How much does your lifestyle cost? Find out with Volkswagen

Volkswagen has launched the latest stage in its 'Unbelievable Value' campaign with a new microsite designed to illustrate the true cost of everyday living over a lifetime and how looking beyond the initial price tag and making small changes can lead to dramatic financial gains over the long-term.



By logging onto www.truelifecosts.com visitors to the site are introduced to a fictitious village representing different areas of everyday life from food and family to fun, homes, holidays and cars. Click on any of the areas and they'll be guided through a series of simple interactive demonstrations showing how the little expenditures in life can quickly mount up and how, with a series of small tweaks, large savings can be made. An expensive coffee, an extravagant holiday, that handbag or the latest TV – they all add up over a lifetime.



In the car section, visitors can learn how much they could save if they opted to buy a Volkswagen rather than a competitor model. Volkswagens offer impressive whole-life costs thanks to competitive purchase prices and running costs through fixed price servicing plus consistently strong resale values. In the case of the Golf, over a period of three years, this could amount to a saving of up to 14 per cent when compared to its direct rivals. Enough for an expensive coffee every day, an extravagant holiday… you choose.

Interesting facts are also included – for free of course. Such as that the average person spends £1172.44 on sausages in their life, which all added together would make a banger measuring 360 metres. Or that we spend £512.47 on jams and marmalades over a lifetime. Based on an average application time of six seconds per slice of toast would take 18 and a half hours to spread. Incredible.

Any of these facts can then be shared on Facebook, along with guilty confessions about whether the user is a gourmet supermarket shopper or a pub grub fiend for example. Visitors can also compile a personal Cost Report and the financial implications of their spending choices calculated. These can also be posted on Facebook.

Designed and developed by DDB UK, the site will be supported by a radio advertising campaign in the coming weeks.