Used cars running costs: Toyota

Toyota has a long reputation for making durable cars. We had a look at some of their older models, and highlight the ones with surprisingly high running costs.

 

Few manufacturers could boast of Toyota's stellar reputation for making long-lived cars. They're generally conservatively-engineered, well-made, and have strong parts- and maintenance support, so it's not difficult to find parts or mechanics to maintain them. We cast an eye over some of their older models, and determined which ones might present their owners with higher running costs.

Toyota Avensis

Intended to succeed the Camry in South Africa, the Avensis was a European-market mid-sized sedan which also found its way to local shores. South Africans weren't impressed, however, and generally avoided buying the Avensis. There was no sign of Camry-level popularity here, which turned the Avensis into a rare miss in Toyota's local model range.

As a result, there isn't much demand for aftermarket parts, and due to the unpopularity of the Avensis, you'd be hard-pressed to find spare parts at a breaker's yard as well. This makes the Avensis one of the Toyotas with the highest running costs around.

FJ Cruiser

A car's running costs depends on its fuel consumption as much as it depends on its insurance- and maintenance costs. This is why the chunky FJ Cruiser, with its lusty 4.0-litre V6 engine, will be one of the more-expensive Toyotas to keep on the road over a long term.

Simply put, that V6 engine has an epic thirst for fuel, a problem made worse by its woeful aerodynamic efficiency. While it's not really much thirstier than the Prado on which it's based, the FJ's rarity means that body parts are more difficult to find, and thus more expensive to repair and insure, which sends running costs skyrocketing.

Toyota Tazz

Yes, they're as reliable and as complex as a rock, but their popularity with the long-fingered brigade means that a Tazz will be disproportionately expensive to run. Tazzes aren't hugely expensive in the second-hand market, and they're unlikely to ever cost very much in either maintenance or fuel, but because car thieves love them just as much as their owners do, the insurance costs associated with the Tazz are generally much higher than you'd expect for such a low-priced car. 

Toyota Aygo – first generation

This car is the flip side of the Tazz coin: they're not popular with car thieves at all, so insurance is bound to be as cheap as the fuel bills, but because they share a platform with some French cars, its means that parts support is pricey beyond what you'd expect of such a cheap-and-cheerful car. This doesn't really apply to the mechanical bits, because it shares those with the entry-level Yaris, but the electronics and body parts will be more expensive than they need to be.

Land Cruiser

We're not talking about the Prado here, but about the big-body, luxury-biased Land Cruiser wagons. Their deserved reputation for longevity is based on serious over-engineering, but that same engineering excellence will also reflect in the prices of maintenance- and repair parts: quality comes at a cost.

Add to that the fact the Cruiser traditionally pioneers new technology for the mainstream Toyota range, and it follows that they could easily become very costly to repair. They're also epically thirsty, and due to their prestige and rarity, quite expensive to insure.

Toyota Corolla AE82

The first of the front-wheel drive Corollas earn their place on this list through absolutely no fault of their own, but only because of old age. In fact, this applies even to the older rear-wheel drive Corollas: because they're so old, some spare parts are become almost impossible to find.

Fortunately, they also almost never go wrong, but in the event of an accident, you'll be in for a serious (and expensive) struggle to find the body parts you'll need. Cabin trim pieces has also become brittle with age by now, and such items are becoming hard to find even at breaker's yards. Finally, their popularity with criminal types means that it's also surprisingly expensive to insure an old Corolla.