SUV Costs & Maintenance: How Much Will You Have to Spend?

For many SUV patrons, automobile worth and month-to-month fee are essential components to think about when selecting a automobile. However the whole value of SUV possession contains different bills — like gasoline, upkeep and insurance coverage — that you simply’ll wish to embody in your month-to-month automobile funds.

As a result of SUVs vary from small subcompacts to full measurement, truck-like automobiles, prices can range tremendously. Whenever you’re searching for SUVs, gathering value estimates may also help you evaluate and select a mannequin that matches your funds.

Whatever the SUV you drive, you’re prone to have these bills regularly:

• Registration, charges and taxes

• Automobile fee (together with finance fees)

When you’ve precise or estimated numbers for these classes, you possibly can enter them into our whole value of SUV possession calculator to get an thought of your whole month-to-month expense.

*Be aware: The overall value of SUV possession calculator is pre-populated with estimates primarily based on information from AAA and Experian. See our methodology beneath.

Listed below are some choices for locating value estimates you’ll want — from getting precise prices to easily utilizing automobile possession averages.

Your precise month-to-month gasoline value: Discover the SUV’s estimated gasoline economic system ranking, or mpg, obtainable at fueleconomy.gov or on the automobile’s window sticker. You’ll additionally want the variety of miles you drive month-to-month and your common worth paid for a gallon of gasoline. Divide the variety of miles by the mpg quantity and multiply by the value per gallon of gasoline in your month-to-month gasoline value.

AAA SUV gasoline averages primarily based on 15,000 annual miles:

• Subcompact SUV – 13.37 cents per mile or $167 month-to-month.

• Compact SUV (FWD) – 12.7 cents per mile or $158 month-to-month.

• Medium SUV (4WD) – 16.46 cents per mile or $205 month-to-month.

Your precise month-to-month upkeep value: Many automobile producers have proprietor’s manuals on-line, so you could find an SUV’s routine upkeep schedule and apply what you’d pay domestically for companies. You may as well use the Edmunds Automobile Upkeep Information to seek out the beneficial upkeep schedule for any SUV.

AAA SUV upkeep averages primarily based on 15,000 annual miles:

• Subcompact SUV – 10.06 cents per mile or $126 month-to-month.

• Compact SUV (FWD) – 10.87 cents per mile or $136 month-to-month.

• Medium SUV (4WD) – 11.1 cents per mile or $139 month-to-month.

Your precise month-to-month value: The place you reside and the kind of charges you need to pay will decide your expense for this class. You will get an estimate for the SUVs you’re contemplating straight out of your native division of motor automobiles. Some DMVs even have calculators on their web sites to offer an estimate. Different miscellaneous charges, like parking prices, may be included on this class.

AAA SUV license, registration and charge averages:

• Subcompact SUV – $609 yearly or $51 month-to-month.

• Compact SUV (FWD) – $652 yearly or $54 month-to-month.

• Medium SUV (4WD) – $827 yearly or $69 month-to-month.

Your precise month-to-month value: Your value of insurance coverage is affected by a number of components, together with the chosen protection, the kind of SUV, your age, your driving report and your location. To estimate insurance coverage value, evaluate auto insurance coverage firms and discover one of the best quote for the SUV you’re contemplating.

AAA SUV full-coverage insurance coverage common:

• Subcompact SUV – $1,684 yearly or $140 month-to-month.

• Compact SUV (FWD) – $1,723 yearly or $144 month-to-month.

• Medium SUV (4WD) – $1,831 yearly or $153 month-to-month.

Your precise month-to-month value: Until you pay money, you’ll want to incorporate your month-to-month value for financing. To estimate your month-to-month fee, enter the automobile worth, rate of interest and mortgage size into an auto mortgage calculator. You’ll find common auto mortgage rates of interest by credit score rating to make use of. An alternative choice is to use to lenders that provide auto mortgage pre-qualification with a tender credit score examine. That means you’ll see rate of interest and fee estimates with out affecting your credit score scores.

Experian common month-to-month fee (not particular to SUVs):

Autos lose their worth, or depreciate, over time. This loss normally quantities to about 15% to twenty% within the first yr and round 15% yearly within the subsequent 4 years. Though you aren’t making an precise fee towards depreciation, you’ll get much less for those who promote or commerce the automobile, which impacts your total value of possession.

Depreciation isn’t included within the SUV whole value of possession calculator, however it’s good to remember that some automobiles maintain their worth longer if you’re researching which SUV to purchase.

In our efforts to seek out the finest crossover SUVs in 2024, we in contrast the five-year value of possession supplied by AAA and Vincentric, an automotive information compilation and evaluation agency. This value of possession takes into consideration financing, charges, gasoline, insurance coverage, upkeep and depreciation. We used the nationwide common for a brand new, base-model automobile pushed 15,000 miles yearly, with equal quantities of metropolis and freeway driving, and a gasoline worth of three.346 cents per gallon.

Among the many SUVs we thought of, sure Subaru, Volkswagen and Honda automobiles had the bottom five-year possession value. Within the subcompact class, the Subaru Crosstrek value was $43,950, edged out barely by the Volkswagen Taos at $43,788.

For compact SUVs, the Subaru Forester was the bottom at $47,853, adopted by the Honda CR-V at $48,602. And within the midsize class, the place most SUVs had a price of possession within the higher $50,000s to decrease $60,000s, the Subaru Outback got here in at $49,018. These figures will range primarily based on components resembling the place a automobile proprietor lives.

The overall possession quantity you arrive at may also help you in a number of methods. When you’re evaluating related SUVs, you would possibly select one over the opposite primarily based on a decrease value of possession. You may as well calculate whether or not an SUV’s month-to-month bills would stretch your funds.