These Car Brands Will Be Expensive to Maintain

by Tim Healey

Published: May 10th, 2024

these car brands will be expensive to maintain

Hey hey, whaddaya say? Today is podcast day!

This week, we talk to Ben Preston from Consumer Reports about the cheapest and most expensive car brands to maintain -- as well as why consumers might favor independent repair shops over dealerships. TTAC contributor Matthew Guy drops by to discuss trunk struts and the closest finish in NASCAR history.

As always, you can find our podcast at the following places: Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, and iHeart Radio. As well as here.

Thanks for listening!

[Image: Tesla]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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5 comments

Master Baiter on May 10, 2024

The 10 year maintenance cost should be normalized with respect to the vehicle cost.

Of course a $150K Porsche or Range Rover is going to cost more to maintain than a $20K Camry.

2 Reply
- See 1 previous
- Kwik_Shift_Pro4X on May 11, 2024
  
  That's what most buyers of bargain luxury brands don't factor in. Just focused on the cost to buy.
  
  Like
- Hi There on May 12, 2024
  
  I agree that a hand built car, priced accordingly, will most likely be far more to maintain than a Toyota Corolla. Where I disagree is when a car like Bentley, or Rolls Royce, use off-the-shelf VW or BMW parts, but force the consumer to pay a brand penalty of 200-1000% markup. I also disagree with the basic assumption that an expensive car *should* be more expensive to maintain. There's no reason for an Audi to require dismantling of the entire front-end of the car to replace a radiator. That's just bad design. Now, if it makes *you* feel better to pay more because you paid a premium for your car, hey, have at it.
  
  1
ToolGuy on May 10, 2024

I'm several months behind on doing the homework, can't talk now.

Like Reply
3-On-The-Tree on May 13, 2024

Any car with turbos will have extra maintenance costs.

Like Reply