High Flyers: We’ve Calculated the Cost of Owning a Flying Car

The prospect of flying cars is becoming more and more of a reality, so we’ve crunched the numbers to find out how much one could actually set you back

• With a real-life flying car recently completing its first ever inter-city test flight, and various car manufacturers discussing the not-so-distant reality of taking to the skies, it seems that flying cars could at some point no longer be a science fiction fantasy, but instead a part of day-to-day life. With that, and our focus on making sure our customers get the right car for the right price, we wanted to find out just how much one might cost. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot!

  According to our detailed research, we estimate that early flying cars will cost approximately £535,831, when taking into account the car itself, as well as essential factors such as insurance, parking and fuel.

  As flying from four wheels will undoubtedly require a brand new (and potentially steep) learning curve, we averaged out the costs required to learn and gain a licence to fly a helicopter, to reach a whopping £26,830 price tag for a flying car licence. Meanwhile, the eye-watering yearly insurance cost of £12,850 was based on insurance costs for aircraft of similar weights and size to current flying cars, piloted by someone with no prior flying experience.

  Looking for something more accessible than a flying car? Explore our latest Motability offers or find a Ford Motability car.

• The Cost Of Owning A Flying Car: Full Breakdown

• 1x Flying Car	£495,421.00
  Flying Licence	£26,830.00
  Insurance (per year)	£12,850.00
  Storage/Parking	£10,000.00
  Fuel (approximate cost per year)	£630.25
  TOTAL	£535,831.25

• Totalling more than it costs to buy a house, lucky owners of the first mass-market flying cars will also need to park and fuel their new prized possessions. With this in mind, we also calculated the average cost of building a structure similar to a helipad, in addition to fuel consumption, which came in at a comparatively cheap £630.25 per year.

  With the cost of getting your hands on a flying car (and actually being licenced to drive it) coming in at such a high cost, it seems that at least on launch, these airborne automobiles will be reserved to a select few and that a worldwide flying car revolution might be a long way off yet.

  In the meantime however, and while the technology is perfected, it's probably best to stay grounded. So if you’re searching for a car that won’t cost the Earth and get safely from A to B, why not check out our range of new or used cars?

• Methodology

  To compile the total cost of owning a flying car, various data sources were used in our research, including:

  • The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) & HeliFly: Licence & Insurance Costs
  • Visicover: Insurance Costs
  • Department for Transport & globalpetrolprices.com: Fuel Cost calculation based on average UK driver mileage (7,400), flying car full tank mileage (600 miles) and current UK fuel costs
  • Business Jet Traveller & British Helicopter Association: Helipad Cost
  • HeliFly: Licence Costs

  In addition to the above sources, a range of current flying cars and their price tags were analysed, including the AeroMobil, PAL-V, Aska, Moller Skycar 400, Terrafugia and the SkyDrive.