Mercedes-Benz has always been known for making some of the most luxurious, advanced, and reliable vehicles on the market. This reputation has led them over the decades, but the reality of the situation is that it is often not the case. The German automaker moved into the SUV market in recent years, with the $100,000+ GLS63 AMG being one of its most prized vehicles.
Unfortunately for owners of the GLS63, this car costs more than $1,700 annually in regular expenses. Fans of the brand will also be shocked to learn that it has a relatively poor reliability rating. So, if you own one of these – say hello to your new relationship, because you’re going to be spending an awful lot of quality time with the staff in the repair shops.
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 was always known as one of the coolest cars you could possibly own. It had everything that a luxury sports car needed — from a sleek and highly recognizable design to a growling engine that provided fast accelerations. The only problem (besides its huge upfront cost), was that it also had higher maintenance costs than most of your average entry-level cars.
Maintaining an unreliable car is usually quite expensive, but couple that with much larger premiums on parts and service, and you’ve got a recipe for a huge drain on your wallet. Everything about the 911 was extremely expensive, as even a simple oil change could cost more than $200. If you also count the abuse that most owners put on their Porsche, it’s clear why this is quite the expensive vehicle to own.
Porsche 718 Boxster
Everyone loves the Porsche 718 Boxster. It’s a sleek, compact, and highly dangerous road monster. While the car isn’t as fast as some of the company’s more expensive models, it can still pull off some amazing performances when given a chance. The Boxster was made to make Porsche as affordable as possible (within reason). That is until you take into account the annual upkeep of this curvy beauty.
Changing the oil on a Boxster will set you back around $200, which is reasonable when compared to other luxury cars on our list. What gets you rethinking your purchase are all the other little fixes. A simple brake replacement costs about $1,700 on the Boxster. While the car is quite reliable, most of its owners tend to abuse the vehicle’s braking system, so take that brake replacement into consideration when thinking about purchasing one.
Volkswagen Passat
Volkswagen has always been known as a great alternative to some of the more luxury brands such as BMW and Mercedes. It usually offers much cheaper vehicles, and they end up performing at similar (albeit slightly inferior) levels, for a much more affordable price. The only problem? Maintaining them often costs as much as their pricier German alternatives.
The Volkswagen Passat has been especially known for having very faulty ABS Control Modules. It has also been reported that many of these models suffer from oil leaks that originate from the engine. Maintaining your Passat could end up costing around $1,200 in annual maintenance and fuel. It also costs more than $150 to get an oil change, and more than $1,200 for new brake pads.
BMW 640i Gran Coupe
Nobody gets a BMW 640i Gran Coupe unless they have a bunch of spare money to spare. Or at least in order to appear like they are in a position to do so. You’ll have to fork in about $100,000 just to get the base version of the car, and the price goes up quite a lot when you get the mandatory upgrades. It also costs more than $2,500 annually to maintain, which makes it quite a financial drain.
BMW has always been known for making extremely reliable cars. The thing is, even reliable cars eventually need to get some maintenance. Just getting an oil change on this car will cost you more than $160, and don’t even talk about replacing the brakes (which you will need to do if you drive a BMW), which costs almost $1,600.