With the summer holidays underway its the perfect time for those living in Gauteng to make a dash down to the coast to spend some quality time at the beach.
Fuel prices have been on a rollercoaster this year with enormous hikes that saw the cost of a litre of petrol reach a new record high of R26.74 this July.
While the price of fuel has thankfully come down since then, South Africans are still paying an alarming R23.46 per litre for petrol 95 as of December 2022.
Given how much the cost of travelling has gone up in the country this year, TopAuto had a look at just how much it would cost to make the holiday journey from Joburg to Durban, based on the most recent fuel prices.
What it costs
With Sandton as our starting point, the journey to Durban’s beachfront via the N3 highway would take approximately six hours and a total of 591km.
Regarding fuel consumption, we used a Toyota Corolla Cross as our benchmark as it is one of the best-selling cars in the country and should serve as a good representation of a typical family car.
For this calculation, we used the entry-level manual Xi model, which has a combined fuel listing of 6.8l/100km.
This means that we will use roughly 40.2 litres of petrol on our journey, which at R23.46 per litre of petrol 95, works out to a fuel spending of R943.10.
On top of this, motorists will need to pay for the various toll gates found along the N3.
There are a total of five toll gates on the Johannesburg-Durban route along the N3.
Here is the official toll cost for each one:
- Mooi – R58
- Wilge – R77
- Tugela – R82
- De Hoek – R56
- Marianhill – R13.50
Altogether, the tolls will add another R286.50 to the cost of the trip on top of the fuel.
This equates to a total trip cost of R1,229.60 to drive in one direction in a Corolla Cross.
For the return we can double this bill, meaning the average motorist can expect to pay R2,459.20 for the entire journey to and from Johannesburg and Durban in December.
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