Best First Car 2021: Ownership costs

Purchasing your first new car is a major outlay, so chances are you don’t want – or simply can’t afford – to spend up big on running costs and maintenance.

Protecting your investment and potentially saving you money over a longer period, also means considering warranty coverage and other support provided by the car-maker.

The better the manufacturer’s ongoing support, the less you have to worry about finding the cash to fix an unexpected costly failure down the track.

Happily, all the brands represented in carsales’ Best First Car 2021 provide attractive aftersales incentives, with capped-price servicing (some also with pre-paid service plans), long warranty periods and even free roadside assistance for either part of or the whole of the warranty period.

Depreciation is typically the largest cost of buying a new car, so knowing what hit you’ll have to take if you have to sell is important. It is also easier than ever to reliably estimate resale value.

While our seven Best First Car contenders offer the sorts of features to entice you over the line at purchase time, there are distinctions to each once the delivery bow has been removed from the bonnet and you’re driving home.

Simply put, some of these cars are better value than others over the longer term.

A new vehicle’s warranty is a big drawcard in this segment and all models on test offer a minimum coverage of at least five years or, in all but one case, unlimited kilometres.

The exception is the Mitsubishi Mirage, which has a 100,000km cap over that term, although it comes with the longest warranty at 10 years – with strings attached (see below).

Kia goes one step better by offering a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty for the Rio and many of the cars here also offer extended warranties – again with strings attached.

Toyota will warrant the Yaris powertrain for another two years once its full five-year warranty has expired, as long as you can show evidence of continued maintenance as per the Toyota service schedule when making a warranty claim.

For the Mirage, Mitsubishi’s warranty goes out to 10 years/200,000km (double the standard warranty). The catch – quite a significant one – is that the car must be serviced at a participating Mitsubishi dealer for each and every scheduled service from new.

Free roadside assistance is becoming a common feature bundled with a new-car warranty, and all cars here except the Toyota Yaris are covered.

Toyota instead offers a free tow to the nearest dealer during warranty if there’s a manufacturing fault with the car. The company also runs a fully-fledged, but pre-paid, roadside assist program.

Only Mazda2 buyers will enjoy a five-year free roadside assist plan to match the warranty period. The remaining cars (except the Yaris) have one year of roadside assist for free, with annual extensions if each service is performed by an authorised dealer.

All cars here have the familiar one-year/15,000km service intervals, with the exception of the Mazda2, which requires servicing every year or 10,000km – which ever comes first.

Capped-price servicing (CPS) is offered by all brands represented in this test, meaning that you will not be charged more than the advertised price by an authorised participating dealer for a scheduled service.

Skoda and Volkswagen also provide pre-paid service offerings, which some people prefer for the ability to include such service costs in a lease or car loan. These pre-paid service offers are often cheaper than pay-as-you-go as they’re incentivised with, for example, the first service or two for free.

At the time of writing, Skoda also offers a ‘limited time offer’ warranty extension from five to seven years with its seven-year service pack.

As most manufacturers only offer a pay-as-you-go CPS, we have not included any pre-paid or monthly package prices in our table below.

We’ve totalled five years of capped-price servicing (the minimum offered by all manufacturers here) and averaged the cost to give an annual sum.

The Toyota Yaris turns out to be the cheapest at $205 per annual service over five years, while the Volkswagen Polo is the most expensive at $511 per service over the same period.

The largest expense of owning a new car is its depreciation cost (see table below). We have included projected depreciation percentages, based on resale figures obtained from RedBook for 2020 models.

These first cars are quite popular on the used market and so their depreciation is low relative to some other segments – from an almost zero depreciation (Suzuki Swift) to 12 per cent (Skoda Fabia) after one year.

Depending on how hard a car is driven and how well tyres are maintained – tyre pressures and regular alignment/rotation, for example – tyre replacement can be a large and regular maintenance expense.

Some cars have an unusual tyre size, which can also bump up costs for their replacement.

There is a bewildering choice in tyre quality and price, not even accounting for regular sales promotions in the very competitive tyre market.

The Mazda2, Toyota Yaris and Volkswagen Polo need tyres that’ll cost between $100 and $150 per corner, while the Kia Rio, Mitsubishi Mirage, Skoda Fabia and Suzuki Swift need slightly more expensive tyres on average, at about $150-$200 per tyre.

Have a look at the differences below in costs and coverage for each of our seven Best First Car contenders, including our RedBook Resale Value Table.

Kia Rio Sport
Warranty years/km: 7 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $392
Dealer service network: 138
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes

Mazda2 G15 Pure
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $328
Dealer service network: 134
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/No

Mitsubishi Mirage LS
Warranty years/km: 5 years/100,000km*
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $279
Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
*Up to 10 years/200,000km if every service is done by Mitsubishi

Skoda Fabia 81TSI Run-Out Edition
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $443
Dealer service network: 34
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes

Suzuki Swift GL Navigator Plus
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $293
Dealer service network: 95
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes

Toyota Yaris Ascent Sport
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited*
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $205
Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: None
*Powertrain warranty for up to 7 years with proof of scheduled servicing

Volkswagen Polo 70TSI Trendline
Warranty years/km: 5 years/unlimited
Service intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km
Average annual cost for first 5 services: $511
Dealer service network: 105
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes

Best First Car 2021 RedBook Resale Value Table