Earlier this month we brought you
the top five new family hatchbacks for under €25,000, but most car buyers in Ireland go for used cars and many shrewd customers eye up two- to three-year old motors in a bid to avoid new car depreciation while still benefiting from a relatively fresh vehicle. There's a lot of choice out there, and while the purchase price of a car may be one of the overriding factors driving a buyer's decisions, they really should consider the running costs too.
So we've decided to help out on that front by delving into the seemingly infinite database of car parts that is the bedrock of the
MicksGarage website to work out the differences between the costs of service parts for the top 10 selling hatchbacks. To try to level the playing field a little, we're looking at diesel models that were on sale by the middle of 2012 and to make it easy to scan through, they're listed alphabetically.
Obviously, different cars come with different service intervals, and beyond the scheduled replacement of parts such as the air and oil filters or timing belts, there will be a lot of variation between cars and, in fact, between drivers. Some are heavier on brakes and clutches than others, for example. Hence we've grouped the parts accordingly so it's easier to compare.
All prices include VAT and are correct at the time of publishing online.
Audi A3
Model: Audi A3 Sportback 1.6 TDI 90
On sale from: May 2009
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €29.28
Brake discs and pads: €37.35
Timing belt and water pump: €236.84
Clutch kit: €172.91
Shock absorber: €37.48
In summary, despite the premium badge on the bonnet, the Audi A3 isn't the most expensive car for parts. It has the second cheapest service kit and shock absorbers of the 10 cars featured here and the third cheapest brakes. Admittedly, its ranking isn't so good when it comes to the clutch kit or, for that matter the timing belt and water pump, where it's tied as the most expensive alongside its Volkswagen Group cousins.
Ford Focus
Model: Ford Focus III 1.6 TDCi 95
On sale from: April 2011
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €28.99
Brake discs and pads: €68.56
Timing belt and water pump: €178.53
Clutch kit: €165.64
Shock absorber: €19.97
Fords have long had a reputation for low maintenance costs and that's borne out here to a certain extent. The Focus comes with the lowest service kit price and its shock absorbers are no more than half the price of all other cars listed here. But it's not all good news for Focus owners; the brakes are the second most expensive, while only the Volkswagen Group cars have a more costly clutch kit, timing belt and water pump.
Hyundai i30
Model: Hyundai i30 1.6 CRDi
On sale from: November 2011
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €39.09
Brake discs and pads: €78.05
Water pump: €101.48 (no timing belt)
Clutch kit: €135.43
Shock absorber: €57.42
The i30 used by way of example here is one of the newest cars of the group, launching on the market in late 2011. And while Hyundai has a deserved reputation for value-for-money cars, its parts aren't the cheapest. The service kit is right in the middle of the table; the brakes are - by quite some margin - the most expensive of the lot thanks to costly discs; and the shock absorbers are also the most costly of the bunch. The clutch kit is at the more affordable end of the spectrum and though this i30 has a timing chain, its water pump is a pricey item. We'd expect it to be covered by Hyundai's excellent five-year unlimited mileage warranty.
Kia cee'd
Model: Kia cee'd 1.6 CRDi 90
On sale from: May 2012
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €44.85
Brake discs and pads: €57.82
Water pump: €63.18 (no timing belt)
Clutch kit: €135.43
Shock absorber: €50.74
Kia and Hyundai are manufactured by the same Korean conglomerate, though the distributors in Ireland are quite separate and, though many components are shared, there are some differences. As can be seen in our pricing. The cee'd's clutch kit is identical to that of the Hyundai, but Kia's shock absorber, water pump and brakes are all noticeably cheaper. The C'eed also uses a timing chain so you shouldn't need to replace that. The Hyundai's service kit is a little less, in fairness. Overall, the cee'd's parts are at the expensive end, though of course Kia offered the car with a seven-year warranty when new. That may not cover servicing items, but will mean zero other unexpected costs.
Mazda3
Model: Mazda3 1.6 MZR-CD 109
On sale from: June 2009
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €69.60
Brake discs and pads: €49.32
Timing belt and water pump: €140.62
Clutch kit: €155.13
Shock absorber: €47.66
Given that the Mazda's 1.6-litre diesel engine is shared with many other cars, it's a little surprising to find that its parts are amongst the most expensive. The service kit appears to be, by far, the highest priced, though digging into the data a little more, that's because of an exceptionally expensive fuel filter. Brakes and shock absorbers are at the high end, while the costs of a new clutch, timing belt and water pump are middle of the table.
Opel Astra
Model: Opel Astra 'J' 1.3 CDTi EcoFlex
On sale from: December 2009
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €42.99
Brake discs and pads: €37.65
Water pump: €41.63 (no timing belt)
Clutch kit: €162.27
Shock absorber: €43.32
This Astra's 1.3-litre diesel engine comes with low fuel bills though it's smaller than most of the cars' engines featured here so it's not the most powerful. Neither does the small engine mean low parts costs, as the Astra is pretty much middle of the table for service kit, brakes, shock absorbers and clutch. It does have the advantage of a timing chain so owners never have to worry about changing the timing belt.
SEAT Leon
Model: SEAT Leon 1.6 TDI 105
On sale from: February 2010
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €33.27
Brake discs and pads: €33.75
Timing belt and water pump: €236.84
Clutch kit: €240.11
Shock absorber: €42.33
The 'Spanish Golf' (as the Leon is often known) is a good value car and shares many components with the Volkswagen Golf and the Skoda Octavia. No surprise then that many parts are identical and servicing parts are very similarly priced. The Leon's service kit and shock absorbers are the third cheapest and its brakes are the lowest priced, but the combined price of a timing belt and water pump for the Leon is more than all the other cars' - other than its Volkswagen Group cousins. On top of that, the Leon stands out here for having the most expensive clutch kit - by a considerable margin.
Skoda Octavia
Model: Skoda Octavia 1.6 TDI 105
On sale from: June 2009
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €36.63
Brake discs and pads: €37.35
Timing belt and water pump: €232.06
Clutch kit: €219.34
Shock absorber: €42.33
There's only a few Euros difference here and there between the Skoda Octavia 1.6 TDI 105 and the SEAT Leon powered by the same diesel engine. The only significant difference is the clutch kit, which although very expensive for the Octavia, is still less than that in the Leon.
Toyota Auris
Model: Toyota Auris 1.4 D-4D 90
On sale from: March 2007
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €35.09
Brake discs and pads: €45.76
Water pump: €44.16 (no timing belt)
Clutch kit: €154.63
Shock absorber: €61.24
In spite of Toyota's enviable reputation for reliability and - you'd expect - expensive parts to uphold that, the Auris has refreshingly affordable prices for the parts listed here. For all items it's at the low to middle end of the price range and it has no timing belt so it should be easy on the wallet as an ownership proposition.
Volkswagen Golf
Model: Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI 105
On sale from: February 2009
Service kit cost (air filter, fuel filter, oil filter, wiper blades): €39.90
Brake discs and pads: €33.75
Timing belt and water pump: €236.84
Clutch kit: €219.34
Shock absorber: €42.33
Although the service kit in the Golf is a little more than in its cousins from Audi, SEAT and Skoda, all other parts are within a few Euros so there seems little penalty in going for the VW badge, but like those cars, the timing belt kit is expensive, as is the clutch kit.
The Data
If we put the data into a graph it's much easier to interpret. We can see there is a big difference in the cost of clutch kits and timing belt kits between models but we can also see that models with expensive timing belt kits and clutch kits tend to have cheaper service parts, shocks and brakes.
If we take the data and expand it out over the average ownership of 4 years it becomes more usable. For the purpose of this exercise we've assumed that you will service the car once a year, get through 1 set of discs and pads, 1 timing belt kit & water pump, 1 clutch kit and 2 shock absorbers. This could vary quite a lot depending on your annual mileage, where most of your driving is done and your driving style of course.
When you look at the total cost of all the parts over the average ownership period the difference in cost between models becomes less dramatic. Unsurprisingly the Golf is the most expensive to maintain but is as near as dammit on a par with the Mazda 3, the Octavia and the Leon. It's the cars with timing chains as opposed to timing belts that are all at the bottom of the pile in terms of cost. It's worth bearing in mind we're using the average annual mileage of 10,000 miles per year in the example. If you're using the car for business or are a taxi driver you may cover this mileage in a couple of months and if that's the case, the cost of parts should become part of the decision making process when choosing a new car in this category. For the rest of us, covering average mileage it's still something to bear in mind but isn't likely to have a huge effect on the cost of ownership.
