What car maintenance really costs
AAA's driving-cost research puts maintenance, repair, and tire costs for a new vehicle at roughly 9.6 cents per mile on average — about $1,450 per year at a typical 15,000 miles. That figure is a planning anchor, not a bill: it averages cheap years (oil changes and rotations) against expensive ones (brakes, tires, a battery, the odd repair), and it describes newer vehicles under warranty-age conditions.
Age changes the picture. As cars move past their warranty years, wear items come due in clusters — tires and brakes around the middle of their life, then suspension components, hoses, and the first significant repairs. The calculator above applies a simple age adjustment to the AAA anchor for that reason, and labels it clearly: it is an assumption you can sanity-check, not a measurement.
The honest answer to "what does my car cost?" can only come from your own records. Averages can't see that your model eats front brakes, that you drive mostly highway miles, or that your independent shop charges half the dealer's labor rate.
Why skipping maintenance costs more
Deferred maintenance is the most expensive kind. AAA has found that about 35% of car owners neglect or postpone recommended service, and the Car Care Council estimates that more than $60 billion of needed vehicle maintenance goes unperformed every year in the US. The pattern is familiar: a $50 oil change postponed long enough becomes engine wear; worn brake pads postponed long enough take the rotors with them.
A budget helps, but a log with reminders is what actually prevents the expensive version of events. When every service is recorded with its date, odometer reading, and cost, two things happen: nothing gets forgotten, and you can finally see your real cost per mile — which tends to end the "is this car worth keeping?" debate with data instead of vibes.
Track actuals, not estimates
Odobook keeps every service, repair, and fill-up against each vehicle and totals them into simple cost statistics: spend per month, per year, and per mile. It's free for one vehicle with unlimited records, works offline, needs no account, and everything stays on your device — with CSV export free forever if you ever want your numbers in a spreadsheet. When it's time to sell, Pro turns the same records into a PDF service history that supports your asking price.