5 Cheapest Cars to Repair
A few used cars really stand out for staying out of the repair shop, but the cheapest car to repair is the Nissan Leaf. Learn about more cheap cars to repair here.
Written by Andrew Koole
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
A new car can be a dubious investment—not only are new cars expensive, but they lose so much value in the first year of use that it’s worth thinking about whether or not buying a used car would be a better choice.
But
buying a used car
isn’t easy. If you don’t know the previous owner, shopping for one can feel like a gamble. And it can be hard to know where to find reliable information. Luckily, there are a few solid resources you can rely on. One of the best is
Consumer Reports
(CR), which offers sound, fact-based advice for all types of buyers.To help prospective car buyers, CR collects a pile of data on
car maintenance
for vehicles throughout their lifespan.The Nissan Leaf: the car with the cheapest maintenance costs over 10 years
Not all the cheapest cars to repair are cheap to own. As you might have guessed, you often get what you pay for in the auto market. But there are a few models that hit that sweet spot of being affordable and reliable.
The vehicle on the top of that list, according to CR, is the
Nissan Leaf
. A 10-year-old Nissan Leaf will cost you less than $5,000, and the majority of owners say they haven’t had to spend a nickel on repairs in that amount of time. Why is the Nissan Leaf so reliable? Well, it’s an electric car, for starters. EVs have much simpler powertrains than regular cars, so they’re less likely to break down.
But the 2012 Nissan Leaf is also pretty limited in power, so drivers are unlikely to drive them recklessly.
Other cheap cars to repair
If you’re not ready to switch to an electric car, or you feel like buying one that’s 10-year-old doesn’t make sense, there are still some wildly
affordable used cars
to choose from.The 2012 Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus sit in the same price range as the Nissan Leaf, and CR says owners have spent an average of $200 to repair them.
For a little more money though, a 10-year-old Hyundai Genesis adds a little more class and also has average repair costs of only $200. 10-year-old Toyota Corollas also cost between $5,000 and $10,000, and most drivers have only spent $245 for repairs.
These cars might not dazzle, but if you’re looking for affordable cars that are cheap to repair, they can’t be beaten. The only vehicle with comparable repair costs and a bit more ground clearance is the Chevy Tahoe, and a 10-year-old model will cost you more than $10,000.
How repair costs impact car insurance
It only makes sense that vehicles with low repair costs will be cheaper to insure. In general, that’s true. A
Ford Fiesta S
, for example, costs $277 less than the average Ford to insure. But reliability isn’t actually the thing that makes the most difference for coverage costs. The best way to make sure you’re getting the best deal on
car insurance
is to shop around. And the best way to do that is with the Jerry
app. Once you download Jerry, just take about 45 seconds to answer a handful of questions, and you’ll immediately get car insurance quotes for coverage similar to your current plan. Jerry customers save an average of $887 a year on car insurance payments.
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