Hedonic analysis of the willingness to pay for fuel efficiency in the Australian automobile market

The implicit prices of automobile attributes are estimated with a hedonic model of new automobiles sold in the 2005 Australian market. The estimated marginal value of decreased fuel consumption is found to be positively valued by drivers and car manufacturers. A comparison of explicit fuel savings estimated with Australian automobile market statistics to the implicit fuel savings estimated with the hedonic regression indicates that new automobile buyers accurately value the fuel cost savings associated with reductions in fuel consumption.