Kwizzle

I was curious how much I was actually spending on repairs and maintenance so I went over my repair bills and almost had a heart attack.

For a car that I bought for $4300 CAD in 2014 with 120 000km I spent over 14k, which comes out to over 3k a year and over $250 per month. I hadn't released that it was so bad until I did the math.

The car now has 240 000 km (and has been a blast to drive), I've spent $11 299 CAD on repairs and $2 979 on maintenance (oil changes, timing belt, tires).

I thought I would share this info, it was a real eye opener for me. What have been your costs of ownership and do you think mine have been excessive?
I'm currently shopping for a newer car and am wondering how much I will save in repair and maintenance costs if I go say for a 2013 to 2015 TL/TLX.


Here you can see a breakdown of my costs to repair and maintain my car with notes and dates:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Hope at least some of you find this helpful or interesting.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

It's an old car and to be expected. In 2017 I bought my 2006 TL 6MT, a car which was in VERY good shape, and yet I still put over $5,000 into it over the first year in pure maintenance.

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

I can't open that at work for some reason, but what you've spent blows my mind! I wish I could see what repairs you had to do.

I had 2 CLS6 from 2007 to 2018 and I looked back at my maintenance records. Almost all the money I spend on the cars were for upgrades. The only things I have otherwise were brakes, oil changes, HID ballasts, battery and a valve adjustment which I did. They were the most reliable cars I've ever had.

My neighbour just got rid of his TLX and nothing but issues with it.

Kwizzle

What about this link?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Kwizzle

Google sheets link doesn't seem to work so here is a screenshot:

Car costs over 4.5 years of ownership

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

wow that's a lot. I will say I didn't drive my CL in the winter, so the salt never got to it. Perhaps that's why yours is higher. Could also be that you got yours at a certain mileage when things were due to be replaced.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

FWIW, I typically break out my expenses by the following categories:

• Add-Ons (winter tires)
• Incident related (pot-hole, accident)
• Scheduled (oil changes, spark plugs, timing belts)
• Periodic (brakes, tires, clutch)
• Unscheduled (axles, exhausts, light bulbs, sensor failures)

By separating out the first two line items you get a clearer picture of how much the car cost to drive and maintain.

lateralus

doing my own work has saved me thousand of dollars.... parts have been sourced from rock-auto/oem online parts/used parts...

think the most expensive parts were mdx j35 swap and koni yellow/ground controls...

Kwizzle

When I was poor I did most of my own work. I should go back to doing that...

helloha1

I stopped counting, but I'd wager I'm in the same ballpark over 5 years... Same here on needing to do my own work. I bought at 130k miles and am at ~195k now. Big killers were power steering pump and steering rack, engine mounts, plus a bunch of misc suspension links, ball joints etc. And I'm on the second set of tires in my ownership. Also spent like $1k chasing down a mystery gremlin that ended up being tied to a faulty aftermarket IAC valve.

Timing belt and shocks are coming up soon for me.

Midnight Mystery

The RDX and I were at the same predicament at around 200K miles, but now at 247K, it's the best it's ever been for me! I need new tires very soon, these were already on there for about 5K miles when I got it in 2016 at 175K miles.

It did fail to start today, but I needed a new battery terminal and totally forgot to address it sooner

TheWeez

I've owned my CL-6 since 2007. Outside regular oil changes, transmission fluid, and tire rotations, I've had to:

• Replace left side CV shaft and left lower ball joint
• Replace battery x3 (1 time under warranty)
• Replace windshield
• Motor cooling fan, stabilizer links and bushings, oil pressure sender, oil pan, and oil pan gasket
• Replace passenger side upper control arm
• Replace ignition coil #1 twice
• Airbag recall
• Winter/summer tires (several sets)
• Replaced driver-side seat buckle
• Replaced brake rotors and pads (usually every 30-50k miles)
• 105k service (water pump, timing belt, timing belt tensioner, coolant flush, spark plugs, transmission fluid, replaced shift cable and bushings)
• Replace passenger side wheel bearing
• Replaced passenger side upper control arm

Doesn't seem bad for 12 years of ownership. Bought with about 60k miles and now has 190k.

Humberwho

I documented my psp replacement step by step in the repair section fwiw. Plus there are other folks who have advice on that as well, not too bad to do yourself. Owned my CL for a couple years, had to do the main relay which I found out about when I looked up symptoms on here and the above mentioned psp, other than maintenance that's it but I also only drove it 14k miles or so total. Bought at 108 sold at 122 or so.

whitetiger5

Two subframe repairs? is that due to the climate you live in? i.e road salt? Would that be a unique cost to that car per say? or would it be a cost that owning any car in that environment would incur?

TheWeez

Subframe repair issues aren't common with most cars, even in harsh environments but it does seem the CL has experienced them more than most other vehicles. Not all CLs in harsh winter environments where salt is present will have issues but I've certainly seen them mentioned here in these forums.

Cboutilier

Most of those repairs, besides the subframes, are regular consumables. People tend to forget that even brand new cars will shortly need ball joints, tie rods, tires, brakes, etc.

TheWeez

Totally. I broke a CV shaft 2 winters ago when I spun the tires then they gripped. They're connected with rubber which breaks down with time. Things like rubber suspension bushings and control arms will wear with time and have to be replaced. Every car will see this and need them replaced no differently than an oil change.

The vast majority it appears have nothing more than regular maintenance into these cars.