[GautamJ]

For us, it has been TATAs in our Garage.

Both, our Tata Tiago (1.05L Revotorq) and Tata Manza (Quadrajet) were super expensive to maintain, maybe due to both being lemon cars. Tiago felt expensive for the segment it belonged to. The Manza had 2 turbo replacement and many other parts, when the odometer stood at 28K km.

Our current cars, Ford EcoSport (modified 1.5L TDCi) is super cheap to maintain (at least in these 4 years) and Skoda Rapid (DQ200 TDi) has been cheaper and reliable than our Manza .

[TheARUN]

I am currently stuck in the conundrum and have no clue what to do. My 3 Series 325i. It's a 2007 model and I bought it in 2021 with 91K on the clock. It's pushing 1.06K now. Over the 2 odd years that I have owned it, I have spent 6L in unnecessary repair. Not to mention the other regular expenses, 6L over 4 major instances at FNGs. It's been there once for 7 months, then 2 months and then a month twice. Thank God the engine and gear box have held up. For me it's been leaking oil, electrical gremlins, suspension work etc.

I keep thinking about this a lot. I can say I walked into this with my eyes open.

I got to a stage in life where I could afford a 50K monthly payment on a new BMW. I chose to go used since I did not want to take a loan and the E90 has been a childhood dream, its naturally aspirated petrol 6 cylinders 6 speed automatic. I've been spending close to 25K per month on an average on unnecessary repairs, still I think I saved a lot of money by buying used. Nowadays I keep 1L ready at hand for any eventuality that might come up and keep praying. Its my daily driver

[Jaguarpaw]

Prayers and poojas my friend. Not only mine , the whole family's !

After my long prayers and Poojas got hold of a new AMT unit at 60k from a dealer in Hyderabad. Jokes apart I have a great friend who is well connected with Spares. Tata charged 12k for replacement of actuator and clutch part. Old unit was sold to someone needy for 30K with along with parts of new unit. So in 42K i managed to get a brand new unit.

Used for a few more months more. But eventually the 72K without scrapping the old AMT was little too much for me to digest. Afterwards i felt i was driving a fully fired rocket and not Nano. I am also not a guy who loves occasional panic attacks and has 180K in bank. Sold it with all repair informations passed on to buyer at a bargain price , Staying happy till date.

[Sanjay Halikar]

Brilliant Thread!

I hadn't considered it up until now, but definitely my Chevrolet Trailblazer qualifies for this, especially now.

Parts have become almost prohibitively expensive now, and even minor parts are not locally available. Most of the parts have to be shipped from Thailand/Korea. I just got my car back from the Service center yesterday, after a wait of 1 month & 17 days. Sourcing parts was extremely difficult for them. Allegedly, the Chevy factory in Chakan has been sold to Hyundai and hence there is an acute shortage of all parts plus Diwali week etc

The wait would have been higher if we would have waited for the front shocks. I wanted to replace them as well due to the fact that almost all the other components of the front suspension were replaced. The shocks themselves were in decent condition, getting a bit stiff but no leaks. But they were just not available and there was no commitment from the service center as to when the same could be dispatched. Only answer was that there would an update only post December 5th. Other small items like window up/down switch for second row, horn wasn't available. Switch was "repaired" and I procured a Hella horn from a nearby accessory store which was fitted in my presence before taking delivery.

Another bummer is that the prices have been revised (heavily) from 1st Oct 2023. My final bill for parts was substantially higher than the shared quotation. I shudder to think what the 10,000 km regular service will cost me now. Earlier it was in the region of 25k at the FNG.

[nawalsingal]

Well, I have owned few cars starting with humble Maruti 800, bought for 35000 in 1995 with LPG kit. Was cheaper than my Bajaj scooter and LML Vespa to run. Thereafter moving to Wagon R and then Polo TDI. 12 years old POLO TDI has proven to be least expensive. Service cost of around 7-8000 per 15-16K kilometers which sometimes were completed in more than a year. More than 155000 kms on odo, vehicle is on original parts save shock absorbers, brake pads tyres and batteries. Only major expense incurred apart from.routine service and consumables was on suspension parts, approx 45K. Vehicle is still in top shape, rock solid on above legal speed limits and FE of 19.5 KMPL (recently on Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Ahmedabad trip. 15-16 KPL in city traffic with AC is normally what I get.

[Small Bot]

Since we are talking about cars with 'surprisingly high maintenance costs', it's been nearly all the Hyundais we have owned.

We have had two 2nd gen Hyundai i10s and one i20 Active. The maintenance costs have never been low, and the cars have not been all that fuss-free too.

The earlier i10 had quite a few rusting issues and the engine seized at over 1.5 lakh kms. I thought it was a shame, as it ran well and the other long-term car (Honda Brio) is still running at 1.75 lakh kms.

The second i10 had rusting issues as well. But I suppose it could be forgiven as it had gone through Vardah cyclone before coming to me.

The i20 Active had a Check Engine light malfunction, followed by a catalytic converter failure and the oxygen sensors going caput, all around 6 months after the warranty ended. We ended up paying quite a bit from our pocket

What could not be forgiven is that a normal paid service used to cost us close to 10K each time for each car. Costs for Hyundai parts and service and the labour charges for these cars were equal to, and on several occasions more than, Honda parts and service.

[barath_rudraksh]

The car that gave me the surprise of being light on the pocket was my Ford Figo 2016 Petrol (which was also pre owned and was driven only 30k kms). The ownership was completely fuss-free apart from a couple of headlight failures. The maintenance cost was so less that the SA kept adding VAS to my bill to bring it up to 8 or 9k. I expected Fords to be expensive to maintain but to my surprise, ford did a wonderful job with the service costs and their service cost calculator. This also made me think the diesel version of the same car would have been expensive to maintain but it was another surprise when one of my friends told me about his Diesel ford figo(1.5tdci) on how it never crossed 10k per year for maintenance.

I now own a Nissan Terrano Diesel. I expected it to be moderate on maintenance costs (considering its basic architecture). But the service costs in the ASS are on the premium side. It was bought pre-owned in a good shape but it required constant care to stay in shape. Parts started giving up then and there and I didn't realize how expensive it was until I calculated the average maintenence cost I poured in all year - 50k apprx.

[JojyKerala]

My 2006 Indica Xeta petrol had persistent problems, especially with the air conditoner and this kept maintenance costs high. My current ride, the Rapid 1.6 TDI, is a wonderful vehicle with great handling dynamics. It is kind enough to throw up occasional ABS sensor surprises to keep me busy and add to my maintenance costs.

[varunait2003]

My Polo 1.2l Petrol (2017 model) first year servicing cost was 9k, second year 11k. Comparing with MG Astor Turbo (2021) first service was 4k and for the second year it's 7k.

[MobileThunder]

My Tata Indigo Marina was loaded with niggles and would always go the FNG (after the warranty period). My Tiago automatic was worse, with more issues than my Marina. Luckily, after escalations to higher ups with Tata, most of the issues were covered in warranty. Got rid of it as the warranty was expiring, and traded it for an Ertiga, which was about 6-7k per year at the ASS. Now traded it for my Jimny and keeping my fingers crossed. However, the cheapest to maintain was always my M800 and Wagon R(LPG), both were easy on the pocket both in terms of mileage and maintenance costs.

IMO, Maruti Labour costs have become very expensive over the years, and a Maruti serviced at a FNG would be the cheapest to maintain as the spares are still reasonable.

[KTM]

My Kona EV 2022 facelifted model
While the car itself doesn't require any service cost, in the past 15 months it has had 3 accidents majority of the time not fully paid by insurance (people from Nepal will understand). All in all it cost me 2.5lakh (1.5 lakh in Indian currency) for relatively small rear ended accidents involving change or repair of bumpers.

[ranjitht87]

Originally Posted by Bhodrolok

The VW2.0 maintenance costs are actually much lower but the quality is just not the same. So there is a trade off when the cost cutting happens.

I don't think the service cost is much lower with VW 2.0.

We were charged 200 Rs (including 25 + GST as Labour charges) in replacing the manual of Taigun.

Also they charged 1068 for Engine bay cleaning.
MG did the same for my Astor for less than 400.

[TheBigV]

My 2015 Honda City falls under the low maintenance models.

Absolutely trouble free ownership for the 8 years I had it. Apart from regular services at Honda ASS (costed around 5-6k) I never had to spend a single paisa on the maintenance.

Now I've got the Safari. Fingers crossed with expectations of low maintenance costs in the future.

[gck_tourer]

My Aspire TDCI Titanium just completed 7 years and 1.1 lakh kms of ownership and entered the eighth year. The only parts replaced till now are battery in the fifth year, tyres at 70k kms, brake pads at 1lakh km service and wipers once. This car is extremely light on pocket and super reliable. The annual service cost is always between 3k and 6k. Surprising it is to many in my circle that my car maintenance is cheaper than that of their Altos and Tiagos. Icing on the cake is the performance of the TDCI and it's lifetime average mileage is at 20.1 kmpl. I never reset it from the day I bought the car. On highways, fully loaded and wiith spirited driving it manages 21 or 22 kmpl. In city it hovers around 17 to 18. I love this car and intend to keep it as long as it runs. Don't mind sinking some money into it.

[MT_Hyderabad]

We quicly come to know what are the problems faced by other owners. Hence, I am not surprised by the ownership cost of my vehicles.