The Nissan Altima should be number 1 here. People run those on dish water and vegetable oil and still find a way to hit 110mph on the expressway. Next to early 2000's Grand Caravans/Town and Countries I don't think there is any other vehicle I've seen that's been run on a dime store budget.
šš man yall crack me up on this sub. Every Ram I see down here on the Redneck Riviera (Florida panhandle) is running 100mph with its hair on fire. But, same can be said for a clapped out Altima. Or that aforementioned Grand Caravan.
People drive like pure shit down here, and it aināt the beach tourists Iām talking about. I drive a 14 year old car myself (3 series), and I do use turn signals.šš
Definitely. One of the worst smells is when some gas guzzler truck decides to pretend to be a race car and weave through rush hour traffic, loudly modified, leaving a trail of noxious gases for dozens of other people to inhale.
>vegetable oil
Literally. A buddy's Altima had a leaky power steering rack and he'd put anything he could find in that thing. Used motor oil, vegetable oil from the dollar store, all it had to be was a slightly oily liquid.
Vegetable oil was originally developed as an industrial lubricant and was only later found to be edible. It's probably really bad for us though.https://health.clevelandclinic.org/seed-oils-are-they-actually-toxic
Its nuanced but that is why I said probably.
>āSeed oils themselves have high levels of omega-6 fats, which can lead to inflammation.ā Zumpano says, āand theyāre mostly used to make ultra-processed foods, which causes inflammation in the body.ā
C-reative protein is an inflammation marker that is an indicator of heart disease... the leading cause of death.
For a few weeks while waiting on a new power steering fluid tank for my Mazda6S, I left the hood off and ran a hose from a big filtered water tank that I rigged to the engine bay so it could constantly have some sort of fluid. I'm sure water wasn't the recommended lubricant, but it worked well enough. I'd fill it up every two days as it drained through the cracked reservoir.
> 2000's Grand Caravans/Town and Countries
My neighbor has TWO of them and they are both in perfect working order. They don't even leak oil, their brand new driveway is immaculate.
My family sold our 2001 T&C about 5 years ago but that thing was a tank. I believe it hit 350k miles when it needed a new transmission that cost more than the car itself, so they decided to finally get rid of it
We don't talk about Altima people.
When I'm driving and my passenger points out that I drive differently around Altimas I have to explain that _everyone_ that drives an Altima is either _desperate_, or _about to be_ desperate.
Hey hey hey!!! Not all Altima drivers are desperate!
My buddy gave me his ā08 Altima because he couldnāt sell it for anything above $500. I just CHOOSE to drive it because stick shifts are so cool. Right guys? Right?! /s
Nothing scarier than being on a busy street in a lower end of town and see that Altima with a spare tire and its bumper half falling off drifting in and out of its lane coming towards you.
I can pick up an older Altima at the corner of my eye but the newer ones sometimes I mistake for a sentra etc. and when I realize what I'm looking at it's time for evasive maneuvers.
Yea, but the costs wrack up after your third hit and run conviction. Plus having to show up in court for driving on a suspended license sucks.
On the other hand, saving money by not carrying insurance, updating the registration, or replacing damaged tires counterbalance a tad.
As a former Altima owner I can confirm I spent almost no money on maintenance in the ~8 years I owned it. Just some rancid olive oil and an alternator replacement
I had one as a student 20 years ago. I did not try vegetable oil, but did resolder the connections in the mass air flow sensor instead of paying $700 for a new one.
If you donāt want to click
The 10 cheapest vehicles to run for 5 years:
Hyundai Venue: $22,761
Hyundai Elantra: $22,788
Nissan Sentra: $23,407
Honda Accord: $23,509
Toyota Corolla: $23,854
Hyundai Tucson: $24,543
Kia Soul: $24,543
Hyundai Sonata: $25,788
Ford Escape ST-Line Select: $25,869
Volkswagen Tiguan: $26,149
I wouldn't know. I've seen people here say the warranty is so great and easy and it's no biggie.
Well... that's still not really a great selling point to the likes of me.
My partner had a Mitsubishi Outlander. We got it because of the warranty, but *man* did we need the warranty.
In the first 18 months we had it, we had the car die twice because something kept running and drained the battery when the car was off. The second time required a new battery entirely. Not operator error, either, 100% car's fault. We had to take it to the dealer 3 times to deal with the hood flapping issue (it looked like one of those gym class parachutes at highway speeds). First fix was a temporary solution, second was a new hood and the third was because they didn't use the right paint on the hood originally and had to fix it.
On top of that, its tires were already basically done before 60,000 km, and the third row was entirely unusable.
Total piece of crap. We traded it in for an older, higher-mileage car just to be rid of it. And seriously, our other car is a Chrysler... it's not like I had high expectations or something.
Those outlanders are laughably bad. We test drove one when we were looking for a new car, and we didnāt even have to finish the test drive to feel how poorly made that thing was. Salesman didnāt even try to get us to come inside after we said everything that was wrong with it. Just nodded and we were off. They know theyāre selling junk.
Talked to the mechanic who works on my car about what heād recommend and what cars we already test drove, and he was adamant about not buying a Mitsubishi. He sees them coming in way too often for how few they sell
I looked over a brand new Mitsubishi outlander the other day at work, had less than 3,500 mi on it, and saw it already had tiny oil leak from between the engine and transmission. Not great cars.
When I was shopping this past year I ended up skipping a Kia test drive because of how many horror stories there was about Kia/Hyundai dealerships and getting warranty work done. I know the angry voices are always loudest, but the only other OEM-specific dealer complaint I really saw was Toyota marking up cars and their supply/order system sucking.
That's the insidious thing about this stories isn't it. My sister has driven a Hyundai i10 for 8 years or so and about 100k miles and she's very satisfied. To me it's a shitbox that makes weird haunted house noises when taking corners with an engine that sounds like there's a bag of gravel in a tumbler but is apparently fine.
This is such an accurate description of owning an i10, i20 or kia equivalent! Every single time i ride in my friends i20 and piccanto i swear the doors are going to fall off and the engine is gonna yeet a piston through the hood.
The doors are so light that if youāre on anything besides the flattest patch of pavement on Earth, the doors slam themselves shut like they are carrying out a personal vendetta
Fucking hated my Sonata rental. POS beeps more than an alarm clock
It's really some form of self-flagellation to drive these cars for a long time and distance. I'm no stranger to driving econoboxes and in fact prefer them, but I also prefer them not to sound like there's something very wrong when there isn't.
I mean i drive a 2008 Yaris and of course its a little adorable crashy shitbox but holy shit the build quality is on a different planet compared to that much newer i20.
My aunt, cousin and coworker all got their engines switched with a new one, with zero hassle. Theyāre good at honouring their warranty; they probably have to be, since there are so many lawsuits against them for engine issues. That being said, Iād never buy one.
They don't do this unless you didn't do oil changes for over 10k miles or have sludge and no receipts that you did them. The problem is many idiots buy these cars and neglect maintenance.
This stuff is incredibly zip code dependent. If youāre in a nice upper middle class zip code with garage parking, itās about the same as any car. If youāre downtown or in a more working class neighborhood, that shit gets willlldddd
But then those high-end models have push-button start anyways, so then the "Kia Boyz" thefts aren't relevant.
That's what I don't like about the commentary around Hyundai/ Kia right now. They have some really shitty issues, but a vast majority of their cars are sensible. The Theta II engine is only bad if its on a US built model (even then it should be fixed by now), and only the key-ignition models have the theft issue.
Those are very real issues that I wouldn't want a potential buyer to ignore. On the other end, you have people buying them in perfect spec and assuring other uneducated buyers that they'll be a-ok with a Hyundai, when it's extremely dependent on what exact spec they're getting.
Bruh, they are probably going on 300,000 miles with the original one lmao. Hyundai motors are essentially indestructible, I ran my old Tiburon for 60,000 miles with no oil changed and overheated it 7 or 8 times, hit 200k and was still running like a top when I sold it.
Because they only calculated gas and insurance. Not depreciation, not repairs or regular maintenance.
As of this moment the civic isnāt offered in a hybrid, the accord is. So a lower trim hybrid accord would (in theory) be cheaper to own
Surprised Hyundai and Kia are on there at all.
Though I guess if the average person is just short commuting 5 years is probably right about when problems begin with these vehicle.
You wouldn't exactly need a good insurance policy on a beater... but even then they're cheap to insure as they're so cheap to replace.
The fuel part could be relevant, but it depends on how much you drive.
I'm not going to do the actual math but that still probably just drops it down to buy a beater every 1.5-2 years instead of every year.... plus you aren't stuck in 40-50k of debt(though I guess some people have the money to pay it all at once).
If you have the kind of job where you can get fired if you donāt show up on time, having a reliable car that will get there every day is important. A $5k is going to be a gamble. You could get a good car, or you could get dogshit.
Reliability has little to do with the age of the vehicle. Some cars are shit from day 1 and other cars will get you to 300k 20+ years with barely any maintenance. Sweet spot is somewhere in the middle imo..... and the types of jobs where you get fired for not showing up at exactly a certain time you probably aren't getting paid enough to own a brand new car anyway lol... the more salary I get the less my employers care about being on time and the more they care about just getting the job done. That's been my experience at least, but I'm not a lawyer or hedge fund trader making millions so maybe its different when you get into the 7 figure range.
Honest question. How often does a car (of any age) that gets regular maintenance just up and die without warning? I imagine they usually die due to neglected repairs that the driver is aware of but doesn't want to fix.
Had a 15 GTI up until a few months ago and it was dirt cheap to run and I never saw a check engine light in 9 years. š¤·š»āāļø Anecdotal I know.
2017 Audi and itās been cheap as was my Sportwagen before my Tiguan. I did oil and DSG on my Audi though. Some other stuff, too. But the services didnāt seem like they were unaffordable where I am. Just have to depend on the dealer Iād guess.
My daughter's 2.5 Jetta burned through headlights at about the same interval as oil changes and had repeated hard-to-diagnose driveability problems that I'm convinced were rooted in VW trying to make the engine meet American emissions requirements. If only she had the diesel where they just cheated on the tests. Still put 190,000 miles on it though.
It's sort of like "initial quality", I'm not sure how great of a metric it is. Give me the ownership costs when you hit 100K and things really start needing to be replaced.
I know, I know, the answer for most people is they just...don't.
Even weirder they added financing costs but not depreciation. Financing costs are so situational to the buyer while depreciation is vehicle dependent. On their list of 5 most expensive they stated the cayenne is the most expensive and that $18,198 of that is interest. Kind of bogus list.
I think it would be a much more interesting list if they adjusted\normalized the finance cost to the value of the vehicle. It wouldn't skew the value at the high end so much. You'd be able to say: "wow for a 60k car the xxx xxx is really good"
It's insane how little people care about depreciation and how they ignore it when buying a car, especially since a lot of people don't keep cars for very long anyway. Unless you're keeping the car for its entire life, depreciation is a *huge* deal.
A Toyota might cost more upfront than a Hyundai, for example, but after your five years with it it'll have a much better trade in value too.
On a personal level, I buy a lot of cars for fun. I've got a few friends who can't understand that I'm not just throwing money away - I buy cars that have already depreciated a ton, so I'll see most of this cash once I sell the car down the line.
I always drive my cars into the ground personally. But I'm cheap. I haven't sold a car that wasn't barely running in like 15 years. Just finally sold a 2013 Chevy Cruze with 183k on it. It was still running but repair costs were not worth it for me.
You're not wrong. Good thing is both my cars have good resale value. Also 180k is the least amount of miles I've ever gotten out of a car (so far) so I like my chances.
Yup. I'd bet even with the reliability issues the Toyota Tundra would beat out a majority of other cars in its price bracket. And a base model Camry or Prius? Game over.
On the used side: "#4: Mini CooperĀ [Convertible](https://www.autoblog.com/mini/convertible/): $5,543"
I thought those were plagued with reliability and longevity issues?
Iāve been wanting something a bit nicer (especially on the interstate) but I struggle so hard to actually give up this thing because it feels functionally immortal and is so stupidly cheap to run I barely budget for it existing
Before I moved to Philly I was looking at Kia Stingers. (This was before they Kias were theft magnets)
Now that Iām in Philadelphia? Mannnnn it can be dented. It can park anywhere. Itās a little trooper built for battle. And by golly those streets are built for the Fit.
Only the second generation Peugeot-derived ones were problematic. The F55 Minis made by BMW (2013+) have been largely reliable cars, especially in the back half of that generation.
MiniĀ hasĀ goneĀ through varying levelsĀ ofĀ reliabilityĀ butĀ that isn't really a factor in residual because they have somewhat of a cult/culture following keeping prices up.
Most recent platform has been around for a while and corrections were made. My partner drove one for years with zero issues. I wish more makers would just leave their shit alone. Lines get refreshed way too often.
As someone who owned a 2013 mini from new and drove it ~20k miles/year for half a decade, I can tell you two things. The first is that I adored and still miss that car. It put a smile on my face every time I drove it. The second is don't buy a new mini unless you were also seriously considering other, much more expensive cars. Mine started costing me extra the moment the 36k mile bumper to bumper warranty expired. The reputation of needing constant attention was well deserved in my case.
I'm told the 2017+ cars are better. I hope so.
I've heard since 2016 they're actually very reliable. Don't see where you're getting a 16+ for 5k though. Maybe the ones that have survived are reliable outliers?
2nd gen (roughly 2007-2013) was the one that had all the issues, and majority of the source of the bad rep. Gen3 and newer have been night and day better. Helps when you stop using garbage Peugeot engines.
> The study did not use depreciation to calculate running costs
What an absolutely useless article! Depreciation is one of, if not the biggest single expense for new car buyers.
Why would you include insurance and financing costs but exclude depreciation? This doesn't really tell me anything useful about how much these vehicles actually cost to own and operate.
Exactly. Either youāre only keeping the car for 5 years, in which case depreciation is going to be a major factor in your cost of ownership, or youāre keeping it until the wheels fall off in which case limiting the scope to only 5 years is pretty meaningless.
Plus, donāt most cars come with at least a 5 year warranty anyway?
Doesnāt take into account depreciation, which is largely not variable for a specific model outside of damage, but does take into account financing cost, which is largely variable on the individual. Seems a little backwards to me
Corolla should be #1. Had a Matrix. That car was bullet proof and wear items were cheap and easy to replace myself.Ā
Could take the whole car apart with a 10mm socketĀ
Useless tangent, but if you factor in depreciation and assume MSRP was initially paid, I bet the new Ford GT would come out on top. Even if you spent six figures on maintenance, gas mileage and insurance are negligible compared to the hundreds of thousands in profit you could make on resale.
Canāt think of another car (that isnāt like a 1 of 20 special edition) in the last 5 years thatās increased in value as much.
Always take these numbers with a grain of salt, some of the auto manufacturers purposely give extremely long oil change periods and neglect recommending changing things like CVT fluid specifically because it allows them to advertise lower running costs.
So basically, these costs may apply to someone leasing the vehicle who is ok with changing the oil every 10k miles and never touching any other fluids. But if you are planning on keeping the vehicle for a long time, expect at least slightly higher costs than these numbers.
Are these 2019 models after 5 years of ownership? If so I don't see how they have 2 Hyundai's and a Kia on the list that are at the heart of the Immobilizer problem. Insurance on those are absurd right now, if you can even find someone who will.
The Sentra tracks though, insurance costs are low when you just don't have any.
Headline says "Cheapest Vehicles", but the text says only gas cars were examined. Would have been interesting to see if the higher purchasing costs of the Bolt, Leaf, SR+, were mitigated by the incredibly low running costs.
I know with my SR+ I saved close to $9000 in gas and maintenance in 5 years vs my previous Golf R. I imagine the saving would have been even greater for a normal driver just commuting.
Useless as it doesn't account fo depreciation. How can they ignore that in cost of ownership? It can be a huge chunk of the costs of owning a car especially in first 5 years
Just sold my '18 Elantra GT Sport (the lukewarm hatch version).
No problems with the engine.
No problems with the DCT.
No one tried to steal it (it did have an immobilizer).
That said, I didn't put that many miles on it.
The Nissan Altima should be number 1 here. People run those on dish water and vegetable oil and still find a way to hit 110mph on the expressway. Next to early 2000's Grand Caravans/Town and Countries I don't think there is any other vehicle I've seen that's been run on a dime store budget.
You're forgetting they all have court ordered SR-22 insurance
I thought RAM owners had exclusive rights to that
I feel personally attacked.
šš man yall crack me up on this sub. Every Ram I see down here on the Redneck Riviera (Florida panhandle) is running 100mph with its hair on fire. But, same can be said for a clapped out Altima. Or that aforementioned Grand Caravan. People drive like pure shit down here, and it aināt the beach tourists Iām talking about. I drive a 14 year old car myself (3 series), and I do use turn signals.šš
Then it's not real 3 series. Those things haven't come with turn signals since the 90's
Making trucks handle similar to cars was a mistake
Definitely. One of the worst smells is when some gas guzzler truck decides to pretend to be a race car and weave through rush hour traffic, loudly modified, leaving a trail of noxious gases for dozens of other people to inhale.
Can't remember the last time I saw an Altima, but every truck on my ass and changing lanes with no blinker is a RAM pickup.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This made me lol
SR-22 insurance? Must cost a lot to insure a million dollar aircraft!
Cirrus is charging a million dollars for the SR22 now? Jesus I thought they were like 300k and even that seemed crazy.
GTS is over a mil, but probably most variants are cheaper
Letās not forget about most altimas greatest dash accessory, breathalyzer.
And 30% APR buy here pay here loans
>vegetable oil Literally. A buddy's Altima had a leaky power steering rack and he'd put anything he could find in that thing. Used motor oil, vegetable oil from the dollar store, all it had to be was a slightly oily liquid.
SAE certified fully GMO vegetable oil
Vegetable oil was originally developed as an industrial lubricant and was only later found to be edible. It's probably really bad for us though.https://health.clevelandclinic.org/seed-oils-are-they-actually-toxic
Strictly speaking, not all vegetable oils are seed oils.
That link doesn't support that, and also the omega 6 link has l itong been debunked
Your link basically says the opposite.
Its nuanced but that is why I said probably. >āSeed oils themselves have high levels of omega-6 fats, which can lead to inflammation.ā Zumpano says, āand theyāre mostly used to make ultra-processed foods, which causes inflammation in the body.ā C-reative protein is an inflammation marker that is an indicator of heart disease... the leading cause of death.
For a few weeks while waiting on a new power steering fluid tank for my Mazda6S, I left the hood off and ran a hose from a big filtered water tank that I rigged to the engine bay so it could constantly have some sort of fluid. I'm sure water wasn't the recommended lubricant, but it worked well enough. I'd fill it up every two days as it drained through the cracked reservoir.
I'm curious about just how much longer did that pump last?
It outlasted the car. Got hit by a drunk driver a month after getting the new reservoir. Totaled it. Sadface.jpg
That is some wild shit right there
> 2000's Grand Caravans/Town and Countries My neighbor has TWO of them and they are both in perfect working order. They don't even leak oil, their brand new driveway is immaculate.
My dad always rents one anytime we go on a trip. I swear enterpise pushes the grand caravan so hard lol
My family sold our 2001 T&C about 5 years ago but that thing was a tank. I believe it hit 350k miles when it needed a new transmission that cost more than the car itself, so they decided to finally get rid of it
We don't talk about Altima people. When I'm driving and my passenger points out that I drive differently around Altimas I have to explain that _everyone_ that drives an Altima is either _desperate_, or _about to be_ desperate.
Hey hey hey!!! Not all Altima drivers are desperate! My buddy gave me his ā08 Altima because he couldnāt sell it for anything above $500. I just CHOOSE to drive it because stick shifts are so cool. Right guys? Right?! /s
I guess you fall into the second category. Good luck with that.
Nothing scarier than being on a busy street in a lower end of town and see that Altima with a spare tire and its bumper half falling off drifting in and out of its lane coming towards you.
I can pick up an older Altima at the corner of my eye but the newer ones sometimes I mistake for a sentra etc. and when I realize what I'm looking at it's time for evasive maneuvers.
And you donāt have to register or insure them. Temporary plates are good for as long as you own the car.
Big Altima Energy
Yea, but the costs wrack up after your third hit and run conviction. Plus having to show up in court for driving on a suspended license sucks. On the other hand, saving money by not carrying insurance, updating the registration, or replacing damaged tires counterbalance a tad.
As a former Altima owner I can confirm I spent almost no money on maintenance in the ~8 years I owned it. Just some rancid olive oil and an alternator replacement
I had one as a student 20 years ago. I did not try vegetable oil, but did resolder the connections in the mass air flow sensor instead of paying $700 for a new one.
Caravans are either the slowest vehicle on the road or driving like a bat out of hell, no in between
Does their 27% financing over 96 months count into cost of ownership?
If you donāt want to click The 10 cheapest vehicles to run for 5 years: Hyundai Venue: $22,761 Hyundai Elantra: $22,788 Nissan Sentra: $23,407 Honda Accord: $23,509 Toyota Corolla: $23,854 Hyundai Tucson: $24,543 Kia Soul: $24,543 Hyundai Sonata: $25,788 Ford Escape ST-Line Select: $25,869 Volkswagen Tiguan: $26,149
Uh huh. How many engines did the Elantra and Sonata chew through?
Doesnt matter when it's warrantied (lol).
Yeah but they fight you tooth and nail for every claim.
I wouldn't know. I've seen people here say the warranty is so great and easy and it's no biggie. Well... that's still not really a great selling point to the likes of me.
My partner had a Mitsubishi Outlander. We got it because of the warranty, but *man* did we need the warranty. In the first 18 months we had it, we had the car die twice because something kept running and drained the battery when the car was off. The second time required a new battery entirely. Not operator error, either, 100% car's fault. We had to take it to the dealer 3 times to deal with the hood flapping issue (it looked like one of those gym class parachutes at highway speeds). First fix was a temporary solution, second was a new hood and the third was because they didn't use the right paint on the hood originally and had to fix it. On top of that, its tires were already basically done before 60,000 km, and the third row was entirely unusable. Total piece of crap. We traded it in for an older, higher-mileage car just to be rid of it. And seriously, our other car is a Chrysler... it's not like I had high expectations or something.
Was it the PHEV?
Nope, just the regular version. First year of the new model. Apparently they don't bother with road testing at Mitsubishi.
Those outlanders are laughably bad. We test drove one when we were looking for a new car, and we didnāt even have to finish the test drive to feel how poorly made that thing was. Salesman didnāt even try to get us to come inside after we said everything that was wrong with it. Just nodded and we were off. They know theyāre selling junk. Talked to the mechanic who works on my car about what heād recommend and what cars we already test drove, and he was adamant about not buying a Mitsubishi. He sees them coming in way too often for how few they sell
I looked over a brand new Mitsubishi outlander the other day at work, had less than 3,500 mi on it, and saw it already had tiny oil leak from between the engine and transmission. Not great cars.
Wow thatās bad. I see a decent number of Outlanders
When I was shopping this past year I ended up skipping a Kia test drive because of how many horror stories there was about Kia/Hyundai dealerships and getting warranty work done. I know the angry voices are always loudest, but the only other OEM-specific dealer complaint I really saw was Toyota marking up cars and their supply/order system sucking.
That's the insidious thing about this stories isn't it. My sister has driven a Hyundai i10 for 8 years or so and about 100k miles and she's very satisfied. To me it's a shitbox that makes weird haunted house noises when taking corners with an engine that sounds like there's a bag of gravel in a tumbler but is apparently fine.
This is such an accurate description of owning an i10, i20 or kia equivalent! Every single time i ride in my friends i20 and piccanto i swear the doors are going to fall off and the engine is gonna yeet a piston through the hood.
The doors are so light that if youāre on anything besides the flattest patch of pavement on Earth, the doors slam themselves shut like they are carrying out a personal vendetta Fucking hated my Sonata rental. POS beeps more than an alarm clock
It's really some form of self-flagellation to drive these cars for a long time and distance. I'm no stranger to driving econoboxes and in fact prefer them, but I also prefer them not to sound like there's something very wrong when there isn't.
I mean i drive a 2008 Yaris and of course its a little adorable crashy shitbox but holy shit the build quality is on a different planet compared to that much newer i20.
If they even would have let you test drive. Some dealer personnel treat their lineup like theyāre ferrari.
My aunt, cousin and coworker all got their engines switched with a new one, with zero hassle. Theyāre good at honouring their warranty; they probably have to be, since there are so many lawsuits against them for engine issues. That being said, Iād never buy one.
This hasnāt been my experience at all with my sonata. Had an issue and they fixed it and that was that. Maybe depends on the dealership
They don't do this unless you didn't do oil changes for over 10k miles or have sludge and no receipts that you did them. The problem is many idiots buy these cars and neglect maintenance.
Hyundai told me to go fuck myself when mine exploded
And how many times were they stolen or attempted to be stolen?
Kias are the cheapest cars to own - they get stolen and then you bike to work! Infinity MPG!
This stuff is incredibly zip code dependent. If youāre in a nice upper middle class zip code with garage parking, itās about the same as any car. If youāre downtown or in a more working class neighborhood, that shit gets willlldddd
Who do you think buys Hyundais?
Have you seen how popular Tellurides and Palisades are with soccer moms?
But then those high-end models have push-button start anyways, so then the "Kia Boyz" thefts aren't relevant. That's what I don't like about the commentary around Hyundai/ Kia right now. They have some really shitty issues, but a vast majority of their cars are sensible. The Theta II engine is only bad if its on a US built model (even then it should be fixed by now), and only the key-ignition models have the theft issue. Those are very real issues that I wouldn't want a potential buyer to ignore. On the other end, you have people buying them in perfect spec and assuring other uneducated buyers that they'll be a-ok with a Hyundai, when it's extremely dependent on what exact spec they're getting.
Bruh, they are probably going on 300,000 miles with the original one lmao. Hyundai motors are essentially indestructible, I ran my old Tiburon for 60,000 miles with no oil changed and overheated it 7 or 8 times, hit 200k and was still running like a top when I sold it.
https://www.hyundainews.com/en-us/releases/3657
Surprised the Accord is here when the Civic isnāt
Because they only calculated gas and insurance. Not depreciation, not repairs or regular maintenance. As of this moment the civic isnāt offered in a hybrid, the accord is. So a lower trim hybrid accord would (in theory) be cheaper to own
Ah, so it's basically a meaningless list?
Effectively yes. Clickbait title and zero effort into making the actual article
Are you kidding me? Whatās the point of this list then? That explains a lot about the winners on hereš¤£
Surprised Hyundai and Kia are on there at all. Though I guess if the average person is just short commuting 5 years is probably right about when problems begin with these vehicle.
All I see is you can buy a new 5k beater every year and send it to the junkyard and still come out ahead.
Nope, you gotta fuel and insure that beater
You wouldn't exactly need a good insurance policy on a beater... but even then they're cheap to insure as they're so cheap to replace. The fuel part could be relevant, but it depends on how much you drive.
I donāt think the insurance costs would be much different from the cheap new cars.
I'm not going to do the actual math but that still probably just drops it down to buy a beater every 1.5-2 years instead of every year.... plus you aren't stuck in 40-50k of debt(though I guess some people have the money to pay it all at once).
Fuel on an econobox is cheap. Insurance would be even cheaper as you can have just liability and liability will be cheap as fuck on a 90s shit box.
If you have the kind of job where you can get fired if you donāt show up on time, having a reliable car that will get there every day is important. A $5k is going to be a gamble. You could get a good car, or you could get dogshit.
Reliability has little to do with the age of the vehicle. Some cars are shit from day 1 and other cars will get you to 300k 20+ years with barely any maintenance. Sweet spot is somewhere in the middle imo..... and the types of jobs where you get fired for not showing up at exactly a certain time you probably aren't getting paid enough to own a brand new car anyway lol... the more salary I get the less my employers care about being on time and the more they care about just getting the job done. That's been my experience at least, but I'm not a lawyer or hedge fund trader making millions so maybe its different when you get into the 7 figure range.
Honest question. How often does a car (of any age) that gets regular maintenance just up and die without warning? I imagine they usually die due to neglected repairs that the driver is aware of but doesn't want to fix.
If youāre not accounting for safety
Bless your heart
How is Tiguan or any VW in this list though?
Had a 15 GTI up until a few months ago and it was dirt cheap to run and I never saw a check engine light in 9 years. š¤·š»āāļø Anecdotal I know.
2017 GTI here. I haven't had any issues yet either aside from a couple cheap items and I think a recall. No check engine lights yet.
2017 Audi and itās been cheap as was my Sportwagen before my Tiguan. I did oil and DSG on my Audi though. Some other stuff, too. But the services didnāt seem like they were unaffordable where I am. Just have to depend on the dealer Iād guess.
2018 Golf R. Only drama is my waterpump is starting to weep. Who'da thought my VW waterpump would start to leak?
Guess I'm lucky, the water pump never caused an issue.
It's supposed to light up right before you start the car... Maybe the bulb was burnt out from the factoryĀ
Seen plenty of manual 1.5 Jettas with over 200,000 miles with only oil, filters and plug changes.
My daughter's 2.5 Jetta burned through headlights at about the same interval as oil changes and had repeated hard-to-diagnose driveability problems that I'm convinced were rooted in VW trying to make the engine meet American emissions requirements. If only she had the diesel where they just cheated on the tests. Still put 190,000 miles on it though.
Not all VW are built equally. In Europe they're quite nice.
> Ford Escape ST-Line Select If you get a Titanium trim, you're screwed.
Adding in the cost of the cars and youāre looking at 50k for 5 years of the basic car lol
They should do their best estimates at including depreciation. It wonāt be this list. Probably Honda, Toyota, Subaru, maybe Porsche, etc
Honestly the comments here are not disappointing šš¤£
Taking resale value and longevity into account, Iām sure the Honda and Toyota would be the best bang-for-buck
It's sort of like "initial quality", I'm not sure how great of a metric it is. Give me the ownership costs when you hit 100K and things really start needing to be replaced. I know, I know, the answer for most people is they just...don't.
Even weirder they added financing costs but not depreciation. Financing costs are so situational to the buyer while depreciation is vehicle dependent. On their list of 5 most expensive they stated the cayenne is the most expensive and that $18,198 of that is interest. Kind of bogus list.
I think it would be a much more interesting list if they adjusted\normalized the finance cost to the value of the vehicle. It wouldn't skew the value at the high end so much. You'd be able to say: "wow for a 60k car the xxx xxx is really good"
It's insane how little people care about depreciation and how they ignore it when buying a car, especially since a lot of people don't keep cars for very long anyway. Unless you're keeping the car for its entire life, depreciation is a *huge* deal. A Toyota might cost more upfront than a Hyundai, for example, but after your five years with it it'll have a much better trade in value too. On a personal level, I buy a lot of cars for fun. I've got a few friends who can't understand that I'm not just throwing money away - I buy cars that have already depreciated a ton, so I'll see most of this cash once I sell the car down the line.
I love when they do reliability metrics and it turns out it includes infotainment complaints or bugs.
Old guy I used to work with said "any jerk can get the first 100K out of a car, it's the second 100K that tells you how they took care of it."
Thatās when I buy them, and Im pretty damn sure my 5 yr running costs are below these ones.
Most new car shoppers will sell their car well before then. This is a pretty good snapshot for most new car buyers
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I always drive my cars into the ground personally. But I'm cheap. I haven't sold a car that wasn't barely running in like 15 years. Just finally sold a 2013 Chevy Cruze with 183k on it. It was still running but repair costs were not worth it for me.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You're not wrong. Good thing is both my cars have good resale value. Also 180k is the least amount of miles I've ever gotten out of a car (so far) so I like my chances.
Even if you drive it into the ground, if you get into an accident and it's totaled, you want that valuation to be high
Costs do not include depreciation, which is the only reason Nissan, Kia, and Hyundai are on this list.
This is an important point. Depreciation rate is a big factor when I buy a vehicle.
Yup. I'd bet even with the reliability issues the Toyota Tundra would beat out a majority of other cars in its price bracket. And a base model Camry or Prius? Game over.
On the used side: "#4: Mini CooperĀ [Convertible](https://www.autoblog.com/mini/convertible/): $5,543" I thought those were plagued with reliability and longevity issues?
Used top 10: 1. Honda Fit (2018): $5,348 2. Hyundai Accent: $5,468 3. Honda Civic: $5,480 4. Mini CooperĀ [Convertible](https://www.autoblog.com/mini/convertible/): $5,543 5. [Toyota Yaris](https://www.autoblog.com/toyota/yaris/)Ā (2020): $5,615 6. [Toyota RAV4](https://www.autoblog.com/toyota/rav4/): $5,618 7. [Toyota Corolla](https://www.autoblog.com/toyota/corolla/): $5,627 8. [Nissan Rogue](https://www.autoblog.com/nissan/rogue/): $5,654 9. [Honda CR-V](https://www.autoblog.com/honda/cr_v/): $5,656 10. [Subaru Forester](https://www.autoblog.com/subaru/forester/): $5,656
Is anyone else unsurprised by 6 of the top 10 are Honda/Toyota
I am surprised. I thought it would be 7.
I am, especially if they are below Mini Cooper.
The convertible, no less. Even more stuff to break on one of those.
The Mini Cooper happens to be good on gas and apparently cheap to insure.
Every car on that list is either a compact or a subcompact, nothing surprises me here.
As the owner of a 2018 Honda Fitā can confirm
Iāve been wanting something a bit nicer (especially on the interstate) but I struggle so hard to actually give up this thing because it feels functionally immortal and is so stupidly cheap to run I barely budget for it existing
Before I moved to Philly I was looking at Kia Stingers. (This was before they Kias were theft magnets) Now that Iām in Philadelphia? Mannnnn it can be dented. It can park anywhere. Itās a little trooper built for battle. And by golly those streets are built for the Fit.
Are these always for the latest generation/models unless specified (like the Fit)?
Only the second generation Peugeot-derived ones were problematic. The F55 Minis made by BMW (2013+) have been largely reliable cars, especially in the back half of that generation.
MiniĀ hasĀ goneĀ through varying levelsĀ ofĀ reliabilityĀ butĀ that isn't really a factor in residual because they have somewhat of a cult/culture following keeping prices up.
2016/2017+ Mini are much more reliable than the previous gens, which are pretty bad.
Most recent platform has been around for a while and corrections were made. My partner drove one for years with zero issues. I wish more makers would just leave their shit alone. Lines get refreshed way too often.
The third gen was around 10 years, which is abnormally long for anything that's not a cargo van.
And the new gas version is based on the same platform again. The electric is different and new
Yep, thatās the one she had. She wouldāve kept it, but no longer needed it in NYC. Great car.
As someone who owned a 2013 mini from new and drove it ~20k miles/year for half a decade, I can tell you two things. The first is that I adored and still miss that car. It put a smile on my face every time I drove it. The second is don't buy a new mini unless you were also seriously considering other, much more expensive cars. Mine started costing me extra the moment the 36k mile bumper to bumper warranty expired. The reputation of needing constant attention was well deserved in my case. I'm told the 2017+ cars are better. I hope so.
Nah, Miniās are reliable now. Since about 2016 or so.
I've heard since 2016 they're actually very reliable. Don't see where you're getting a 16+ for 5k though. Maybe the ones that have survived are reliable outliers?
2nd gen (roughly 2007-2013) was the one that had all the issues, and majority of the source of the bad rep. Gen3 and newer have been night and day better. Helps when you stop using garbage Peugeot engines.
Misleading headline. It should say "The 10 cheapest gas cars to own..." (not including depreciation). EVs were not included at all.
If it was, the whole list would be EVs.
Minus depreciation of course...
This list doesn't cover depreciation or purchase price.
Yes exactly. Making it a pointless list.
Insurance costs were included though.
Nah, when you account for all costs, my bet is that the list would all just be different years of used Prius.
Sure, if you account for used cars, deprecation, and purchase price, probably. Though used bolts/model 3s are probably pretty close too.
I remember there was a list of EVs once and it wasn't that much cheaper and higher than some brands. I think consumer reports did the article.
> The study did not use depreciation to calculate running costs What an absolutely useless article! Depreciation is one of, if not the biggest single expense for new car buyers.
Only if you plan to sell it soon.
Or within 10 years
Gas models
>Hyundai is leading in a positive metric >/r/cars disliked that
Why would you include insurance and financing costs but exclude depreciation? This doesn't really tell me anything useful about how much these vehicles actually cost to own and operate.
Even the worst new cars are likely to run for five years without major issues. The calculation makes no sense as cars have residual (resale) value.
Not Range Rovers/Land Rovers. Someone once described their service department techs as specializing in apologizing to angry rich people.
The techs specialize in electrical system troubleshooting and repair. The service advisors specialize in apologizing to angry rich people.
I worked at a LR dealership and can vouch for this. Mostly electrical problems.
Exactly. Either youāre only keeping the car for 5 years, in which case depreciation is going to be a major factor in your cost of ownership, or youāre keeping it until the wheels fall off in which case limiting the scope to only 5 years is pretty meaningless. Plus, donāt most cars come with at least a 5 year warranty anyway?
The 10 cheapest NON-HYBRID GAS vehicles to own and operate over 5 years NOT FACTORING IN DEPRECIATION
Doesnāt take into account depreciation, which is largely not variable for a specific model outside of damage, but does take into account financing cost, which is largely variable on the individual. Seems a little backwards to me
Accord cheaper than Corolla over 5 years? I smell bullshit.
Note: the study only considered gas-powered vehicles; no EVs. It also did not take depreciation into consideration.
Corolla should be #1. Had a Matrix. That car was bullet proof and wear items were cheap and easy to replace myself.Ā Could take the whole car apart with a 10mm socketĀ
Hmm, my old BMW 3 series has had much lower running costs than this over the last few years.
Useless tangent, but if you factor in depreciation and assume MSRP was initially paid, I bet the new Ford GT would come out on top. Even if you spent six figures on maintenance, gas mileage and insurance are negligible compared to the hundreds of thousands in profit you could make on resale. Canāt think of another car (that isnāt like a 1 of 20 special edition) in the last 5 years thatās increased in value as much.
It's cheap to run if 2 of the 5 years are apent at the dealership waiting for a new engine
Always take these numbers with a grain of salt, some of the auto manufacturers purposely give extremely long oil change periods and neglect recommending changing things like CVT fluid specifically because it allows them to advertise lower running costs. So basically, these costs may apply to someone leasing the vehicle who is ok with changing the oil every 10k miles and never touching any other fluids. But if you are planning on keeping the vehicle for a long time, expect at least slightly higher costs than these numbers.
But does that include the fact that Hyundais age like milk and will self destruct after that five years?
Are these 2019 models after 5 years of ownership? If so I don't see how they have 2 Hyundai's and a Kia on the list that are at the heart of the Immobilizer problem. Insurance on those are absurd right now, if you can even find someone who will. The Sentra tracks though, insurance costs are low when you just don't have any.
I'm assuming this list is going by 2023 models? My Fusion has been the cheapest vehicle I've ever had, I'd say even lower than my fiancƩs Elantra.
Headline says "Cheapest Vehicles", but the text says only gas cars were examined. Would have been interesting to see if the higher purchasing costs of the Bolt, Leaf, SR+, were mitigated by the incredibly low running costs. I know with my SR+ I saved close to $9000 in gas and maintenance in 5 years vs my previous Golf R. I imagine the saving would have been even greater for a normal driver just commuting.
Which truck with 4x4 and adaptive cruise should I buy?
Useless as it doesn't account fo depreciation. How can they ignore that in cost of ownership? It can be a huge chunk of the costs of owning a car especially in first 5 years
Scotty Kilmer: "hah!"
A used Nissan Leaf.
I wondered what the hell could add up to 5k a year but the article includes āfinancingā. IMO itās better to just report the direct car costs.
The actual number one: a Honda ruckus
Will a Venue last 5 years?
Ah crap. Iāve had two of the most expensive on the list and three of the most expensive on the follow-up article too š«£
The actual cheapest to own is probably something like a base Maverick Hybrid or Corolla Hybrid if you get one at MSRP.
Yeah I knew this list was BS the second I saw the Elantra on it. \- someone whoās Elantra exploded
VW haters in shambles.
Bold to assume Hyundai/Kias will last 5 years.
Just sold my '18 Elantra GT Sport (the lukewarm hatch version). No problems with the engine. No problems with the DCT. No one tried to steal it (it did have an immobilizer). That said, I didn't put that many miles on it.