The True Cost of Maintaining a Car

Cars are massive investment, but could end up as a great killer due to the hidden costs that might increase or decrease over time. The increment or decrement of the cost of car maintenance depends on the car brand and the usage. Aside from the inevitable and endless fueling, spark plugs, brake pads, timing belts and engine oil are other continuous spending on cars. The more miles a car covers, the more prone it is to fall victim of more problems like leaky radiator, faulty ignition or bad engine mounts.

As said earlier, the cost of maintaining your car depends on the kind of car you drive and the distance you cover. Cars vary from one another in price, quality, durability, and strength. Some are made to cover low miles and basically weekend drives while others are to cover high miles.

Depending on the area you cover, your cost on a car can widen as much as possible. In fact, if you buy a car for let’s say #500,000, you may incur costs close to that amount between 5-10 years of driving the same car. However, you might have to spend more than that amount as you drive longer miles, the car engines get weaker, and parts would surely need some replacements which might sum up more cost, or driver might need to get a newer ride if the cost of maintaining car exceeds car’s worth.

Just as expected, cars like Toyota and Honda are on the cheaper rates in terms of the cost of purchase and that of maintenance, while the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volkswagen are among the high rated and expensive cars and both maintenance and purchase. Hence, you should know if you really want something expensive, you should be willing to pay for it.

Driver furious a broken car by the road

Car brands like the fuel sipping Toyota Prius is among the least expensive cars to maintain, as well as other mini cars from Asian automobile companies. Cars that cover 25,000-30,000 miles, have 10% possibilities to fix a new spark plug at every 5,000 miles. Apart from spark plugs, other common maintenance problems are brake pads and batteries which are the most consumable parts with a limited usage; brake pad problems rise at 50,000 miles drive.