The recession has created some seemingly great deals on car purchases and leases. But buyers need to beware of some unpleasant surprises that may await as soon as their vehicles need repairs.
Because of differences in design and manufacture, two vehicles with similar price tags can rack up vastly different fix-it bills over time.
And cars with higher repair costs ding their owners another way: in higher insurance premiums. Insurers tend to boost the cost of collision coverage on vehicles that regularly rack up big repair bills -- and whether you wreck or not, you'll pay that cost year after year.
- Design. How a car is put together can determine how well it survives a crash and how much it costs to fix afterward. Among 2009 small cars, for example, Ford Focus bumpers held up better than those of many of its rivals. In 6-mph crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the Focus sustained an average $691 in repair costs, compared with $2,340 for the Chrysler PT Cruiser and $2,539 for the Hyundai Elantra.
- Technology. Obviously, cars in general are far more sophisticated than they used to be, but some really push the envelope. The more cutting-edge the technology, the more training is required for mechanics and the more specialized the parts.
- Imported versus domestic. If the car is imported, chances are the parts need to be as well. That can add to the price, particularly for less-popular makes.
- Luxury versus everything else. All other things being equal, more-expensive cars cost more to repair. The same low-speed crash would set you back nearly $4,000 if the car you were driving was an Infiniti G35 and about $3,000 if it were a Lexus ES.
Figuring out just which cars are repair nightmares, though, isn't as easy as it might seem. Different groups measure these things differently.
I started with Edmunds.com, which has a True Cost to Own feature designed to measure the five-year cost of vehicles, including financing, depreciation, gas, insurance and, yes, repairs. Below are the cars Edmunds.com identified as the most and least expensive to own in various classes, based on their five-year repair costs as measured by warranty providers.
- Least expensive coupe: Ford Focus. Most expensive: Mercedes-Benz SL Class.
- Least expensive hatchback/wagon: Ford Flex. Most expensive: Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
- Least expensive SUV: Saturn Saturn Vue/Vue Hybrid. Most expensive: Mercedes-Benz M-Class.
- Least expensive sedan: Pontiac G8. Most expensive: Mercedes-Benz S-Class.
The Edmunds.com figures have their limitations, however. Because they're based on warranty repairs, they don't include the really big repair costs -- those inflicted by crashes.
To get that information, I turned to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which measured insurance losses for hundreds of passenger vehicles grouped by body style and size under six types of insurance coverage: collision, property damage liability, comprehensive, personal injury protection, medical payment and bodily injury.
The scores reflect how each car rated in relative terms, with 100 representing the average injury, collision or theft loss for all vehicles. For example, a result of 160 is 60% worse than average, and a 61 is 39% better than average.
Results are based on the loss experience of 2005-07 models from their first sales through May 2008.
Continued: Lowest and highest claims losses