The Jeep Grand Cherokee is the cheapest large SUV to own, according to Western Australia’s peak motoring body.
The Royal Automotive Club (RAC) Western Australia has released results of its ‘running costs 2014 survey’ which unveils the cheapest and most expensive cars on Australian roads.
A breakdown of ownership costs covering five years from the date of purchase revealed Jeep’s Grand Cherokee has the lowest costs in its class.
The Grand Cherokee is cheaper to own and operate than the Mitsubishi Pajero, Toyota LandCruiser and Nissan Patrol on a cost-per-week basis.
The RAC calculates ownership costs by breaking down a car’s on-road price, trade in value after five years, depreciation, interest, fuel, tyres and servicing costs into a per-kilometre, per-week and per-year charge.
In the large SUV category, the Jeep Grand Cherokee blitzed the field with the RAC finding it was the only car in its class with a per-km charge of less than one dollar. It’s the third consecutive year the Jeep Grand Cherokee has been crowned cheapest large SUV to own.
The RAC found that, when all costs are tallied, the Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4WD paired with its 210kW, 347Nm V6 costs just $0.97c per kilometre to own, compared with Mitsubishi’s $1.02, Toyota’s and Nissan’s $1.14.
The category with the largest amount of models checked was the medium vehicle category with 13 models. The top three cheapest cars to run are, the Volkswagen Jetta, Kia Optima and the Hyundai i40. However the Jetta (pictured) is far cheaper to run than the Optima and i40, at a cost of $0.61c per km compared to the other two models at $0.71c.
In this category there are three models that cost one dollar or more, these are, the BMW320i, Audi A4 1.8 TFSI and the Mercedes Benz C200 at $1 per km, $1.02, and $ 1.12 respectively.
In other categories the RAC found that the Mazda3 Neo was the cheapest small vehicle at a cost of $0.53c per km, while the most expensive in the category was the Honda Civic Hybrid at $0.69 per km. In this category the Subaru Impreza 2.0i and Holden Cruze Equipe were tied at $0.60c per km.
In the people mover category the cheapest car to run is the Honda Odyssey VTi RC 4D at $0.77c per km compared to the Toyota Tarago GLi, which costs $0.94c per km.
The Holden Commodore Evoke beat out the Ford Falcon and the Toyota Aurion in the large vehicle category with costs of $0.80c per km, 0.82c per km, and $0.85c respectively. The Ford Falcon XT FG MK2 4D Sedan is the most expensive to run costing $0.88c per km.
In the light vehicle category the top three out of 12 different models were, the Suzuki Swift, Ford Fiesta and Hyundai i20a at a cost of $0.43c per km to run compared to the Honda Jazz and Toyota Prius the two most expensive to run at a cost of $0.53 and $0.55c per km.
For the 4WD ute category the cheapest car to run is the Volkswagen Amarok at $0.91c per km compared to the Holden Colorado LTZ which costs over one dollar to run per km at $1.04c.
For a full breakdown of the ownership costs, visit the RAC website by clicking here.
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