Car buyers could save nearly £10,000 simply by travelling a little further from home to find their next set of wheels.

Admiral found that its car finance customers travelled an average of 58 miles from home to buy their last car. The insurer found that one in five (20 per cent) buyers said they wouldn’t travel far to buy a car, and almost a third (31 per cent) said they wouldn’t travel unless they really had to.

However, car owners said they’d be willing to travel long distances for special events like weddings (23 per cent said they would travel more than 200 miles) and concerts (43 per cent said they would travel up to 100 miles). But only 15 per cent would travel more than 100 miles from home to buy their dream car.

How far would you go to save money?

Admiral Car Finance looked at its own data from more than 2,000 customers to find out how far they travelled to purchase their car, and found almost half (44 per cent) travelled 20 miles or fewer to buy their last car.

However, Admiral’s investigation found that by travelling up to 100 miles from home they could save thousands of pounds.

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Investigating the price of an Audi A3 across large UK cities, Admiral found that those prepared to look further afield could reap rewards of almost £10,000 in some cases.

Serious savings

For example, it found that the average cost of an Audi A3 within 20 miles of Newcastle city centre was £17,268, but the average price dropped to £7,489 by extending the search radius to 200 miles, meaning a potential saving of £9,778, equivalent to a 57 per cent discount.

Meanwhile, car buyers in Cardiff, Glasgow and Southampton could also reap massive savings of 50 per cent or more, by purchasing a car up to 200 miles from home rather than within a 20-mile radius, with average savings of between £9,433 and £7,478.

Scott Cargill, CEO of Admiral Car Finance, said: “Purchasing a car further from home might require a bit more time spent on research than just popping to your nearest car dealer, and usually requires the cost of a longer journey to collect the car, but we’ve found the savings that could be made far outweigh any additional costs on petrol or a train journey to get the keys.

“With one in four buyers using some form of credit to purchase their car, finding the car you want for a cheaper price could also help consumers repay finance arrangements in a shorter period of time, or reduce the amount they needed to borrow in the first place. It’s definitely worth investing a bit more time in research in order to make big savings.”