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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, Insightful) by ElizabethGreene on Monday July 13 2020, @11:58AM (2 children)
I agree, to a point.
Here I disagree, but I understand why you'd have that opinion. The transition from mostly mechanical engine control systems to mostly electronic systems sucked. Now that we're on the other side of it things are remarkably better than they used to be. I've adjusted points and condenser ignition system, and there is no comparison to a solid state ignition module. If the latter fails within the service life of the vehicle you probably got a bad one. I grumble about the cost of coil packs, but then again I don't have to replace a distributor cap and rotor to get my car to start in the rain. Mechanical carburetors were and still are straight black magic.
I do get annoyed with some of the emissions stuff, but I can't argue that it hasn't made a difference. It's rare to drive behind a car that reeks of unburned fuel now. That was very much not the case when I was growing up.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Monday July 13 2020, @06:25PM (1 child)
I might agree with you on purely technical perspective, but from a marketing POV we have cars using electronics for programmed obsolescence and increasing repair costs. All in the name of safety and emissions. Personally the safer car is the one that makes me quite aware of the fact that I am speeding and doesn't require me to push more weight around to turn or brake. And fuel consumption is not the only variable in the sustainability of an item wrt the environment.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Monday July 13 2020, @11:32PM
Your point on programmed obsolescence is spot on. I'm generally opposed to federal "help" wrt manufactured goods, but I wouldn't mind seeing the federal 8 year/80k Mile emissions component warranty expanded to cover a lot more systems.
As for non-drivetrain electronics... I haven't met an infotainment system yet that wasn't absolute crap.