How to estimate annual car mileage from daily driving
Turn commuting, weekend trips and occasional journeys into a realistic yearly distance and running-cost scenario.
How to calculate it
Separate recurring driving from occasional driving. Multiply a round-trip commute by the number of commute days in a typical week and the number of working weeks, then add regular errands and leisure mileage. Annual mileage is a sum of trip distances; do not multiply a one-way commute by workdays without doubling it for the return journey. If you have odometer readings from two dates, their difference over that period is often a better baseline than memory.
Worked example
A 24 km round-trip commute on five days for 46 weeks is 24 × 5 × 46 = 5,520 km. Add 35 km of errands each week for 52 weeks, or 1,820 km, and six 300 km longer trips, or 1,800 km. The total estimate is 9,140 km a year. At 7 litres per 100 km, that is about 640 litres. Multiply by your actual fuel price to estimate fuel spending, and keep parking, maintenance and insurance separate.
What can change the result
Hybrid work, holidays, school runs, seasonal travel and a second driver can change totals substantially. Recorded trips may mix miles and kilometres, so convert before adding. Mileage does not directly predict depreciation or maintenance, and an odometer is not an exact GPS distance measure. Revisit the estimate after several months of actual driving.
Use the calculators and keep reading
Use the annual mileage calculator with commute and non-commute journeys. Put the total into fuel-cost and fuel-economy calculators, then compare a high- and low-mileage scenario. Read the linked fuel-economy guide before mixing MPG and L/100 km.
Try the annual mileage, fuel cost, fuel economy calculator and read this related article for the context and assumptions.