Survey: Buying an American luxury car can save you 3x as much in maintenance costs as a German brand
A luxury car. No one buys one expecting cheap, reasonable maintenance and repair costs. But your choice of brand could make a huge difference in how much you spend keeping your luxury wheels on the road. In fact, choosing a posh model from Porsche or Mercedes-Benz could cost two or three times as much as a Cadillac or Lincoln to run over a decade.
An ownership survey shows that maintaining a German luxury car could cost much more than an American one over a decade
What makes a luxury car so luxurious? It’s more than a badge or fine materials. It’s bump-absorbing suspension, a powerful, smooth powerplant, and loads of cutting-edge technology. All things that can go wrong and cost you a pretty penny to repair, replace, and simply maintain. But that badge could be the difference between manageable maintenance costs and wallet-busting expenses.
American luxury car brands, for instance, cost far less to repair and maintain over 10 years. Tesla took the No. 1 spot, with an average cost of $5,050 for a decade. Not far behind the luxury EV marque, Lincoln and Cadillac had average 10-year wear-and-tear costs of $5,200 and $6,875, respectively.
| Luxury car brand | Average 10-year cost to maintain, repair |
|---|---|
| Porsche | $16,000 |
| Mercedes-Benz | $13,100 |
| Audi | $11,050 |
| BMW | $9,800 |
| Cadillac | $6,875 |
| Lincoln | $5,200 |
| Tesla | $5,050 |
Those numbers might not have much gravity on their lonesome, but they paint a different picture when contrasted with German luxury car brands. For instance, BMW and Audi had 10-year costs of $9,800 and $11,050, per Consumer Reports. Mercedes-Benz pushed the envelope even further, with an eye-watering decade cost of $13,100. That’s almost twice as much as a Cadillac in the same period.
However, Porsche takes the cake for the priciest German luxury car brand to maintain and repair. On average, Porsche owners reported spending an average of $16,000 over a decade. Ouch.
“If you are considering a luxury model, it may be wise to purchase one from a domestic brand that may have lower maintenance and repair costs,” Consumer Reports analyst Steven Elek says. “For example, over 10 years, Mercedes-Benz models are more than double the cost to maintain and repair than those from Lincoln.”
