Photo: Tesla
A new study found that Tesla is the cheapest car brand to maintain across the industry, while Toyota is the champion among conventional car brands. The study analyzed the maintenance costs over a 10-year period relative to the average value of the cars.
Buying a car involves many calculations beyond the fact that you like the brand or the color. Wise people take into account fuel efficiency, safety, and price, but sometimes this is only the tip of the iceberg. Having a reliable car is equally important. Even when nothing breaks, regular maintenance can be expensive. This is where the ClunkerJunker study can offer useful insight into the cost of repairs.
The company analyzed maintenance cost data from the last 10 years for 185 popular and luxury cars sold in the U.S. The study takes into account the absolute value of repairs, as well as their percentage relative to the original purchase price. The latter measure might be skewed because more expensive vehicles appear cheaper to maintain. That’s because the maintenance costs represent a smaller proportion of the original price. To alleviate that, ClunkerJunker has divided the study into popular and luxury brands.
Based on this study, Toyota is the cheapest popular car brand to maintain, with maintenance costs representing 13.41% of the purchase price. The Japanese carmaker had eight of the top ten cheapest cars to maintain, with Land Cruiser (7.29%), Sequoia (8.5%), and Supra (8.56%) in the lead. Meanwhile, Dodge and its truck spin-off Ram offer some of the most expensive vehicles to keep running.
In the luxury car segment, Tesla dominates the results, being even cheaper than Toyota to maintain. Keeping Tesla cars up and running costs an average of 7.1% of the car’s value. Lexus placed second, with 12.3%, thanks to its legendary reliability. Porsche was in the third position, at 17.3%, although other German car brands didn’t fare as well in the study. BMW, for instance, came in last, with maintenance costs totaling over a quarter of the car’s value over a 10-year period.
BMW also had the most expensive individual models to maintain, with the X1 (42%), X2 (40%), and X3 (34.5%) costing considerable chunks of their original value to keep running over a 10-year period. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Tesla Model S costs just 4.6% of its value to maintain over a decade, and the Model X is quite close, at 5.1%. Based on the same metrics, several expensive models like the Audi S8 or Chevrolet Corvette appear to be among the least costly to repair. This is, of course, not quite true, and is so because their purchase price dwarfs the maintenance costs, lowering the percentage.
The study was based on data sourced via CarEdge in September 2022 and did not contain information about newer brands like Rivian or Lucid Motors due to the small sample size. The maintenance costs are calculated for a period of 10 years for each model as a percentage of the average price of a new car. Data on the average price for new models also came from CarEdge.
The company analyzed maintenance cost data from the last 10 years for 185 popular and luxury cars sold in the U.S. The study takes into account the absolute value of repairs, as well as their percentage relative to the original purchase price. The latter measure might be skewed because more expensive vehicles appear cheaper to maintain. That’s because the maintenance costs represent a smaller proportion of the original price. To alleviate that, ClunkerJunker has divided the study into popular and luxury brands.
Based on this study, Toyota is the cheapest popular car brand to maintain, with maintenance costs representing 13.41% of the purchase price. The Japanese carmaker had eight of the top ten cheapest cars to maintain, with Land Cruiser (7.29%), Sequoia (8.5%), and Supra (8.56%) in the lead. Meanwhile, Dodge and its truck spin-off Ram offer some of the most expensive vehicles to keep running.
In the luxury car segment, Tesla dominates the results, being even cheaper than Toyota to maintain. Keeping Tesla cars up and running costs an average of 7.1% of the car’s value. Lexus placed second, with 12.3%, thanks to its legendary reliability. Porsche was in the third position, at 17.3%, although other German car brands didn’t fare as well in the study. BMW, for instance, came in last, with maintenance costs totaling over a quarter of the car’s value over a 10-year period.
BMW also had the most expensive individual models to maintain, with the X1 (42%), X2 (40%), and X3 (34.5%) costing considerable chunks of their original value to keep running over a 10-year period. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Tesla Model S costs just 4.6% of its value to maintain over a decade, and the Model X is quite close, at 5.1%. Based on the same metrics, several expensive models like the Audi S8 or Chevrolet Corvette appear to be among the least costly to repair. This is, of course, not quite true, and is so because their purchase price dwarfs the maintenance costs, lowering the percentage.
The study was based on data sourced via CarEdge in September 2022 and did not contain information about newer brands like Rivian or Lucid Motors due to the small sample size. The maintenance costs are calculated for a period of 10 years for each model as a percentage of the average price of a new car. Data on the average price for new models also came from CarEdge.
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