Maintenance costs over time can quickly add up to become quite a lot in the long run. However, many car brands defy the industry average by either being extremely high, like most luxury brands, or by being unbelievably low. Availability of repair and service requirements for most entry level car brands may contribute to reduction of cost of maintenance, unlike luxury brands that require specialized care and maintenance.
To avoid basing results on mere speculations, Yourmechanic.com, using their large pool of data, was able to analyze the cost of maintenance of different brands over a period of time. It was stated that “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. First, we looked at which major brands cost the most to maintain over the first 10 years of a car’s life. We grouped all years of all models by the brand to compute their average cost by brand. In order to estimate annual maintenance costs, we found the amount spent on every two oil changes (as oil changes are generally done every six months).”
From the data provided, we will compare cars on the 75,000 miles mark, 150,000 miles, as well as the 10-year mark.
Cost of maintenance Over 75,000 miles:
- Hyundai and Kia: $4000
- Toyota: $4,300
- Nissan: $4,600
- Subaru: $4,700
- Scion: $4,800
Cost of maintenance Over 150,000 miles:
- Scion: $10,400
- Toyota: $11,100
- Subaru: $14,000
- Honda: $14,300
- Lexus: $14,700
Cost of maintenance Over 10 years:
- Toyota: $5,500
- Scion: $6,400
- Lexus: $7,000
- Honda: $7,200
- Mitsubishi: $7,400
From the list, Toyota seems to be the most economical brand over the average lifespan of the cars’ usage. Toyota is followed closely by Scion and Lexus, which are sub-brands of the Japanese automakers.
This would help you make informed decisions when deciding on what car to get for your daily driver or even mid-range luxury cars.
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