Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Consumer reports: the five lowest maintenance car brands:

Toyota is third. Four out of five are American name plates, with Tesla being the lowest maintenance costs over a 10 year life span.

Tesla
Buick
Toyota
Lincoln
Ford

There's a pretty graph in the link.....

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-maintenance/the-cost-of-car-ownership-a1854979198/

"When comparing cumulative costs by brand for years one through five and six through 10, we found that Tesla had the lowest maintenance costs. At the opposite end of the rankings, several German automakers are clustered as the most expensive brands, namely Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche.

“If you are considering a luxury model, it may be wise to purchase one from a domestic brand that may have lower maintenance and repair costs,” says Elek. “For example, over 10 years, Mercedes-Benz models are more than double the cost to maintain and repair as those from Lincoln.”

Interesting - even with not paying for oil changes, and most oil changes these days are expensive synthetics at a dealer (talking those likely to answer a CR survey) - Tesla is only ~800 less over 10 years to maintain than an ICE engine.

Course all maintenance is basically voluntary - that is, I don't necessarily HAVE to drain diffs, trans etc when they recommend it and I'd bet quite a few don't.


What would interest me - run a car for 10 years doing nothing but oil changes, wiper blades and brakes as needed - see what car is in better shape at the end of that. Any car can be perfect after 10 years if you dump enough cash in it over the 10. What car is best if you DON'T?

(10 years isn't all that long really these days either. Longer than most will keep the vehicle but still, 120-140k miles aren't a lot on a vehicle these days)

How is Buick different from other GM brands--Chevy or GMC? Aren't they the same vehicles with different branding?

What is the resale value of a 10 year tesla vs a Toyota?

lol

Consumer Reports is doo doo.

Little old ladies drive them and at 10yrs haven't got enough miles for the 1st 3000Mi oil change yet.

Except we here , Out West especially, put more like 20k miles a year on our vehicles.

You're right about the costs there though, that $800 isn't much, about the cost of an oil change at some shops once a year for the ten.

Maintenance aside................what are the costs per mile over 10 years total? Assuming the same basic maintenance schedule in the same location perhaps, as hourly rates for labor vary a bit.

Buick makes only cross overs (made in korea)

I recently bought a 2020 Toyota Highlander Platinum 6-cyl. The first owner leased it and bought it off the lease. Used it as a daily commuter and put 83,000 miles on it in three years. You read that right. I got it at a substantial discount because of that.It will take me several years to get it to 100,000, at which time the recommended services at the dealer will cost about $1300, but that gets a LOT of things done.

Don't think Tesla has been around for 10 years has it?

You have to take into account is that the Tesla's are $70 - 100K vehicles, while the Fords, Toyotas and Buicks are substantially less. People that buy a Tesla typically trade in a BMW or other "luxury" car. For cars in a similar price bracket, the maintenance/ repair expenses for the Tesla are almost half.

I agree that 10 years is less than 150K miles for most people not in flyover country, and just at the point of getting a vehicle broken in. I'd love to see a maintenance expense for every 50K miles up to 300. Still, 10 years should start separating the wheat from the chaff.


About 14 years, not counting the Roadster. Model X came out in 2012.

Cars out west probably aren't the bulk of the respondents tho. Averages of averages - always outliers. Just saying, most people aren't doing 20k - it's not hard to find a 2014 in that 120-140k mileage band etc. Most cars will run that long absolutely ignored.

any bets on that service still being $1300 in the " several years" it will take you to get it to the point?

Probably easier to find a 2014 with that kind of mileage Back East though.

Yes but that's also where the majority of the respondents to the survey and thus the data set is likely to come from as well.

Teal, did they (CR) say that survey was of American car owners?

Granted the "majority" of respondents likely are from back east or larger metro areas out here, but if CR is proposing it as an "American" survey perhaps they should have weighted the survey differentially ?

But that wouldn't be easy, eh?

It does not say but I would assume so. And that's the very important bits about data sets and analysis - how they weigh and analyze.

Also local shot labor costs will vastly skew the prices reported for maintenance costs. For instance when I was working the service desk at Pete - our labor rate was 83.50 an hour in 2007. Pete dealer in CA was 140.00 an hour - both, after 10 years would report the cost for a water pump to be 334 and 560 in labor respectively. Average of 447 and neither respondent feels it's "accurate".

It galls the hell out of me to say it...but talking about pickups, I've been a Ford hater since the '90's when I worked for a company that had a fleet (on any given work day, 1 or 2 out of 11 would be broke down)...but locally UPS runs Ford gasser 4x4's, and they go every day. My route driver just got a new one, the old one was still running at 430,000 but the tranny started acting funny.
I will say as far as Consumer Reports...maintenance costs don't tell the story...the only thing that matters is cost per mile, which includes everything.

My wife has a 2011 Ford Explorer.


The only thing we've done is replace the battery every few years, that and a set of fresh tires.


34k miles out west....lol

My wife has a 2011 Ford Explorer.


The only thing we've done is replace the battery every few years, that and a set of fresh tires.


34k miles on it all out west....lol