Three out of five Belgians drive their car less often

A survey of AG Insurance amongst 1 500 Belgians shows that the increasing cost of living and a growing environmental awareness influences the use of their car(s). 62% of them declare to have consciously driven less last year, and almost 40% have saved on expenses for her/his car.

The latter can pose a problem when one sees that 20% of them also saved on car maintenance. Almost half of the respondents (47%) also think it’s important that eventual repairs are realized in a durable way.

Three out of five

The most noticeable result is, of course, that three out of five Belgians have driven less.  For 61% of them, financial reasons were the major incentive to act, and almost half (47%) were also concerned about the environment. The fact that teleworking stayed on for some people after the pandemic played a role in 16% of the cases.

We also see, logically, that the motivation for driving less is the highest for people that were already limited users of personal transport like a car. In the group driving less than 7 500 km per year on average, almost two-thirds drove less last year. In the group driving more than 25 000 km per year, this percentage has dropped to just more than half.

Also noticeable: there’s no distinct difference in the driver’s age.  In all age categories, the percentage of people driving less is more than 60%.

Cost driven

37% of the respondents indicated that they reduced their expenses on their car last year, and 22% also saved on maintenance. 17% postponed the change of tires, while 14% even postponed or simply skipped maintenance. One out of four Belgians is also delaying or simply abandoning a visit to the car wash.

There are some regional differences here. In the northern part of the country (mostly Flanders), 36% of the respondents saved on car expenses; in the southern part (mostly Wallonia), it was 45%. In the south, 26% saved on maintenance and 16% on repair, while this was 19% and 12%, respectively, in the north. The car wash, on the contrary, was skipped by 28% in the north and only 22% in the south.

Colorless roads

A few other things to note: almost three out of five cars in Belgium are ‘colorless’: 23% are black, 20% are light gray, and 15% are dark grey. White and blue score 12% each, red is 7%, and brown, green, and yellow are 3%, 2%, and 2%, respectively.

The average age of a Belgian car has now climbed to 9,5 years, and that’s almost one and a half years more than a decade ago.

The last question in the survey was about the importance for the respondents to own a car, now and in the future. The difference between the two in percentage was barely noticeable, so the average Belgian doesn’t seem ready to abandon his car yet in the near future.