Just how affordable are small SUVs to operate and maintain? And will they hold their value? Let’s take a look at the best, and the rest…
Nobody should buy a new car today without considering its ownership costs, which in most cases can be accurately calculated over many years. Peace of mind counts for a lot with every purchase and, unforeseen circumstances aside, ownership costs can differ dramatically between models. Depreciation for example can often have a major effect on the total cost of vehicle ownership, depending on the resale/residual value of your car. Of course, other aspects of car ownership that require regular outlays include servicing costs, replacement tyres and so on, but warranty cover and other aftersales provisions such as roadside assist are also important ownership factors. Let’s take a closer look to help determine carsales’ Best Small SUV 2022.
We all expect a brand-new car will be reliable and that it won’t cost us too much to keep on the road, factoring in annual registration and insurance costs and even our weekly fuel bills.
That’s why many people buy new rather than second-hand, after all.
If there are unforeseen problems with the car, it’s important to have good warranty coverage from the car-maker behind it. Roadside assistance can also take some worry and cost out of the equation.
With routine maintenance, capped-price servicing schemes are also now prevalent, and while they may not be any cheaper than going to an independent repairer, they’re at least transparent and make it easy to compare against other vehicles – before you take the plunge with a big purchase.
The ownership costs involved with the 15 contenders for carsales’ Best Small SUV 2022 are unlikely to be anywhere near those you might see with a highly-strung supercar, but there are important differences between them.
We’ve crunched the numbers for you, but it pays to remember that all warranty provisions – including sweeteners such as breakdown assist – and capped-price service costs are available on manufacturer websites.
Tyre cost and availability can be easily estimated at tyresales.com.au. And determining the value of your new car when it’s time for trade-in can also be done with the help of the experts at RedBook.com.au.
Among our Best Small SUV finalists, the best warranty cover is found with the Haval Jolion, Kia Seltos and Stonic and the MG ZST, each of which come with a seven-year factory warranty with unlimited kilometres over that period.
All others have a five-year warranty, with no limit on kilometres travelled during that time for all but the Mitsubishi ASX and Eclipse Cross, which have a 100,000km limit.
Mitsubishi will, however, double its warranty to 10 years/200,000km – albeit with a rather large catch. You must get every service done only by an authorised Mitsubishi dealer from the very first service for the warranty to continue past the standard five years/100,000km.
Toyota will also extend its warranty for the C-HR and Yaris Cross from five years to seven – for their powertrains only – provided you have proof of correct, up-to-date servicing.
Breakdown cover is offered for most of the models on test. The majority are provided with 12 months’ free roadside assist, topped up for a year each time the vehicle is serviced at the brand’s authorised service dealer.
The few exceptions are those which have free, extended roadside assist with no strings attached: Haval Jolion (five years/100,000km) and Mazda CX-3 and CX-30 (five years/unlimited km).
Then there are those which do not offer roadside assistance at all – namely Toyota with the C-HR and Yaris Cross.
With servicing, all SUVs on test require routine maintenance every 12 months, however, distance intervals between each service vary.
If you travel a lot during the year, racking up more than 10,000km, for example, you may be required to put the vehicle back in for servicing within the 12-month period, which adds to downtime and cost.
Among the cohort vying for Best Small SUV 2022, 10,000km service intervals apply for the Kia Seltos and Stonic, Mazda CX-3 and CX-30 and the MG ZST. The Subaru XV is not far behind at 12,500km, while the rest allow a maximum of 15,000km between services.
The Haval Jolion is the odd one out by requiring its first service at 10,000km, but then reverts to 15,000km intervals (so at 25,000km, 40,000km and so on).
In the not-so-distant past, you’d be lucky to get a rough estimate of what a dealer might charge for a service before booking in, but in today’s competitive car market that is now less of a concern.
Capped-price servicing (CPS) offers the peace of mind of allowing you to find out up front exactly what routine maintenance will cost you. All manufacturers represented here offer pay-as-you-go CPS, and some manufacturers such as Volkswagen offer pre-paid service plans too.
The advantage of pre-paid plans is that they can be bundled into a loan or lease by some buyers.
All of the SUVs here have a CPS offer of at least five years. Kia has a seven-year CPS offer for its Seltos and Stonic, while Mitsubishi goes out to 10 years for ASX and Eclipse Cross.
Some manufacturers, like Toyota, have the identical base service price for each service in the five-year period. However, others can vary significantly for a specific service – so we have added the first five CPS service prices for each vehicle and averaged them to give a comparable annual cost.
It’s worth noting that published prices are not necessarily going to be fixed. As we have observed, the service prices we scoured for some of these vehicles just 12 months ago for Best Small SUV 2021 have already marginally increased.
There is a marked difference in average service costs. The Volkswagen T-Roc has the highest service cost here with an average of $579 a year, while the Toyota Yaris Cross comes in at $215 a year – less than half the Volkswagen’s CPS average.
Most others charge an average of about $300 a year for routine servicing, with the notable exception of the Kia Seltos and Stonic at around $400 and the Subaru XV at closer to $500 per annum.
When it comes time to sell, some SUVs hold their value better than others, as RedBook values after 12 months show (see our table below).
While you are likely to hold onto your new small SUV for more than 12 months, we have included resale figures for 2021 models because some vehicles here were only recently released or refreshed.
Using a resale figure from a previous model for these new entrants may not reflect how the current model’s respective used value is tracking.
The two relatively new and untested brands here, unsurprisingly, have the poorest resale figures. The Haval Jolion will lose 18.5 per cent of its value in a year, followed by the MG ZST with a 17 per cent reduction in value.
While it’s worth observing these two models’ new price includes on-road costs where the others do not, they are still at the higher end of depreciation even with this taken into account.
The more popular models have actually increased in value over 12 months, a phenomenon rarely seen in the car market. This is because of global new-car shortages causing significant delivery delays for many new models.
The Subaru XV and Toyota C-HR show the biggest boost in value, with a 5.5 per cent increase in 2021 used model value over the current new-car recommended retail price.
If a vehicle is released with an unusual tyre size, it can be expensive to replace them and the tyres can also be difficult to source. Fortunately, that does not appear to be the case here.
At current tyre prices, you can expect to pay around $200-$300 per tyre for good quality replacements from a known brand for any of these SUVs.
Haval Jolion UltraWarranty years/km: 7 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000km*Average annual cost for first 5 services: $310Dealer service network: 90Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years/No
*First service at 10,000km
Hyundai Kona HighlanderWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $319Dealer service network: 240
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Hyundai Venue EliteWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $315Dealer service network: 240
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Kia Seltos Sport+ AWDWarranty years/km: 7 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $398Dealer service network: 144
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Kia Stonic GT-LineWarranty years/km: 7 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $429Dealer service network: 144
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Mazda CX-3 Akari LE AWDWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $368Dealer service network: 150
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/No
Mazda CX-30 G25 Touring SP 2WDWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $352Dealer service network: 150
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 5 years free/No
MG ZST EssenceWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/10,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $313Dealer service network: 72
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Mitsubishi ASX ExceedWarranty years/km: 5 years/100,000kmService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $299Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross Exceed 2WDWarranty years/km: 5 years/100,000kmService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $299Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Subaru XV 2.0i-SWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/12,500kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $495Dealer service network: 114
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Toyota C-HR Koba AWDWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $220Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: None/No
Toyota Yaris Cross UrbanWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $215Dealer service network: 200
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: None/No
Volkswagen T-Cross 85TSI StyleWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $577Dealer service network: 105
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Volkswagen T-Roc 110TSI Style 2WDWarranty years/km: 5 years/unlimitedService intervals months/km: 12 months/15,000kmAverage annual cost for first 5 services: $579Dealer service network: 105
Roadside assist period/linked to servicing: 1 year free/Yes
Best Small SUV 2022 RedBook resale table:
Make/Model/VariantNew Price*Good condition resale valueValue after 12 monthsHaval Jolion Ultra$33,990$27,700-18.5%Hyundai Kona Highlander$38,300$37,500-2.0%Hyundai Venue Elite$27,040$27,7002.5%Kia Seltos Sport+ AWD$37,290$37,4000.3%Kia Stonic GT-Line$30,490$28,700-6.0%Mazda CX-3 Akari LE AWD$39,690$36,900-7.0%Mazda CX-30 G25 Touring SP 2WD$39,490$38,500-2.5%MG ZST Essence$33,490$28,000-17.0%Mitsubishi ASX Exceed$34,490$32,800-5.0%Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross Exceed 2WD$39,490$38,200-3.2%Subaru XV 2.0i-S$37,290$39,3005.5%Toyota C-HR Koba AWD$37,165$39,3005.5%Toyota Yaris Cross Urban$32,990$34,3004.0%VW T-Cross 85TSI Style$32,800$29,600-10.0%VW T-Roc 110TSi Style 2WD$35,500$32,000-10.0%
*Prices exclude on-road costs except Haval Jolion and MG ZST (drive-away)
Keyword: Best Small SUV 2022: Ownership Costs