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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: 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.