The cost of owning a 10-year-old car

When an older car starts to need work, the question is not whether repairs are annoying. It is whether they cost less than the alternative. The honest comparison is a year of repairs and upkeep on the car you have against a year of payments on a different one. The numbers below come from owner surveys and from Edmunds’ loan data, and we show the arithmetic so you can swap in your own figures.

What repairs and upkeep cost at 10 years

Consumer Reports asks its members what they spent on maintenance and repairs over the previous 12 months. An AP story republished by CBS News summarized the 2020 survey: about $205 for a 5 year old vehicle and about $430 for a 10 year old one. That is an average across brands and across years with no repairs and years with big ones.

A newer Consumer Reports analysis, from its 2025 member survey, looks at out-of-pocket costs over the first 10 years of ownership for 28 brands. We read it through a republished article on Yahoo Autos, not the Consumer Reports page, so treat the figures as approximate. They show how much the brand matters:

The monthly column is our own division of the 10 year total by 120 months, not a number Consumer Reports publishes. It is a rough way to put repair money next to a payment. It also averages the early cheap years with the later expensive ones, so a car in year 10 usually costs more than the average month.

What a payment costs in 2026

Edmunds reported for the third quarter of 2026 that the average monthly payment on a financed used vehicle was $582, against $787 for a new one. The average used loan carried an APR of 10.6%, and 6.5% of used car buyers took on payments of $1,000 or more a month.

Over a year, $582 a month comes to $6,984 (our multiplication). Set that beside the $430 a year from the older Consumer Reports survey and the gap is more than $6,000 a year. Even the most expensive brand in the 2025 table, at about $160 a month in repairs, costs less per month than the average used payment. Two warnings apply. These payments do not include insurance, fuel or the maintenance the newer car will also need. And the average payment is for people who finance, so if you would buy a replacement for cash, compare the purchase price instead.

When one repair changes the math

The AP story gives some price points for big jobs: a catalytic converter repair averaging $1,383 (from a CarMD 2021 report), and an engine or transmission rebuild in the range of $1,200 to $5,000. Prices have moved since, so get a current quote. The point is how a single bill compares with the payment you would take on instead.

Edmunds, quoted in the same story, makes the point that repairing a car is almost always cheaper than buying a new one, and that the right call depends on the person. In its words, “it is better to part ways on your terms” if fear of being stranded keeps you up at night. The peace of mind is a real cost, and it is a fair reason to replace a car that is still cheap to run.

A simple way to decide

1. Add up what you spent on repairs and maintenance in the last 12 months, including tires.
2. Add the cost of the repair you are facing now.
3. Compare the total with 12 months of payments on the car you would buy, plus the extra insurance that car would bring.
4. Ask how often the car lets you down. One failed part is a repair. A pattern of different parts failing is a trend.
5. Check for open safety recalls with a VIN recall check, because those repairs are free and can be missing from your records.

Keep your own numbers

Averages are a starting point. The figure that matters is what your car costs you. In Badger, add each repair and service as an expense with its mileage and you will see the yearly total and the monthly average. The maintenance schedule shows which big services are coming, such as a timing belt or fluids, so a repair does not arrive as a surprise. For the wider picture of depreciation and insurance, see the true cost of owning a car.

Common questions