5 Used Cars With Dirt Cheap Maintenance Costs

There are plenty of expenses that come with running a car without adding unexpected repair bills into the mix. No-one wants a car that breaks down a lot, but some owners are willing to put up with maintenance woes more than others. If you’re looking for a high mileage sports car or are a fan of aging Italian cars, you might need to factor in a healthy budget for maintenance and repairs. However, on the other end of the reliability spectrum, there are a handful of used cars that have developed particularly strong reputations for keeping their owners’ repair bills low.

Most of those cars won’t be particularly exciting to drive, but they will be cheap to run, and some are impressively efficient too. If you’re looking for a hassle-free ownership experience but don’t have the budget for one of 2025’s most reliable new cars, these five used picks are a safe bet for economy-minded drivers. Each one ranks among the cheapest cars on the market to maintain from multiple research platforms, with the listed averages covering all generations of each car.

The latest generation of the Prius is genuinely good looking, but the same can’t be said for older generations. Still, what buyers lose in style they make up for with the hybrid Toyota’s efficiency and reliability. There’s a good reason why the Prius is such a favorite with everyone from eco-conscious commuters to Uber drivers: it just works, and will keep working long after most other cars need major repairs. It isn’t unusual to see examples of the car with hundreds of thousands of miles on the odometer, with the highest mileage examples crossing the 500,000 mile mark.

Research platform CarEdge estimates that the Prius will cost around $4,400 in maintenance over its first 10 years on the road. That’s roughly $500 less than the average hatchback. Another research platform, RepairPal, quotes a similar overall cost for maintenance, at an average annual cost of $408. Both of these figures are averages across multiple generations of the car, so anyone considering a Prius has plenty of choice when it comes to figuring out the generation and model year that’s the right fit for their budget.

Honda’s venerable small car has been a huge hit with American buyers in the five decades or so it has been on the market, with Honda selling over 12 million examples of the car in that time. The Civic’s blend of practicality, affordability, and efficiency are key to that success, with the core formula remaining unchanged over the years. Every generation of the Honda Civic has its own quirks and weaknesses, and it’s worth checking owners’ forums for red flags to watch out for before you zero in on a particular generation or model year. On the whole, however, the Civic remains a safe bet for reliability no matter which generation you pick.

This is reflected in the car’s low average maintenance costs, with CarEdge estimating that a Civic will cost around $5,600 to maintain over its first 10 years on the road. RepairPal is even more positive, estimating an average annual cost of just $368. The Civic is also among one of few cars that’s both very cheap to run and legitimately fun to drive — at least if you pick the right variant. Cars like the Civic Si offer an appealing mix of affordability and driver enjoyment, and for those with a healthier initial budget, the Civic Type R represents the pinnacle of the model.

Most cars with cheap maintenance costs are not luxurious, but there are a few exceptions. The Lexus IS sedan is one, with CarEdge estimating a 10-year maintenance cost of around $5,800 and RepairPal reporting an average annual repair cost of $428. The IS sits below the ES and LS as the entry point into the brand’s sedan inventory, and it offers additional badge prestige without the additional costs that are usually associated with a premium car.

The IS originally launched in the U.S. at the turn of the century, with the first IS F being introduced in 2008. The IS F was no ordinary premium sedan, boasting a 416 hp V8 engine and a performance level that rivaled sports sedans from the likes of Audi and BMW. Most examples of the regular IS won’t be able to shred their tires at a moment’s notice like the IS F, but they’ll also be far cheaper to buy used.

Another Japanese manufacturer with a reputation for affordability is Mazda, with the Mazda3 scoring particularly well in analyses from both CarEdge and RepairPal. The two platforms estimate average repair costs of roughly $5,700 over 10 years and $433 per year, respectively. Buyers looking for additional driving fun also have various special editions of the Mazda3 with differing horsepower to pick from, with the most powerful of those special editions offering 250 hp or more. The most recent generation of the car is also arguably one of the best looking cars at its price point, particularly in hatchback form.

The Mazda3 isn’t anywhere near as popular in sales terms as similarly sized cars from Toyota and Honda, which might be both a good or bad thing if you’re looking for a used car. It means that there will likely be less available inventory of used cars to pick from, but it also makes the Mazda3 a bit more of an unique choice than a Corolla or Civic. Either way, buyers can expect their Mazda’s maintenance costs to be more or less equivalent to that of both of its market-leading rivals.

There are a few Camry model years that stick out as being particularly good deals, but in general, it’s hard to go wrong with Toyota’s long-running sedan. Aside from the relatively short-lived Camry TRD, most variants of the Camry less-than-exciting both in their design and their performance. Of course, people aren’t generally buying a Camry because of its handling — instead, hundreds of thousands of examples of the car find homes every year because they’re fiercely reliable.

According to CarEdge, the average Camry will cost around $4,600 to maintain through its first decade on the road. During that time, it’s also less likely to need major repairs than the average car. Data from RepairPal paints a similar picture, with the platform estimating an average annual repair cost for the Camry of $388. As well as being cheap to maintain, the Camry is also roomier inside than many of the other cheapest cars on the used market, and will fare just as well doing family-hauling duties as it will taking a solo driver on their daily commute.