One of the big promises that accompanied the entry of electric cars into our lives was that they do not require maintenance like gasoline cars. Without lubrication systems, cooling, gearboxes, oxygen sensors, spark plugs, belts, filters, pipes, and a variety of traditional propulsion components - their maintenance costs would be minimal. Indeed, blessed are the naive, because even if there is a general possibility of lower maintenance costs - there are factors in car maintenance that are not related at all to the presence or absence of an engine in an internal combustion vehicle.
The first factor is the components not related to the engine: brakes (which play less due to regenerative braking), air conditioning filters, battery cooling fluid, shock absorbers, suspension components, and steering. They all require maintenance, and even if the manufacturer promises otherwise, they are at best misleading consumers.
The second component is, what can you do, the manufacturer's need to promote careful control over the car's condition and maintenance (after all, it's a business) and also its economic model that relies somewhat on car maintenance. There is also the desire to provide work to its garages, which should not collapse economically.
But with all due respect to economic models, you are interested in saving, not in strengthening the balances of the manufacturers. Therefore, this list, ranking the cheapest cars to maintain, according to the influential American consumer reports, is particularly interesting.
The test results show that it is not surprising that the manufacturer with the lowest overall maintenance costs is Tesla - a manufacturer of electric cars only. Tesla promises that its vehicles do not require frequent maintenance: this is true, but it does not mean that there are no malfunctions and breakdowns, although according to the rating, they will still cost you less than other manufacturers' cars.
Equally surprising is the entry of three American car brands into the top five. Except for Toyota in third place, other Japanese manufacturers are in the last three places in the top ten.
The test editors asked subscribers to provide maintenance costs as they spent on their cars in the last 12 months, and these data were integrated with maintenance data they already had to create a comprehensive ten-year maintenance forecast.
Before presenting the data, it is important to mention two additional factors that need to be taken into account - maintenance costs of new cars aged 3-5 years are lower than those of older cars, and the vast majority of cars are covered by warranties for 3 or even 5 years, which to some extent covers the most expensive repairs resulting from mechanical failure due to manufacturing defects.
"The costs of maintaining clouds when the warranty or maintenance period on the manufacturer's account ends," says Consumer Reports. At both ends of the list of brands are Tesla, whose maintenance costs over a decade are estimated at $4,035, and Land Rover, which according to the survey will require an expenditure of $19,250, almost five times as much. In fact, British brand owners will spend in the first year an amount similar to the total cost of a decade of Tesla cars.
Due to the differences in maintenance costs between the early years of a vehicle's life and the first decade from its production date, the costs are divided into two time periods - 1-5 years and 6-10 years. This is the full list, where the first figure is for the first maintenance period and the second is the total cost for the decade.
1. Tesla - $580 | $4,035
2. Buick - $900 | $4,900
3. Toyota - $1,125 | $4,900
4. Lincoln - $940 | $5,040
5. Ford - $1,100 | $5,400
6. Chevrolet - $1,200 | $5,500
7. Hyundai - $1,140 | $5,640
8. Nissan - $1,300 | $5,700
9. Mazda - $1,400 | $5,800
10. Honda - $1,435 | $5,835
12. Dodge - $1,200 | $6,400
13. Jeep - $1,100 | $6,400
14. Chrysler - $1,600 | $6,500
15. Volkswagen - $1,095 | $6,530
16. Cadillac - $1,125 | $6,565
17. RAM - $1,470 | $6,670
18. Lexus - $1,750 | $6,750
19. GMC - $1,400 | $7,200
21. Mini - $1,525 | $7,625
22. Acura - $1,800 | $7,800
23. Infiniti - $2,150 | $8,500
24. Volvo - $1,785 | $9,285
25. BMW - $1,700 | $9,500
26. Audi - $1,900 | $9,890
27. Mercedes - $2,850 | $10,525
28. Porsche - $4,000 | $14,090
29. Land Rover - $4,250 | $19,250