What would you say you spend on maintenance per year? Everything from oil changes to wear-and-tear items to the average sort of unscheduled maintenance you have--but let's exclude installation of performance mods. And if you do your own maintenance, say so, as that obviously affects the bottom line quite a lot. EDIT: I forgot to mention--the make, model, and year of the car you're talking about would also be useful.

For example, if you've had a car for three years, and you have a $60 oil change every three months, and you've replaced tires once ($600, or average of $200 per year for tires), and you've had two unscheduled maintenances costing a total of $900 (or average of $300 per year), your average cost per year would be $740.

Just curious.

Lets see, This year:
timing belt, water pump, belt tensioner, oil pan, $1100
4 Oil Changes, $160
4 new tires, $720

Grand total of $1980

Last year was the clutch imploding...which cost about $1000, plus oil changes, about $1160

Year before that nothing but oil changes, and a brake job, so about $400..

So 3 years of ownership has cost me $3540, which works out to $1180 per year.

Fuck...always ask for a service history...

This year will be a head gasket...or two. Although I did hear a rumour that Subaru North America will cover some of the cost of the job since it is stupidly premature (165,000km on the car).

Jeebus. What model and what year Scoobie are we talking about?

2003 Impreza 2.5 TS wagon.

I badly wanted an AWD car for the winters...and found what I thought was a great deal...but the car has been somewhat of a lemon.

I don't think it's really the car's fault...as they typically tend to be bulletproof. I'm more inclined to think that the original owner wasn't very good to it.

It's been a brilliant car, and despite the work it's had done, she's never left me stranded. I bought it for the North Vancouver Island winters and it did great, now it's had it's first Manitoba winter and continues to do well.

2002 Mazda Protege ES. I will have owned it for one year on 6/3/08.

To it I have had:

* 30,000 mile service - $424
* Oil change and Tire rotation - $22

Rear pads need to be replaced soon, tires within the next 5-10k, and leaking strut (which should get another check-up at 41k).

Not bad at all, IMO.

Except for that now-permanent Indian smell/residue you leave behind in the interior. That's about -250% value right there. You're going to have to pay someone to take that car off your hands and only then to immediately burn it afterwards.

Just curious--are you refilling the leaking shock, or planning on replacing it, or what? The mechanic's shop that is telling me to have $700 of work for a dragging rear brake is the same mechanic's shop who told me that I had to replace both rear shocks when one started leaking.

1995 Civic DX 80,000 Miles~

~Ignition System (I seriously think it was fine, just a faulty wire but I got ripped off)
~Half axle
~Leaky P/S Pump

2007 Maxima 40000km's in 1.5 years

Around 8 oil changes: < $400

24km maintenance: $200 (lube change, brake maintenance and a bunch other shit....)

4 Air filters: $40

Michelin Pilot Alpin p2's: $1400 ( 18' tires cost an arm and a leg)

Here's the things to the best of my memory. I've erred on the side of being more expensive so you can see how horrible my Ford really is.

1997 Ford F-150 which I've owned for 8 years

3 oil changes per year at about $25 = $75 (I do them myself)
2 transmission fluid changes also about $25 = $50 over 8 years = $6.25 (Did them myself probably going to do another this year)
New tires $600/8 = $75 (Had it done at a tire shop)
Plugs, wires, and coil packs about $250/8 = $32 (Did it myself)
Brakes $300/8 = $38 (bought the stuff online yesterday but I'll be doing the work)
Paint $200/8 = $50 (Did it myself )

Total is around $277 per year. Bonus points for having owned it for so long, parts being cheap, being Built Ford Tough, and doing the work myself.

No idea as of yet. I've found the Mazdaspeed setup for a couple hundred used for about 20,000 miles. My mechanic is a Mazda specialist... his name is Mr. Mazda... haha... he normally knows what to do. He's thorough and he charges a lot for normal work so he doesn't need to rip me off on other things.

I think just re-filling it should be fine because I only have 39.5k on the clock so the shocks should have more life left.

You dont want to know

No, really, I do. But remember that you don't have to include performance mods in that amount.

$40 per oil change done every 4500 miles which comes to about every 2 months or so. $240/yr
Tires 1 pair per year so far $600
30k service $400

Upgrade and modifications .. about $2000

My biggest expense by far is gas. $350 a month

If we exclude gas and performance mads (which I didn't intend on people counting), you're doing pretty decently. Not Fiber Optic's F-150 cheap, but better than average for this thread.

$0 - for service etc (BMW's warranty owns)

But I had to replace my stupid runflats, $180/tire =(

Are runflats really worth having?

It's wrapped up into the initial purchase price. It's not actually free, just prepaid. Still, it must feel good when you get your oil changed and you don't have to put any money on the desk.



Considering that the E90 3-Series doesn't come with a spare tire or room for a spare tire, I'd say so

Put on some RE070. All the sidewall stiffness of a runflat and 100 times better grip

Do you have a choice with BMWs?

I thought all of them, save the M cars, had runflats.

Oh I just meant in general. I've heard not so good things about them, that's all.

9 oil changes @ ~ $50 a pop (all but one performed at the dealer)
set of winter wheels/tires $400
front rotors and pads ~ $200
then about $2000 on mods.

I have a huge expense coming up, as my summer set is going bald. And since I will have to replace the rims, I am easily looking at $1800.

For maintenence only, not mods, it has not been much.

Typical Oil Change (Probably have done like 5-6 of them since ive owned the car, every 3k miles) ~ $30 bucks, for filter and good oil, and doing it myself.
Transmission Fluid ~ $25 bucks, for the fluid.
Brakes ~ $30 for cheapo lifetime warranty Autozone pads (Not too shabby for DD btw)
4 Tires & alignment ~$250 bucks.
Bleeding and Replacing Coolant ~$25 bucks
Valve Adjustment ~Free

so about $480-500 dollars. for all the maintenance ive done on the car. the only thing that got done at a shop was mounting tires and the alignment.

In a year, I do:

2 oil changes (1 every 5000 miles)
-$40 for oil and filter, do it myself.
1 dealer maintenance (1 every 10,000 miles)
-Averages about $100

And extrapolating for other items:

0.333 brake jobs (1 every 30,000 miles)
-Call it $200, though that includes front rotors
0.333 tire changes (1 every ~30,000 miles)
-Was about $720 last time
0.167 clutch jobs (1 every 60,000 miles)
-Call it $800 with parts and labor. That's about what it cost on my brother's old pickup, I've yet to have to touch it on my GTI.

Do all that math and you get a grand total of:

$620 per year

Last year:
- 60,000 service = $125
- 65,000 service = $250 (blown clutch cylinder, engine mounts needed replacing, brake pads)
- Tire change = $2000, but that includes the price of the new wheels.

YOU PAID THAT MUCH FOR THOSE WHEELS?!!?!?

I screwed up the calculaton, but it's more like $1600, wheels + tires + installation.

I don't think they're as bad as people make them seem, in the past 2 years I haven't had much of a problem with them (I've never actually had a flat or anything, so I can't really evaluate them for the emergency purpose), but taking my car on the twistys the car has no problem handling with the runflats, granted the handling would probably be better with some Michellin PS2 or Falken 452s, but I haven't had trouble taken the car around a corner pretty quickly with these tires. My only gripe is that they last ~25,000 miles before they go completely bald and replacing them is pretty expensive. I had to replace them because my car is a lease, so I have to return the car like I bought it, next lease though I'm making sure to get new rims + tires and store the OEM stuff, so when I return it I don't have to worry about these small things.

jesus.... still man, you could have spent that money so much wiser.

My tires needed replacing, and I was fed up with the steelies. It's a bitch finding secondhand wheels since there's no good Craiglist/Ebay equivalent here, and I had no intention of modifying any other part of the car. So I got them.