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Why Cars Are So Expensive To Own And Maintain
Are you on the fence between repairing your old car and buying a new car and are wondering if it’s worth it and why cars are so expensive to maintain? You can always buy a new car but sometimes it makes more financial sense to repair your older car and keep it running longer.
The main reason cars are so expensive to maintain is the cost of parts for repairs. As cars get older there are associated maintenance costs with keeping them on the road. With newer cars, there are also more safety systems that can malfunction and can cost thousands to repair.
But safety systems are just the tip of the iceberg. If you have your engine or transmission go out in your car you can expect to pay a few grand to get your car running and driving again. So here is the list of items that can cost a lot over time and are associated with maintaining a car.
1. Replacement Car Parts Are Expensive
Depending on who makes the car parts for your car and where they come from can be a big factor in the cost of the car parts. Usually, parts directly from the OEM auto manufacturer will cost more than aftermarket parts. Some people say that you should always use OEM parts but I’ve had good luck using parts from other parts manufacturers.
In general, the highest part prices usually come from the German manufacturers Mercedes and BMW. Because these parts are usually made in Germany and need to be shipped to the states you will usually end up paying more overall for these parts.
Typically the cheaper the car was brand new the cheaper the car parts will be to replace. Honda and Toyota make reliable cheap cars and their car parts are reasonably affordable for most people. If you own a GM or Ford vehicle usually parts for them are pretty cheap as well.
2. New Tire Costs
Another maintenance item on cars that can become expensive tires. While tire technology has become better and better over time the costs to replace tires can still be expensive. You may not have to replace your tires as often as in the 80s or 90s because new tire technology allows you to drive 40,000-60,000 miles before having to replace your tires. However, the overall prices to replace your tires have not come down.
There is also a trend in sports cars where they are using sticky compound tires to give you more grip through the corners and from a dead stop. While these sorts of tires will give you more grip they typically will not last as long because the sticky rubber compound is not as hard.
Typically the harder the rubber compound the longer the tires will last, the stickier the rubber compound the less mileage you will be able to get out of the tires. This is a common trend on high-performance cars like the Chevy Corvette, Dodge Demon, and the Ford GT 350.
I personally would go with tires that are going to provide a good grip while also maximizing the tire lifespan that way you get the best bang for the buck. You don’t want to have to keep replacing your tires every year as that’s going to get expensive.
If you look hard enough you should be able to find tires that should last you 3-4 years. To learn more about tires and the cost to replace tires on your car check out my other article.
3. Brake Pads and Rotors
The job of your brake rotors and brake pads is to bring your car to a stop. Over time your brake pads and brake rotors will start to wear down and will need to be replaced. And they are another reason why cars are so expensive to maintain.
Not replacing your brake pads before they wear into your rotors means that you will have to replace both your brake rotors and pads. That’s why it’s always a good idea to periodically inspect your brake pads to make sure that there is enough pad surface between the back of the brake pad and the rotor.
If the brake pad surface completely wears away the metal backing of the brake pad and the rotor will start grinding together. At this point, you will likely need to replace your rotors as they will no longer be smooth. The other option would be to resurface them but the point is that you want to avoid this from happening if possible.
Brake rotors can also become warped over time from going through heat cycles. This is usually indicated if your brake peddles pulses when you step on your brake pedal. The good news is that brake rotors are usually not that expensive to replace on most cars and can usually be replaced for only a few hundred dollars.
If you can work on your own vehicles you can also save some money by replacing your brake rotors and pads yourself. Doing this will save you the labor costs of taking your car to a mechanic to have them replace your pads and rotors.
4. Replacement Fluid Costs
Another reason why cars can be expensive to maintain is the costs associated with replacing fluids like engine coolant, engine oil, transmission fluid, and brake fluid. As you use your car to get around your mileage will begin to steadily climb.
It’s recommended after a certain mileage threshold to drain and replace the fluids in your car periodically based on the maintenance schedule that your vehicle manufacturer specifies. To learn about the maintenance schedule for your car consult your owner’s manual.
Expect to pay 30-50$ to change your engine oil and engine oil filter. Transmission fluid should also be periodically changed out and will cost you about 40-50$ to change. Your transmission may or may not have a filter.
You should also expect to replace your coolant and brake fluid from time to time as they are also liquids that will need to be replaced over time. Leaving old coolant in your coolant system for too long can result in your coolant system rusting. If this happens to your car it’s going to be a lot more expensive to fix than it would have cost to just replace the coolant.
5. Safety Systems
As cars manufacturers keep pushing to make their cars safer new safety systems are finding their way into new cars coming off the assembly line. With new safety systems being added this will add to the overall cost of the vehicle and will be another item that will need to be maintained.
New safety systems like blind-spot monitoring and lane-keep assist add to the overall cost of the vehicle. And you can bet that if you have problems with those sorts of systems out of warranty they will not be cheap to replace. It used to be that you only had to worry about replacing your airbags if you were in a crash.
Nowadays if you are in a crash new cars have so many airbag systems in the seats and headliner that you are going to have to replace that it may be cheaper to just total out the vehicle.
If one of those safety systems malfunctions you likely will have to take your car to the dealership to have them figure out what is wrong which will also add to the cost of maintaining the vehicle.
6. New Technology
Touch screens and auto-braking systems seem to be the new hot items in new cars today. People want to be able to use their cars like their smartphones, which many old people hate. As new systems and features get added to a car you will have to pay to maintain those systems.
If that 10-inch touch screen goes out on your car while it is out of warranty you can expect to pay a pretty penny to have it replaced. The same goes for that anti-braking system if it starts to malfunction and you have to replace the sensor you can bet that they are not cheap.
This really comes down to how new technology works, brand new technology will always cost more than older tech. As the technology becomes more mainstream and is implemented into more and more cars then you can expect the prices to start to come down.
It may be a better idea to buy an older car without as much technology integrated into it as there is more to break with newer technology. Older cars don’t have as many sensors and safety systems so there will be less to break or malfunction. It will also be cheaper to replace stuff on an older car.
7. New Materials Being Used
New car manufacturing materials like carbon fiber and aluminum are starting to find their way into more common vehicles that are going to bring up the costs to maintain the vehicle. The most notable vehicle to mention is the Ford F150. Ford decided to use aluminum instead of steel to make most of the body panels of the new F150 pickup truck.
While aluminum offers many benefits like being lighter than steel and does not rust like steel aluminum costs more to repair than steel body panels. This means if you get in a fender bender in a parking lot or dent the side of your bed it’s going to cost a lot more to get it repaired than with older F150 trucks.
As auto manufacturers try to bring down the overall weight of their vehicles to help make them more fuel-efficient you can expect this trend to continue. The use of aluminum parts like aluminum steering knuckles has also started to increase.
8. Insurance Costs
When buying a new car one thing that you want to take into account is the cost to insure the vehicle. Many people will walk into the dealership only thinking about the monthly car payment that they will be paying without taking into account the total monthly costs of the car.
After you have paid off the vehicle you can remove collision insurance if you wanted to bring the price of the insurance down but you have to have the car paid off before you can do that. You can expect the costs of insurance to be high on new vehicles because of the overall costs of new vehicles.
The higher the price of the car the more it will cost the insurance company to replace the vehicle if you get in an accident. That is why the insurance costs will be higher on newer cars than on an older vehicle that is 10 years old.
9. Registration Costs
Registration costs are another item that many people don’t take into account when buying a new car and is another reason why cars are so expensive to maintain and own. When you buy a car from a dealership the government is going to expect you to pay taxes for that transaction. Depending on what state you live in those taxes can range from 4-7% of the purchase price of the vehicle.
You will also have to pay yearly to renew your plates for the car. While the yearly renewal for plates may not be that much a lot of people don’t plan on having to pay taxes when they first buy a car. Expect to keep paying registration fees for the life of your ownership of the vehicle.
10. Body Work and Paint Correction Cost
Over the life of the ownership of your car, you may end up having to repair bodywork or having paint correction work done. The fact is that the paint on your car will never be as nice as when the car first leaves the factory. Rock chips and road debris can cause your paint to chip over time especially on your hood and front bumper.
You may also have to have bodywork done if you accidentally bump into a parking block or a pole. If you don’t want to drive around with that dent in your bumper you will want to get it fixed. Bodywork repair is often not cheap. You may end up having to replace the entire body panel depending on how extensive the damage is.
Why Cars Are So Expensive To Buy And Maintain – In Conclusion
How much you will spend maintaining a car is really a crapshoot and can vary even for the same make and model of car. The best way to prevent major car repairs is to do periodic maintenance on your car to replace things like fluids and belts. How old the car is and how much technology was implemented into the car is also a factor when talking about the overall costs to maintain a car.
Mercedes is notorious for installing the latest tech into their vehicles, only for the new technology to break a few years down the line. That’s why Mercedes resale value plummets after the car gets out of the warranty period, people don’t want to keep paying thousands of dollars to fix their car.