Most Expensive Automobile Repair and Scheduled Maintenance Vehicles

Car repair costs can be extremely costly, however these vehicles put the average American made vehicle to shame.

Here are the top five most expensive vehicles for repair and standard scheduled maintenance costs.

1. Porsches ranks way up on the list of the most expensive cars to fix for many reasons.

The number one reason is that parts and labor are significantly higher than that of "regular" automobiles, on average the cost of parts and labor on most any foreign car can run about 30 percent higher than that of domestic vehicles. Porsches along with Ferraris and Lamborghinis definitely outweigh that of any domestic built Corvette, as well as any other American made automobile.

Porsche mechanics for example charge on average 125 dollars, while that of American made automobiles typically charge approximately 80 dollars an hour. Also a Porsche valve job can run up into the thousands where the "normal" valve job would barely hit one thousand on most domestic cars.

A rebuilt Porsche engine will typically run between 11 to 15 thousand where a rebuilt domestic car can be between 2500 dollars to three thousand give or take. Basically any foreign built car repair can be up to five times more expensive than that of an American made vehicle.

Maintenance is also quite a built higher due to even standard maintenance such as oil changes and filters require special allowances to be made and many times foreign made mechanics are required to do even standard scheduled maintenance on foreign made vehicles, especially Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis. A tune up can run upwards of two thousand but of course with any foreign vehicle especially performance ones you have to make sure you are not being taken to the cleaners when it comes to repair costs.

Another fact worth mentioning is that a new engine for any foreign performance car can run as high as 30 thousand depending on the make and model.

Two of the newest high repair Porsche models are the 2010 Porsche 911 and the 2010 Porsche Panamera

2. Another example of expensive repair cost vehicles would have to be BMWs. BMWs report many transmission issues with many of the models and several BMW have had recall problems. The transmission issues have showed up the most in the 3 series, as well as the X5 and the X3 SUVs.

If you have to replace linkages it can be up to 1500 in cost and the rotors can run around 1300 dollars. Many people tend to believe rotor problems can be a design issue.

Another point to make is even simple maintenance can be expensive since BMW engines need full synthetic motor oil. However even though BMWs rank high on the list of high maintenance and repair vehicles, they tend to be no more than that of an Audi or a Mercedes Benz in price.

Another car to avoid that ranks next to BMW is the Jaguar. If you want to stay on top of repairs all foreign cars including the Mercedes, BMW and Jaguars require all necessary and recommended scheduled maintenance. Just remember the standard oil change for these type of foreign cars typically can run as high as 100 dollars, but that is little compared to what can happen if you don't maintain the necessary maintenance.

Some of the newest editions to the high maintenance BMWs models are 2010 BMW X5 and the 2010 BMW ActiveHybrid X6.

3. Another high repair cost foreign car that ranks high on the list of expensive automobiles to fix is the Mercedes Benz.

Most people when they typically look to purchase an expensive luxury car, only look at the initial costs of the automobile and possibly the cost of insuring it. Typically they never think of the repair costs or whether it will be easy to get parts and even normal maintenance done in their local area. This can be a real problem however for the buyer once the purchase is made. Therefore it is recommended that anyone purchasing a foreign vehicle do their research on every aspect of the total cost of ownership for purchasing the vehicle.

Many people once they have purchased a Mercedes find them a virtual money pit but overall they are not any different than any other foreign made vehicle. Whether its a Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, etc all foreign vehicles have the potential to be money traps.

One of the highest ranking models of Mercedes on the most expensive repair list is the Mercedes Benz G Class.

4. Other automobiles that can cost a pretty penny in repair and schedule maintenance include the Audi, Lexus, Lincoln and Volvo with approximately 1000 dollars yearly in maintenance fees. Prices for typical standard maintenance on the higher performance such as Mercedes, Porsche and Jaguars range well above the one thousand mark.

Anyone looking to make a statement by purchasing foreign made high performance, luxury vehicles needs to remember that just because the vehicles are high priced doesn't make them immune to the normal wear and tear of any other vehicle. As well as high performance, luxury foreign cars are expensive to insure and much more likely to be targeted by criminals and by law enforcement. Law enforcement officers for some reason tend to pull over a high performance vehicles such as Ferraris or Porsches much more than regular American made cars, however law enforcement officers firmly deny earmarking performance vehicles in any way over any other make of automobile.

5. Hummers would have to round out the top five most expensive repair vehicles even when it comes to standard scheduled maintenance. As well as many buyers are now stuck with these high priced gas hogs because they have discontinued manufacturing Hummers.

References for this article include:
www.forbes.com/2008/05/05/cars-expensive-repairs-forbeslife-cx_jm_0505cars.html
www.worldfinance.eu/most-expensive-cars-to-repair/
www.automotive.com/worst-cars/most-expensive-cars-to-repair/index.html