Contents
- Car maintenance spending statistics: U.S. household vehicle expenses
- Repair and service prices have risen
- What BLS household data can and cannot say about maintenance
- Service visit patterns in a vehicle-owner survey
- Customer spending and where drivers get service
- Repair affordability and trade-in decisions
- Sources
Car maintenance spending statistics: U.S. household vehicle expenses
The clearest national household figures do not isolate maintenance and repair. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey, the broad category “Other vehicle expenses” averaged $4,206 per consumer unit in 2024, compared with $3,845 in 2023, $3,834 in 2022, and $3,534 in 2021. The category represented 5.4% of total annual expenditures in 2024, up from 5.0% in 2023; it was 5.3% in both 2021 and 2022. These are nominal expenditures, so the dollar figures do not adjust for price changes.
The label matters: “Other vehicle expenses” is broader than car maintenance alone. It cannot be treated as an average repair bill or as the amount households spent strictly on upkeep. The same BLS table reports an average of 1.9 vehicles per consumer unit in each year from 2021 through 2024, offering ownership context but not a per-vehicle maintenance estimate. BLS Consumer Expenditures in 2024
Repair and service prices have risen
Price indexes show how the cost of maintenance and repair services changed, rather than how much households spent. The CPI-U index for motor vehicle maintenance and repair rose 7.1% over the 12 months ending December 2023 and 6.2% over the 12 months ending December 2024. The pace eased between those two periods, but the index still increased in both years. By contrast, motor vehicle parts and equipment prices fell 1.2% in the year ending December 2023, then rose 1.3% in the year ending December 2024. Service prices and parts prices therefore moved in different directions across these periods. BLS, “What price changes contributed the most to increases in the CPI in 2024?”
More recent CPI-U data show continued price increases through September 2026. The U.S. city average index for motor vehicle maintenance and repair was 5.8% higher over the 12 months ending September 2026. In the same release, the more detailed motor vehicle maintenance and servicing index rose 7.8%, while motor vehicle repair rose 3.5% over 12 months. These are distinct components, not interchangeable estimates of one identical category.
For the single month from August to September 2026, the unadjusted maintenance-and-repair index increased 0.7%. The detailed maintenance-and-servicing index rose 1.0%, and motor vehicle repair rose 1.4%. One-month movements can be volatile; they should not be read as annual changes. BLS CPI release for September 2026
What BLS household data can and cannot say about maintenance
A BLS study of automobile consumption illustrates why vehicle ownership and vehicle costs are difficult to measure precisely. It examined Consumer Expenditure data spanning the second quarter of 1996 through the first quarter of 2022. Of automobiles listed in the owned-vehicle stock, only 24% had a valid purchase price in the survey records, limiting the subset available for the study’s depreciation calculations.
The study found that approximately 39% of owned automobiles were purchased new and 61% used. About 0.7% of owned automobiles in the weighted sample were gifts for someone outside the consumer unit; these were excluded because they did not generate a service flow for the purchasing consumer unit. After applying its inclusion criteria, the study retained more than 1 million automobile reports from Consumer Expenditure interviews.
These details describe the study’s automobile sample and methods, not current maintenance spending. The study data end in early 2022, and its purpose was to develop an automobile consumption measure. It does not supply a current national annual total for household maintenance and repair outlays. BLS Monthly Labor Review, “A consumption measure for automobiles”
Service visit patterns in a vehicle-owner survey
Cox Automotive’s 2025 Service Industry Study surveyed 1,974 vehicle owners ages 18–75 who had serviced a vehicle at least once in the prior 12 months. The survey was conducted from April 16 to May 8, 2025. Its results describe those respondents and should not be treated as a national census of all drivers or repair visits.
Respondents reported an average of 2.4 service visits per year in 2025. The study’s retrospective chart gives averages of 2.5 visits in 2023, 2.3 in 2021, and 2.3 in 2018. The figures suggest visit frequency remained within a fairly narrow range across the periods shown, though the historical values were recalled in the 2025 survey.
Maintenance work was reported for 91% of service visits in 2025, compared with 85% in 2018. Repair work was reported for 40% of 2025 visits. These categories overlap: one visit could include maintenance, repair, and/or enhancement work. They are shares of visits, not shares of owners, service spending, or total jobs. Cox Automotive, 2025 Service Industry Study, methodology and p. 19
Customer spending and where drivers get service
Cox’s study lists average customer spend of $275 at general repair businesses and $261 at dealers. The report does not identify these amounts as annual spending, so they should not be compared directly with annual household expenditure figures. They are survey measures of customer spend, not a national average cost per year.
Provider shares are also based on service visits. General repair accounted for 27% of visits in 2025, compared with 25% in 2018. Quick-lube shops accounted for 14% in 2025 and 12% in 2018, while tire stores accounted for 10% in 2025 and 12% in 2018. Dealer visits represented 29% in 2025, down from 33% in 2018. These percentages describe provider selection, not how the total maintenance-spending dollar is divided among businesses.
Vehicle age was associated with different provider patterns in the survey. For vehicles under two years old, dealerships accounted for 55% of visits in 2025, compared with 68% in 2018; general repair businesses accounted for 12% in 2025. For vehicles two to five years old, dealers accounted for 45% of visits in 2025 versus 58% in 2018, and quick-lube shops accounted for 14% in 2025. For vehicles over five years old, general repair represented 31% of visits in 2025, while dealerships represented 24% in both 2018 and 2025.
The patterns show that dealership visit shares were higher among newer vehicles, while general repair had a larger share among vehicles over five years old. The survey reports these associations; it does not establish why owners chose each provider. Cox Automotive, 2025 Service Industry Study, pp. 6–9
Repair affordability and trade-in decisions
The Cox survey also asked about decisions when repair costs are high. In its retrospective comparison, the share preferring repair over replacement was 70% in 2022 and 53% in 2024; the corresponding share preferring replacement was 30% and 47%. These are responses from the survey’s qualifying vehicle owners, not observed trade-in rates or estimates for every U.S. driver.
The study reports $3,195 as the repair cost at which consumers start considering trading in a vehicle rather than repairing it. This is a decision threshold from the survey, not an average repair bill, a quoted market price, or the amount respondents necessarily paid. Read together, these findings indicate that repair affordability can enter the vehicle-replacement decision for survey respondents, while leaving the actual repair spending of U.S. households unmeasured by this survey. Cox Automotive, 2025 Service Industry Study, pp. 19–20