Seattle ranks sixth-most expensive city to own a car in the U.S.
Aug 1, 2026, 5:00 AM
An SUV drives past a sign near a tire shop on a snow-covered road January 18, 2012 in the West Seattle neighborhood of Seattle. (Photo: Stephen Brashear, Getty Images)
(Photo: Stephen Brashear, Getty Images)
Seattle is the sixth-most expensive city to own a car, a new study revealed.
The study, conducted by Plasma One, a stablecoin neobank, factored in average annual auto insurance and fuel costs, as well as median income and hours lost to traffic, to determine its list.
“To find the most expensive U.S. cities to own and drive a car, we began with the 100 most populous U.S. cities using World Population Review,” the study stated. “For each city, we collected average annual insurance costs, average unleaded gas prices, annual hours spent in traffic, median income, median hourly wage, and average monthly cost of living for a single person excluding rent. We converted gas prices into an annual fuel cost by applying the U.S. average annual miles driven (~13,500) divided by the U.S. average fuel economy (~26 MPG) to estimate gallons consumed per year, multiplied by each city’s gas price.”
Of the top 20 most expensive cities to own a car, Seattle boasts the second-highest median income at $121,984, but with it, the Emerald City has some of the highest estimated average fuel costs in the country. Annual fuel costs in Seattle are $2,912.88 on average, while annual insurance costs reach $2,199 on average.
In terms of average annual cost of traffic, Seattle only trails New York and Chicago for being the most expensive — averaging $2,373.88.
Philadelphia ranked as the most expensive city to own a car, mainly due to having the lowest average median income of the top 20 cities tracked. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston rounded out the top five. Following Seattle, Jacksonville, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., and Nashville were the remaining cities in the top 10.
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