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The Most and Least Expensive Cars to Maintain
The most expensive thing most Americans own, after their house, is their car. On average, Americans spend 5% of their income on purchasing a car. Another 5% goes towards ongoing maintenance and insurance costs.
But not every car costs the same to keep it running. And different cars have varying risks of leaving their drivers suddenly immobilized.
At YourMechanic, we have a massive dataset of the make and model of the cars we have serviced and the type of maintenance done. We decided to use our data to understand which cars break down the most and have the highest maintenance costs. We also looked into which types of maintenance are most common to certain cars.
Which Car Brands Cost the Most to Maintain?
Based on estimates of total car maintenance over 10 years
Rank Car-Brand Cost 1 BMW $17,800 2 Mercedes-Benz $12,900 3 Cadillac $12,500 4 Volvo $12,500 5 Audi $12,400 6 Saturn $12,400 7 Mercury $12,000 8 Pontiac $11,800 9 Chrysler $10,600 10 Dodge $10,600 11 Acura $9,800 12 Infiniti $9,300 13 Ford $9,100 14 Kia $8,800 15 Land Rover $8,800 16 Chevrolet $8,800 17 Buick $8,600 18 Jeep $8,300 19 Subaru $8,200 20 Hyundai $8,200 21 GMC $7,800 22 Volkswagen $7,800 23 Nissan $7,600 24 Mazda $7,500 25 Mini $7,500 26 Mitsubishi $7,400 27 Honda $7,200 28 Lexus $7,000 29 Scion $6,400 30 Toyota $5,500
What has been your experience in this regard ?
(Score: 3, Informative) by fliptop on Monday July 13 2020, @10:01AM (23 children)
I feel like Chrysler/Dodge should be higher. Fiat has ruined those brands and they're the junkiest vehicles on the road right now. They should at least be above Pontiac and Mercury. Jeep should definitely be higher too, since they're being ruined by the same people. Not long ago I worked on a Jeep Wrangler that had 68,000 miles and had never been driven off road. It needed all 4 ball joints replaced. That's ridiculous.
Toyota and Honda are definitely the best and most reliable vehicles on the road right now. They may be a bit pricey when initially purchased, but maintenance and total cost of ownership are lower. Resale values are higher too.
No surprise BMW and Benz are at the top, those things are money pits. Interesting that Jaguar is missing from the list, I'm sure they'd be near if not at the top. However Land Rover was included and they're owned by Jaguar.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @10:06AM
I find it somewhat comforting (with respect to my prejudices) that japanese-made cars are towards the bottom. Prejudices seem to correlate well with facts.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @10:34AM (1 child)
>> Interesting that Jaguar is missing from the list,
The reason is that the list is based on completed repairs, and they're still waiting for parts for the Jaguar.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @05:36PM
so is porsche. and ferrari. it's like unaffordable, crap cars are only for the 1%.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Muad'Dave on Monday July 13 2020, @11:15AM
I came here to say this. Jag's cost would've blown the top off the list!
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday July 13 2020, @11:23AM (5 children)
I have a pre Fiat Dodge and it's the same - runs reliably, but wants something all the time. Also, the design is schizophrenic. For example, oil when changed is going out all over, the exhaust sensor that breaks often needs special tools or little Mexican hand to get to. It takes a dedicated tool to get to the last spark plug so I don't change it. I can go on and on.
I've never had Toyotas, but Mazda, Honda (Acura) and Subaru never gave me any serious troubles. The first two from the last century and the last one right now. I maintain my Subaru myself and it's a joy to do as everything is logical and easy.
I've owned a 1980 BMW and it was a great car maintainable using a screw driver and one 14 wrench ) They ruined it all right.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @03:47PM (2 children)
80s beemers were built like tanks. Modern beemers are built like iphone - give it a look from a "wrong" angle, and the wheels start to fall off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 13 2020, @10:47PM (1 child)
80s mercedes were built like tanks, too.
You will see MB 300D, turbo diesels. These mother fuckers simply refuse to die.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:49AM
Meh, there's only one Mercedes worth owning and that's the 600.
Bonus points if you get one that was previously owned by Idi Amin, Ferdinand Marcos, P.W.Botha, Enver Hoxha, Mobuto Sese Seko, Tito, Papa Doc, Kim Il-Sung, Pablo Escobar, or Saddam Hussein.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday July 13 2020, @03:56PM (1 child)
I agree that Chrysler quality has long been mediocre. Around 2000, the Dodge Neon won the Motor Trend car of the year award, and scarcely 2 years later, Neons were piling up in junkyards because the head gaskets were giving out. That can quickly ruin an engine. A bad head gasket can leak antifreeze and oil. Lose all the oil, and the engine won't last even 1 mile. Can go a few tens of miles with a slow oil leak, but you're flirting with disaster. The Neons became infamous for that problem.
If that was the only issue, it wouldn't be so bad, but Chryslers in general just plain have more and worse problems. My parents had a 1967 Chrysler New Yorker, with a monster 7L engine (440 cu. in., actually). Eventually, it became clear that Chrysler had not designed the front robustly enough to support the weight of that engine. After a bit of rusting from winter driving, the supports and front suspension components gradually bent and collapsed. That's just plain cheap and shoddy engineering. No excuse for that. All the American manufacturers did some of that, but Chrysler always pushed the cheapening more than the rest, often going too far. Additionally, that New Yorker was a terrible gas guzzler, getting a whopping 13 miles per gallon, and that good only if you took it easy. Nevertheless, it was better than their previous Chrysler, a 1963 model.
All the American manufacturers cheaped out to the max on compact cars. Had an '88 Ford Escort for a while, and it was terrible. Clutch would last only 50k miles, because they just plain made the clutch plate too small. Same story with the ball joints, too small, and worn out after 50k to 70k miles. Toyota's ball joints were nearly twice the size. Lot of other components were marginal and short-lived. Even the headlight switch failed. It also had crappy electronics for the ignition system, and the engine never idled smoothy. Making small cars cheap and shoddy was somewhat deliberate, to drive consumers to the bigger, and more profitable, models. If you wanted a good quality small car, had to be Japanese.
But Ford did splurge a little on useless and counterproductive bling. That lousy '88 Escort had a vanity mirror with lights in the sun visor. Lights would come on when the mirror was exposed. Problem was, the mirror was covered with a flap hinged at the bottom, and the flap was prone to coming loose when sunlight had heated the visor enough to soften the adhesive that held the velcro. One time as I was driving, it fell open, blocking my view through the windshield. Another time when parked, it did that trick and when we came back to the car hours later we found that the vanity lights had drained the battery. After that one, we removed those light bulbs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2020, @09:06PM
I like Hondas - bad head gasket? No problem at all to pull the block and rebuild it, even if it is OHC (and Honda manuals are /good/!). Don't even need a block-puller for that little 4 banger in the Civic.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Monday July 13 2020, @12:35PM (4 children)
Did they factor in labor prices for the German cars? I've own a few Mercedes (used) and parts aren't that expensive. I'd never take a used BMW or Audi though.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Spamalope on Monday July 13 2020, @07:38PM (2 children)
My '01 Mercedes SLK (had it from '04-'17 when I was rear ended) had an electric seat switch that stuck out too far. A shop broke it (and didn't own up to it). All that was broken was the plastic, removable post. Benz would not sell that part, or even the switch. Unavailable. You had to buy the lower seat assembly for $650 (which sounded substantial but was actually a cheap plastic bezel with the switch pre-mounted).
Chrysler Crossfires are coup versions of the car so I checked to see if the seats were the same. They were, and those seat assemblies were only $250! (still robbery for a .50 plastic post, but not $650 at least). However, Benz altered all the plugs so they weren't electrically compatible. (I can solder... so that didn't stop me but deliberate sabotage of interchangeability to enable price gouging still ticks me off - can you tell?)
The convertible top hydraulics, Benz used substandard seals that failed very early. The interior panels were glued with silicone caulking/adhesive instead of permanently bonded and the entire interior fell apart despite the car being climate controlled garage kept. The interior was coated with this rubberized coating that sluffed off so half the interior panels looked like the car had a disease.
The hoses and seals on the engine turned hard and brittle in heat, so a good thing engines don't get hot right? (bleh) But they were cheap and easy to change at least, and with quality replacements it was fixed just like with the convertible seals - except for the interior coating the poor parts could be replaced with quality and the problem never re-appeared.
But then the chassis was well made. The metal parts at least were alloy and a letter grade or two better than US cars. My GF had a Malibu the same year as my Benz, and it disintegrated. The electric system failed all over, switches and wiring harness connectors... once those started to go it totaled the car. The failure points kept failing repeatedly. Even the paint was so thin it oxidizing down to primer. She had to get rid of it in '11 and it looked like it'd been through a war despite a similar life. (the Benz looked good from the outside but for nose rock chips)
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:58AM
And Yoda owned?
(Score: 2) by Tokolosh on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:44PM
Mercedes in '01 was Chrysler, not Mercedes. It is well-known to avoid models from the Chrysler-Benz era. But that does not excuse the crappiness.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:51AM
Post-1980s BMWs are worth more as a collection of replacement parts for other post-1990s BMWs than a car (unless they've got better in the last ten years or so).
Which says a lot about them really.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday July 13 2020, @01:11PM
In my experience the list is reasonably accurate. I've owned at least one Honda, Citroën, Toyota, Ford (European), Opel (European GM), Cadillac STS, BMW, Mercedes, Audi and I probably forgot a few. In my most expensive list, Cadillac is on top, Ford second. My Mercedes AMG was the best car I ever owned. Relatively high in maintenance costs (for instance it had 16 spark plugs and huge disk brakes), but it was very reliable, fun to drive and I hardly had any unexpected costs during years of ownership.
(Score: 2) by Tokolosh on Monday July 13 2020, @02:48PM (1 child)
My strategy is to buy a used Mercedes for 20% of its original price and do most of the maintenance myself. That way I reap the benefit of the poor resale value, and know that it is maintained properly. Parts are cheap online. For the occasional work that is outwith my capabilities, I have a reliable indy shop.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nuke on Monday July 13 2020, @03:46PM
I do the same, except I have a Jeep. The more expensive a car is when new, the greater the price drop used, so I have tended to buy up-market cars about 4 years old. If you are patient you can find low mileage ones in almost mint condition. With two Jeeps over 17 years (I drive them until they are scrap) I've never needed to go to a repair shop, but there is not much I can't do and I know these cars better than most repair shops, including the main stealers.
My Jeep engine is a Mercedes and it is cheaper to get the spares from a Merc dealer than a Jeep dealer. That's if I can't get them from an independent supplier even cheaper.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday July 14 2020, @01:43AM
Some of the brands on that list are kind of strange. Pontiac and Saturn were axed back in 2009, so any Pontiac and Saturn on the road is at least 10 years old now, and Mercury got culled in 2011 so the newest Mercury is almost as old. In that sense, it's no wonder the maintenance costs are going up as the ones that are left are wearing out and need more work. On the other hand, if you are a DIY mechanic, parts for those cars are cheap and widely available.
Though checking the link, that list was compiled back in 2016, so as always YMMV.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday July 14 2020, @02:45AM (3 children)
Interesting that there are no Italian cars there. If they were, they'd be at position 0, -1, -2, -3, .... You don't really own an Italian car, you're just put in charge of paying its bills.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday July 14 2020, @10:49AM (2 children)
Fiat owns Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep. I also just noticed GMC is listed but not Ram.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday July 14 2020, @11:03AM (1 child)
Yeah but that's just brand ownership, I meant genuine designed-and-slapped-together-in-Italy cars, Alfa Romeo ("What's in the last ten pages of the Alfa owner's manual? Bus and train timetables") and Fiat ("How do you get spare parts for a Fiat? Follow another one around") being the main culprits.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Tuesday July 14 2020, @12:45PM
Italian engines, transmissions and a lot of their technology are being put into Chrysler products [youtube.com].
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.