The cost of servicing a car can add up over the years, especially if the service intervals are short or we drive long distances.
And according to auto servicing broker AutoGuru, the Mazda CX-5 is the medium SUV that will cost you least to service over the course of its life. At $2723 for 10 services, the CX-5 was the model that came up trumps for that facet of ownership cost, and pipped its closest rival, the Honda CR-V at $2895.
In third place, the Toyota RAV4 costs owners $2923, followed at a distance by the Kia Sportage ($3507) and the Hyundai Tucson ($3653). Less than a thousand dollars separates the Mazda from the Hyundai, a cost difference that could be wiped out by better fuel economy over the same period. The average service price for the CX-5 works out at $272, which is $18 lower than the CR-V ($290), $20 less than the RAV4 ($292), $79 below the Sportage and $93 under the Tucson.
Just outside the top five were the Mitsubishi Outlander ($3805 over 10 services) and the Volkswagen Tiguan ($4607).
Curiously, the CX-5 isn’t so affordable to service right across the board. At $544 for a set of front brake pads, the Mazda is more expensive than the other four vehicles, and spark plug replacement, at $538, is only cheaper than the Tucson ($647) among these five vehicles. The CR-V’s front brake pads cost as little as $393, and replacing the RAV4’s spark plugs will set you back just $263 – the most affordable of the five vehicles.
AutoGuru, which negotiates deals with workshops on behalf its customers – vehicle owners – handles service bookings for 430,000 unique vehicles each year, so the company has its finger on the pulse of what vehicle owners are paying to have their car serviced.
“From using algorithms to provide instant pricing to our end users for their car services and repairs, to identifying repair and maintenance trends in particular vehicles, our data is all about breaking down the ambiguity of vehicle maintenance,” says Sonia Buckley, data scientist for AutoGuru.
“Today, consumers can look up the cost to purchase, finance, register and insure a vehicle in minutes. These are all factors that play an important role when purchasing a vehicle. The only thing missing from this has been the ability to accurately forecast the cost maintenance, which includes both servicing and repairs.
“Our servicing and repairs data gives a great real-world indication of how much owners are paying to maintain their vehicles, and allows customers to truly compare vehicles that they might be looking to buy.”
The AutoGuru findings are at odds with RedBook data that placed the Mazda CX-5 in a somewhat different context, in a scenario of owners driving more than the 10,000km ceiling distance between services. RedBook's data presumed that CX-5 owners would rack up the same average of 13,400km travelled each year, as determined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
If CX-5 owners are truly 'average' and do drive more than 10,000km a year, they will be facing two services a year, not one. But the AutoGuru data indicates CX-5 owners are more your stay-at-home types, which might explain why Mazda Australia sees no need to raise the ceiling on distance travelled between services.