Here's Why I Only Buy Toyotas and Lexus

Toyota has some of the most reliable cars in the market compared to most other brands out there and it's remained pretty consistent for decades today I'm talking about the surprising Edge the Toyota has over every other car maker believe it or not actually Tesla has a similar Edge too hang tight to hear me out and I'll tell you which cars to avoid if you don't want to go broke with maintenance costs I'll also explained which car parts in general are more commonly prone to breakdowns [Music] everything looks good when it's brand new but you can't charge a car only when it's new and shiny I'll let you in a secret and I'll give it to you straight there's one super simple yet critical factor that makes or breaks a car I'm talking about maintenance costs relative to initial retail price I start with the band BMW on average if you were to buy a new BMW today in the next 10 years it'll cost you more than 25.3 percent of its retail price just to maintain it the main reason is due to expensive specialty parts and high grade materials and that's the thing that many people forget to consider so next time you're itching to buy a BMW take the price of the trim you want and add an extra 25 on top of it and ask yourself if the car is really worth that actual cost of buying a BMW over time actually BMW comes at the bottom of the stack it has the highest relative maintenance cost compared to other luxury Brands Land Rover is also among the bottom and maintenance will cost you 22 and a half percent of the car's retail price but before I tell you more about cars you should avoid like the plague let me talk about the best cars I'll start with the non-luxury Brands first at the top of the snack is Toyota no surprise there I've been preaching about Toyota for decades but don't just take my word for it just look at the stats and let the numbers talk the average Toyota car will cost you only 13 percent of its retail price and maintenance costs over 10 years this makes Toyota cars the cheapest to maintain compared to all other car brands and this is why Toyota is the best non-luxury car brand out there now that's the average across all Toyota models if you want yet another Testament to the reliability of Toyota cars just look at all non-luxury car mops I'm talking specific models not just Brands here of the top 10 car models with the best maintenance cost relative to retail price eight are Toyota models the very best is the Toyota Land Cruiser maintenance costs will amount to just 7.3 percent of its retail price a Toyota Sequoia will cost eight and a half percent a super 8.6 a 4Runner 10.5 a condra 11.8 Camry 12 and Prius 12.1 percent Toyota's competitor Honda it may surprise you it's a 21.2 percent so you can see Toyota blows Honda out of the water Mazda and Kia are both in the 25 to 26 percent range if you're wondering how non-luxury American car makers stack up here's the overall rank of GM's 14.3 percent Ford's at 18.2 percent Chevy's 19.8 percent Dodge and Chrysler 26.3 and 26.6 percent but now let's talk about the best luxury Brands the top two luxury brands with the least relative maintenance costs are Tesla and Lexus the average cost to maintain a Tesla over the first 10 years is just seven percent of its retail price that said if you have an uncommon catastrophic problem let's say with a battery for example that'll cost you thousands literally if the car is out of Warrant EV batteries are known to be expensive to repair replace which is one disadvantage of EVS over combustion engine cars now that's the average for the brand as far as specific models are concerned believe it or not some of them fare much better for example the model S will cost you just 4.6 percent of of its initial price to maintain the car over a decade the Tesla Model X fares at 5.1 percent Nissan GTR comes in at 5.2 percent now obviously these aren't cheap by any means nevertheless for the luxury class its maintenance cost is very low compared to competing luxury cars the second best luxury car with the least maintenance cost relative to retail prices Lexus now this doesn't surprise me at all as a mechanic I've worked on Lexus cars plus my wife has had a Lexus for years Lex's maintenance costs over 10 years is just 12.3 percent in fact it's relatively better than even the Toyota brand specific Lexus models fare better than its own Brand's average for example the Lexus lx570 will cost only 7.6 maintenance costs but now let's talk about the Bad and the Ugly I'm talking about cars that'll drain your pocket and maintenance costs of the non-luxury Brands one of the worst for relative maintenance cost is Believe It or Not Hyundai pretty much you'll be paying an additional 28 of the retail cost for maintenance and upkeep Beyond a venue specifically will cost an average of 33 maintenance which is painfully High keep in mind though this car's only been in the U.S market since 2020 model year so there's limited debt but the rolling data so far for its two to three years of History here isn't strong but keep in mind automotive technology is constantly changing in recent years as the brand Hyundai has improved a lot and its models overall from recent years perform better generally than the models from say 20 years ago when it faced a lot of bad ratings but its history in previous ratings still follow the brand in this ranking since older cars are still on the road still operating and still needing maintenance you should also keep in mind that any new car model launched this year regardless of brand will need to wait several years to collect maintenance cost data in order to accurately judge the reliability of the car anyway back to the list another car maker that's near the bottom of the brand is Ram I'm talking 27.8 percent not only is Ram one of the worst brands in general when it comes to relative maintenance costs but even worse five of the 10 worst non-luxury car models are Ram cars for example if you own a Ram 2500 4500 or 5500 be prepared to spend 36 to 37 percent of its retail price just on maintenance costs alone if you own a Ram ProMaster Cargo Van you'll be spending 40 percent of its retail price but the absolute worst of the worst is the Ram ProMaster City I'm talking a painful 62 percent here's the thing Ram trucks have a reputation of being less than reliable in the past recent years have seen some improvements but again history follows one's reputation if you're wondering why Ram trucks have relatively higher maintenance costs compared to other car and truck models there are a few factors involved here take the Ram 3500 for example the Ram 3500 will cost you almost twenty six thousand dollars to maintain over 10 years to put that in perspective that's eleven thousand five hundred dollars more in regular service and repair costs compared to the industry average it's shocking that's why it's one of the worst pickups in the class for the last 10 years one of the worst issues with the Ram 3500 included the infamous death wobble this was due to a faulty track Barn redundant pump failure the Ram 2500 fared badly too for multiple reasons the 2012 model saw steering issues and the 2014 to 2016 model years experience knocking in the engine and I tell you that's not a cheap fix at all engine replacement can be over five thousand dollars for example basically if you own a Ram 2500 you'll be shelling out more than 25 Grand in maintenance costs over the first 10 years and in that first decade this truck has a 79 chance of needing major repair work the Ram 5500 is no less shocking you can expect to pay an extra 11 000 bucks more than the industry average to maintain and repair this truck in over a decade you're looking at around 25 000 bucks in maintenance costs that's about 58 worse than models in its class some owners reported transfer case issues on their trucks 3M 5500 had recalls in 2019 and 2020 models because of engine fires and outright failures the problem was that there was a rod bearing failure because the engines weren't getting in the proper amount of oil during warm-ups without enough oil the connecting rods would fail and punch out the engine block and then hot oil would leak out into the exhaust and start fires some serious stuff since time Ram has fixed this issue by flashing the engine calibration software so that engine warm-up improved engine protection but those weren't the only problems with this truck because of these engine failures this truck was slammed with a class action lawsuit basically the plaintiff bought a new Ram 5500 chassis cab and 2019 paid around 75 grand for it but less than a year later without any warning the engine locked up on the freeway and the truck had to be towed to a Ram dealership long story short after three months he was taught by the dealership that his warranty didn't cover the needed repairs to get the Cummins engine back up and running according to the dealership truck had low oil pressure for 3000 Miles and that was the cause of the engine failure after contacting Chrysler was told that Cummins wouldn't fix or replace the engine but after taking the truck to an expert diesel mechanic plaintiff was told there was a huge hole in the side of the engine block because one of the connection rods broke then the plaintiff filed a class action lawsuit all this to say if you're wondering why people still chose Ram trucks despite concerns around reliability here's the thing fans often stick to a brand because Ram offers some of the best towing capability in the market the Ram 2500 HD and 3500 HD can also have 23 000 pounds for example and upbeat many other trucks out there fans always praise the Ram's spacious and comfortable cabins and of course the company does spend heavily in marketing than advertising which of course helps draw the crowd but now let's look at the worst luxury brand earlier I already mentioned that BMW is at the bottom of the stack of luxury Brands BMW entered the SUV market with the X5 in 1999. today the brand offers many SUVs the problem is they're the most expensive SUVs on the market to maintain right now if you have a BMW you're looking at average maintenance costs of about 25.3 percent of its retail price over the course of 10 years that's nearly twice the relative maintenance cost of a Lexus and even then the BMW brand average is nowhere near close to high maintenance cars are for some of its models like the x1x2 and the X3 over a 10-year period and X1 will cost you 42 of its value to maintain an X2 will cost you 39.9 percent of its value to maintain and the next three will cost you 38.8 percent of its value to maintain ask any mechanic and I'll tell you the same thing BMWs aren't cheap to maintain BMW's reputation for high maintenance costs is well known across the industry if you're wondering why BMW's maintenance costs are so high compared to its competitors well basically BMW uses synthetic motor oil and complex engineering techniques in other words BMW parts are very specialized which means they don't come cheap they are also difficult for car shops to find parts for and that adds to another layer of the equation if you're wondering how other luxury car brands fare well Land Rover jaguar and Volvo are near the bottom the stack their cost range between 22 and a half to 24 percent in general as a mechanic I'll leave you with this regardless of your brand if you want your car to perform optimally the key Parts you need to regularly maintain include the engine brakes tires and suspension some of the parts are commonly prone to failing can be the battery alternator starter motor brakes or suspension bottom line if you want to extend the life of your car keep up with regular maintenance schedule and just don't ignore it it's there for a reason it's like visiting your doctor for regular checkups but now you tell me what car do you own and what's your experience with maintaining your cars would you consider buying a vehicle with high maintenance costs please share by commenting below if you like this video please like share and subscribe thanks for your support foreign

Channel: Scotty Kilmer

Views: 683,304

Keywords: auto, auto repair, car, car diy, car repair, cars, diy, how to, mechanic, repair, scotty kilmer, car review, toyota, here's why, here's why toyota, who makes the best cars, toyota reliability, most reliable car, most reliable cars, here's why I only buy toyotas, buying a toyota, should I buy a toyota, buying a used toyota, toyota review, toyota car review, new toyota, car advice, toyota cars, are toyotas reliable, should i buy a toyota, new toyota reliability, tesla, toyotas

Id: BT7ClqtA-3M

Length: 11min 19sec (679 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 31 2023