WOMEN DRIVERS HAVE witnessed the biggest rise in motoring costs over the last 12 months.

The 3.5 per cent increase in motor insurance is a result of the gender directive which has been in place since the start of the year with women seeing more severe increases than men.

However, Conor Faughnan, consumer affairs director with the AA advised everyone to “shop around” for their insurance. “Plenty of people saw their insurance costs fall this year, so take the time to put the research in before you buy,” he said.

According to the AA’s annual survey of motoring costs, it costs €11,934.40 to run a family car in the ‘Band C’ tax category, an increase of just under 1 per cent or €110.40 since 2012.

While insurance went up there was relief from a slight fall in fuel prices. Petrol costs fell from 162.9 cent per litre in July 2012 to 157.4 this year. Although it is quite a modest fall as fuel prices are still kept far too high by Irish taxes, it does add up to a substantial saving of around €82.50 in a full year.

Drivers also had to contend with a sharp increase in car tax which was increased by nearly 30 per cent for ‘Band C’ cars in last December’s budget.

The cost of a driving licence also increased by a whopping 220 per cent as we move to the new credit card format. While this is a huge rise proportionately it is still only €5.50 per year.

Servicing, repairs and replacements generally saw slight rises that were very slightly better than inflation at 0.4 per cent.t.

Read: The most annoying car park users in the world>

More: Survey shows differences of over €1,000 between car insurance quotes>