A new report from the American Automobile Association (AAA) says that the average car [costs / cost] over $9,000 a year to own and [ran / run] . The AAA said that [on / in] average, the cost of driving 23,000 km a year [rise / rose] around two per cent last year. This [costs / cost] includes fuel, maintenance, insurance and repairs. The report says the biggest increase [on / in] costs was for maintaining the car – [things / thing] like oil changes, new air filters, and [safety / safely] inspections. AAA manager Michael Calkins said: "As a vehicle gets older, you [tend / mend] to encounter more significant repair costs." The second largest increase was for insurance. Americans pay an average of $1,029 a year to [ensure / insure] their car. The AAA's report [noted / noting] that the cost of owning a car depended [of / on] its size. Owners of small cars would [probable / probably] spend around $7,000 a year to keep their car [runs / running] , while 4WD owners would have to pay over $12,000 a year for [their / them] gas guzzlers. Mr Calkins also said that people were keeping their car for a [length / longer] time before buying a new one. "The length of time people keep cars has been [gone / going] up for the past several years," he said. This is probably because of the [globally / global] recession. People are putting off buying such an expensive item until the economy [improvement / improves] . Calkins added: "The average age of the vehicle on the road now is 11.1 years.…The quality of the cars [are / is] also improving."