The Car Brands With the Highest Maintenance Costs Over Time
The real cost of owning a car goes well beyond the fixed price beyond fixed costs like annual registration fees and monthly car insurance, even beyond the exquisite pain of random parking tickets. While you can think of it as nothing more than regularly changing your oil and installing new tires every few years, maintenance is a cost that can increase significantly over time. However, your mileage will depend on the type of vehicle you buy.
Several years ago, mobile car repair service provider YourMechanic.com analyzed its own data to find out which car brands and models require the most service over a 10-year period. They explain:
At YourMechanic, we have an extensive dataset of the makes and models of the vehicles we have serviced and the types of work performed. We decided to use our data to understand which cars break down the most and have the highest maintenance costs … First, we looked at which major brands are worth the most to maintain over the first 10 years of a vehicle’s life. We have grouped all models by brand over the years to calculate the average cost by brand. To estimate the annual maintenance cost, we found the amount spent for every two oil changes (since oil changes are usually done every six months).
According to them, BMW is the most expensive brand in service today, their 10-year cost is $ 17,800. They found that luxury brands tend to be the most expensive to own for a long time, but much less flamboyant cars receive high ratings, including several brands that have been phased out following data collection. If you’re looking to buy a used car, the list is worth skimming, as many of those aging Pontiacs (10-year maintenance cost: $ 11,800) and Saturn (10-year maintenance costs: $ 12,400) are still on the way. maintenance costs.
According to the list, Toyota is the best value for money for service. Since then, the unopened Scion and Lexus ranked second and third among the least expensive brands, respectively (both are or were part of the Toyota group; some Scions were renamed Toyotas after the 2016 model year).
See the illustration below for information on maintenance costs for all brands. The full post contains more details on how costs change over time and how they change depending on the model.
The most and least expensive cars to maintain | YourMechanic via Priceonomics This post was originally published in June 2016 and was updated on July 7, 2020. Updates included editing copies, updating outdated information, updating dead links, and a new header image.