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Lowest maintenance costs belong to HR-V
Kelley Blue Book announced its 5-year Cost to Own winners across 21 categories. The average maintenance costs for the winners was $2,444, with the Honda HR-V the lowest at less than $1,800.
Technicians probably won’t see a lot of Honda HR-Vs rolling into their shops any time soon. And if the owner of a Lexus LS 460 walks in, they’re probably going to see a whopping bill. But that’s probably to be expected when trying to maintain a ride that can cost six-figures to buy.
Kelley Blue Book announced its latest winners of the 5-year Cost to Own awards and the 2017 HR-V is pegged as having the lowest maintenance costs of the 21 category winners. The subcompact SUV/crossover category winner had its maintenance costs listed at $1,790 (all prices in U.S. dollars). The LS 460, winner of the high-end luxury category, is said to have $4,310 in maintenance costs over the first five years of ownership.
The Kelley Blue Book rankings looked at everything from compact cars up to hybrid and alternative energy vehicles. To calculate the winners, the company took vehicle-related costs that car owners will have to face over their first five years of owning their vehicle. This includes fuel, insurance and financing, among others. These costs are then added to the depreciation of the car’s value over those five years. Depreciation accounts for the highest amount of a vehicle’s cost to own formula.
On the flip side, maintenance makes up only a small amount of costs within the first half-decade. For example, the 2017 Honda Accord’s five-year costs are $36,589. It’s maintenance costs are only $1,873, or 5 per cent.
The average cost of maintenance for all award winners was $2,444.
And that number is down compared to last year’s winners. For the 2016 group – which, however, was comprised of different winners in almost two-thirds of the categories — maintenance costs were pegged at $2,538, representing a drop of 3.7 per cent in 2017. For repeat winners, the maintenance costs went the other way, but just barely — up $26, or a 1.01 per cent.
Retained value
Meanwhile, the Canadian Black Book announced its winners for Best Retained Value. It also handed out Overall Brand awards to Subaru (car), Toyota (Truck/SUV) and Porsche (Luxury).
The Toyota Brand got another mention when it was noted that the FJ Cruiser held 83 per cent of its original manufacturer suggested retail price. That’s the highest percentage of any winning vehicle ever. The Jeep Wrangler and Toyota Tacoma (both at 82 per cent), rounded out the top three.
“From a brand perspective, it is also worth noting that Toyota has come away for the 10th consecutive year as the winningest brand with nine total wins, including its ‘Overall Brand Truck & SUV’ victory,” Canadian Black Book said on its website
Awards are decided by taking an average retained value over four years for every vehicle brand offers.
Useless study when manufacturers are only concerned with maintaining the vehicle for it’s warranty period. IE: Ford AWD systems have no interval for servicing the PTU that will fail down the line if fluids are not changed, but will not be an issue withing the warranty period.
Let’s talk about what the cost of maintaining a vehicle to keep for 10 years, not 5.
Very good point! And very true for a lot of the high end import vehicles like BMW that get improperly serviced by the dealers, resulting in massive oil leaks and senor damage within 5-6 years time.
As you say. Currently car maintenance in many places is not done properly. May cause many other problems, damaging the owners when maintaining additional problems.
It is true that manufacturers are only interested in vehicle maintenance during the warranty period. That is to reduce costs for the manufacturer. However, car maintenance is inevitable after you use them after a certain time, or when the car breaks down when there is a problem.
That’s the consumer’s fault too on another hand. Knowing you cannot treat the vehicle appropriately – no point in buying and importing it from abroad. Parts of such cars also will be very costly in case you will need them.
I agree with Peter……many issues arise after the warranty is up because the maintenance that should have been recommended was not. We see too many estimates from dealers that are in the thousands of dollars and often these are less than 1 year after the warranty is over. The public is being strung along with reports like these.