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It turns out that the cost of driving a car in costly Hawaii isn’t higher than in most other states — in fact, it is in the bottom quarter, according to a report by CarInsurance.com, an auto insurance information company.
CarInsurance.com compiled what it calls the Automotive Misery Index. For each state, it weighs the average household income against the cost of gasoline, the number of miles driven by the typical driver and the price of insurance for a 2012 Honda Accord EX, a family car that sells well nationally.
"A new Honda Accord costs pretty much the same in Bakersfield or Biloxi," said CarInsurance.com Managing Editor Des Toups.
Hawaii ranks 39th out of 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the report. The cost of auto insurance plus gas expenses for the number of miles (10,928) the typical Hawaii resident drives each year amounts to $3,385, or 5.9 percent of $57,537, the average household income in the state.
No. 1-ranked Mississippi is the most expensive state to operate a car at 11.6 percent of average household income, with New Hampshire the least expensive state at 4.4 percent.
CarInsurance.com said its calculations were based on the Accord, which has a combined fuel economy rating of 27 miles per gallon. It used regional gasoline prices from the AAA Fuel Gauge Report on Sept. 1. Household income data came from the 2010 U.S. census, and the regional mileage numbers were reported by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
The insurance cost calculations were an average from six carriers in 10 ZIP codes per state for the Accord driven by a 40-year-old male with no violations or accidents and who commutes 12 miles to work.
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