The Complete Cost Of Maintaining A Hyundai

When you’re in the market for a new or used Hyundai (which are mainly made in the US), you’ll eventually wonder what a Hyundai generally costs in maintenance. In this blog, we’ve done our absolute best to give you a complete rundown of the costs and what you can expect for different models and model years. Let’s start with a quick answer:

Hyundai have an average annual maintenance cost of $468 per year. This is below the average $646 for all car brands. Hyundai is more affordable than many other car brands because it’s an Asian car brand that uses proven technologies that are easy to replace. Furthermore, they make many parts in-house, which is cheaper than outsourcing.

However, that certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. Below, we’ll start by looking at the annual maintenance cost of the most popular models and their corresponding model years. Furthermore, We’ll look at the eight most common service points and discuss what a Hyundai costs you in this regard. We’ll also compare the annual maintenance costs of a Hyundai to 23 other car brands and discuss why a Hyundai is considered cheap or expensive in maintenance. Read on!

How Expensive Are Hyundai Models To Maintain?

First of all, we feel it’s essential to understand how much each model, and different model years, cost per year in terms of maintenance. For this, we’ve taken data from Repairpal. We’ve compiled this data in the table below.

We were able to gather reliable data for five Hyundai models. We would have also liked to include the Kona and the Palisade in this table.

However, these cars are pretty new, and most of them still fall under warranty. This means dealerships solve issues, and the costs aren’t disclosed. Therefore, we’ll have to do with the public information available to us.

We see then that all Hyundai seem to have very reasonable maintenance cost. As expected, the sedans are in the mid-$300 to high-$400 per year range. However, none of them seem to exceed the $500 mark.

Year	Sonata	Santa Fe	Tucson	Accent	Elantra
2019	x	x	x	x	x
2018	$351	x	$329	x	$420
2017	$328	$347	$342	$398	$430
2016	$379	$470	$347	$361	$455
2015	$428	$465	$408	$356	$440
2014	$450	$504	$459	$452	$463
2013	$486	$556	$488	$444	$450
2012	$482	$563	$487	$506	$473
2011	$490	$528	$470	$505	$476
2010	$446	$525	$403	$490	$425
2009	$410	$477	$486	$461	$404
2008	$368	$454	$422	$405	$387
2007	$343	$418	$389	$343	$349

On the other hand, there’s, of course the Santa Fe. Since the Santa Fe is quite a sizeable SUV, its costs are naturally higher than that of the sedans. However, annual maintenance costs still end up in the mid-$300 to mid-$500 range, which is impressive.

If we were to make assumptions about the maintenance cost of the Kona and the Palisade in the future, we would expect the Kona to be slightly cheaper than the Santa Fe since the Kona is more of a crossover. On the other hand, the Palisade will likely end up somewhat more expensive because it’s bigger than the Santa Fe.

Are Parts And Services Expensive For A Hyundai?

Furthermore, it’s essential to discuss the average cost of general maintenance tasks. The cost of maintenance is not going to include any issues with your Hyundai that may arise. For example, the cost of repair if your engine starts knocking when you don’t use the right gas for your Hyundai Ioniq or other model.

By looking only at maintenance costs, you know what to expect from your Hyundai, and you’ll be able to see if specific maintenance is more expensive than others.

For this comparison, we compared the cost of the tasks mentioned below for the five models we discussed earlier. This way, we get a complete understanding of the full range.

Oil Change

An oil change on a Hyundai will generally cost you $45 – 57. On average, an oil change costs $40 – $60 for conventional oil and $60 – 120 for full synthetic oil for a car. Therefore, Hyundai are pretty average. Some Hyundai use conventional oils, whereas others use synthetic oils, which kind of averages out the price as well.

Brake Pads

Replacing the brake pads on a Hyundai costs between $192 – $259 per axle. On average, brake pad replacement costs between $150 – $300 per axle. Therefore, most Hyundai have a standard price for this maintenance task.

Filters

Replacing filters is also a task you’ll encounter from time to time. The fuel filter is generally the most expensive filter to replace. Replacing a fuel filter in a Hyundai will cost between $104 – 204. Replacing a cabin air filter is $47 – 78 and replacing an air filter is $37 – 56.

Typically, replacing a fuel filter costs between $80 – $150. This means replacing the fuel filter on a Hyundai is a little more expensive. Replacing a cabin air filter costs typically between $60 – $80, meaning Hyundai is quite average. Replacing the air filter costs usually $50 – $70, which means Hyundai is again quite average or slightly more affordable.

Battery

The average price to replace a Hyundai battery is between $164 – 294. On average, replacing a car battery costs between $120 – $240. This means that Hyundai has slightly higher than average costs in terms of replacing the battery.

Timing Belt/Chain

Another replacement that you’ll come across when owning a car is a timing belt replacement. Timing belts need to be replaced around the 100,000 miles mark. However, replacing the timing chain on a Hyundai will cost $454 – 1,028. For most Hyundai, the cost will be below $800.

The most expensive car to replace the timing belt on is the Santa Fe, which has an average cost of $810 – 1,028. On the other hand, replacing the timing belt on an Accent only costs between $454 – 561.

Tire Rotation And Replacement

Replacing a set of tires on a Hyundai will cost $140 – 500. Most Hyundai sedans will have tires available for as little as $140 per set. However, the larger SUVs (such as the Santa Fe) typically cost no less than $400 per set.

Spark Plugs

Replacing a set of spark plugs costs between $114 – 323 per set for a Hyundai. On average, it costs $75 – $250 to replace a set of spark plugs. This means that replacing spark plugs on a Hyundai has an average cost, although larger vehicles such as the Santa Fe are more costly than the average.

Headlight Bulbs

On average, it costs between $60 – 234 to replace a set of headlight bulbs on a Hyundai. On average, replacing headlight bulbs costs between $100 – $150 for a set. Hyundai, therefore, are all over the place in terms of the cost of this replacement. However, on average we would expect to pay between $80 – 140.

There are several reasons why prices can differ between models. Some car models use headlights that are more costly to replace, but that typically also last longer than the average headlight. In the end, we found that this cost balances out over time.

Are Hyundai More Or Less Expensive Compared To Other Brands?

Knowing everything we know now, it’s essential to have a final look at Hyundai as a brand. For this, we’ve compiled data from 23 other carmakers. The average annual maintenance costs of each carmaker are in the table below. By comparing all brands to each other, we understand how expensive a brand truly is in maintenance.

In doing so, we quickly concluded that Hyundai is one of the most affordable brands on the North American market. Not only are the cars very well priced, but their low annual upkeep means that Hyundai is in the top four most affordable car brands in terms of maintenance cost.

Furthermore, it’s interesting that Hyundai is accompanied by many other Asian brands, which means Hyundai can deliver reliability and affordability on par with its peers.

Brand	Average Annual Maintenance Costs
Honda	$428
Toyota	$441
Mazda	$462
Hyundai	$468
Kia	$474
Nissan	$500
Acura	$501
Mitsubishi	$535
Lexus	$551
Buick	$608
Chrysler	$608
Subaru	$617
Dodge	$634
Jeep	$634
Infiniti	$638
Chevrolet	$649
Volkswagen	$676
GMC	$744
Volvo	$769
Ford	$775
Cadillac	$783
RAM	$858
Lincoln	$879
Mercedes	$908
BMW	$968

Why Are Hyundai So Cheap To Maintain?

We have to answer the final question: why does Hyundai end up in the top four. Looking at the data and making some logical assumptions, we can identify the factors that are important here.

It’s An Asian Company

First, as was already kind of revealed in the previous subheading, Hyundai is an Asian brand. This means the company can leverage Asian resources (both in terms of materials and manpower).

On average, resources from the Asian continent are cheaper than resources gathered in the North American market. This also perfectly explains why eight other Asian carmakers complement the top nine most affordable car brands in the United States.

They Make Many Things Themselves

However, that certainly isn’t the whole story. One of the unique features of Hyundai is the fact that it’s a huge company. This means that they’re capable of buying resources at scale (which lowers the price) and that they’ve taken matters into their own hands.

One great example of this is that Hyundai also has an enormous steel division (which makes all the steel and metal needed for the cars). Also, Hyundai’s subsidiaries are responsible for large parts of the electronic systems. You can read more about this in this blog post we wrote earlier about how and where Hyundai cars are made.

Producing many things in-house takes more effort and means that, if it’s done correctly, costs are significantly lower than outsourcing it to another company.

Half Their Line-Up Consists Of Sedans

Another reason why Hyundai are so cheap when we look at the company from a brand perspective is that a large part of its line-up consists of sedans. As a general rule of thumb, sedans are more affordable in maintenance compared to the other popular alternative (SUVs).

This mainly has to do with the size differences between the two classes of cars. The larger the car will be, the more it costs to maintain. Including the Kona and the Palisade in this article would have been helpful since these likely carry higher maintenance costs.

This is also why it’s not entirely fair to compare brands like GMC (which only makes large SUVs) to Hyundai (which sells sedans and crossovers/SUVs).

Nevertheless, the research we’ve done on this website has indicated time and time again that Hyundais are also very, very reliable (unlike GMC or many other American brands), which means we can’t totally dismiss the comparison between American brands and Asian brands.

It’s Not A Luxury Brand

Finally, we have to discuss another point that heavily influences a car’s maintenance costs. This is the fact that Hyundai is not a luxury brand. In general, you’ll always see that luxury brands (whether that be Lexus, Acura, BMW, Mercedes, and so on) are more expensive than their non-luxury counterparts.

This has to do with the fact that luxury cars always push the edge of what’s possible in terms of electronics, comfort, and performance. However, this also means the technologies used are less reliable and cost a lot to fix.

On the other hand, there’s Hyundai, a carmaker that builds reliable cars with proven technology that’s widely available and that’s very easy to fix when it breaks. In the end, it depends on what you’re looking for and what your budget can handle in the long run.

Sources

• https://repairpal.com/hyundai