers sell their vehicles more expensively,” notes Jesse Caron, CAA expert, who works in particular as a tester of new models. There are fewer and fewer small cars. The sedans are disappearing visibly. There are still some, but their prices are also increasing, if only because of increasingly expensive standard equipment. »
Several factors combine to explain the rise in prices. The pandemic has stopped or slowed down supply or production chains for vehicles and parts. Price is an indicator of scarcity.
Inflation then pushed up sector costs which were passed on to consumers. Mr. Caron adds that the new “zero emissions” standards encourage the sale of more expensive electric vehicles or the payment of penalties (royalties) which are also passed on to customers.
That’s not all. In this upward spiral, operating costs rise because vehicle residual values soar and interest rates rise. “If you resell your vehicle, you lose less, but when you buy a new one, you pay more,” summarizes the expert. The prices of used vehicles are starting to stabilize, or even decrease slightly, but we are still light years away from what we observed in values before the pandemic. »
How ?
So, what to do? Jesse Caron recommends that motorists who can keep their used vehicles instead of changing them. “If the car is paid for, if it has been well maintained, even if more repairs have to be done, it is much more advantageous than buying a new one,” he says. It’s ultimately going to cost a lot less than making payments that can be $500, $600 or even $700 a month just to lease a very common four-wheel drive compact SUV like a Honda CR-V or a Toyota RAV4. Save these amounts and have your vehicle repaired. »
This is the wise advice followed by the couple of Mme Robillard-Sarganis. She herself uses a nine-year-old minivan for her work within the Mobile Intervention Intensification Team (EMII), which provides occasional assistance to students in serious difficulties at the Laval school service center. The worker goes from school to school and certain transportation costs are reimbursed. Her husband drives a Subaru SUV. The 10-year-old vehicle he uses to get to his work in Boisbriand, where he uses a company truck.
The household’s two vehicles, purchased used, are now paid for, but require more and more maintenance. Recently, brakes and transmission had to be changed. A mechanic friend takes care of the work which still requires a few hundred dollars per month.
“When you have finished paying for your car, generally, the repair costs increase,” summarizes the Eustachoise. We had questions, my husband and I. The fact remains that it is more advantageous for us to have our cars repaired often enough than to get new ones. »
She lived in Laval before moving to Saint-Eustache and her family has always had two cars. The North Shore is “the kingdom of the car”, as recently summarized by The duty. Mediocrity, or even the absence of public transport, offers no alternative to dependence on personal vehicles in certain remote regions, such as in certain areas of the metropolis.
Mme Robillard-Sarganis knows these constraints all the better because she founded seven years ago and still runs the site Ma Banlieue (the “guide for the perfect commuter”), which is full of practical information on companies and organizations in the regions of Quebec. She promotes local activities from an eco-responsible perspective. After all, one way to not overuse your car is also not to travel long distances…