The price of a new car has fallen by nearly £1,400 over the past five years, but the cost of repairing cars has soared, it was revealed today.

The average price of a new car has fallen from £14,397 in June 1999 to £13,000 in June 2004, according to an Alliance & Leicester index.

By contrast, the cost of repair and maintenance has risen 38.1% over this five-year period.

The average price of a new car has fallen by 9.2% since 1999, but some vehicles have gone down by even more. The average price of a city car, defined by Alliance & Leicester as a "small urban car, not usually used for long journeys," has fallen by more than 18%. The price of a 4x4 off-roader has fallen by the smallest amount, with a decrease of 3.3%.

The index also revealed that over the last five years the average price of one-year-old vehicles has fallen 21.9% and the price of three-year-old vehicles has gone down 24.6%.

Despite falling car prices, the proportion of total weekly household expenditure used to purchase vehicles has risen from 4.7% in 1994-95 to 6.6% in 2002-03. Alliance & Leicester said this could be explained by the increasing proportion of households that now have more than one car.

Andy Bayes, head of personal loans at Alliance & Leicester, said: "The last five years have seen the car buying consumer's position strengthen."