Passenger car maintenance costs, on a cents-per-mile basis, have remained relatively stable for 1999 when compared to the prior year, according to the sixth annual vehicle maintenance study conducted for Automotive Fleet by Associates Fleet Services, a fleet management company headquartered in Dallas, TX.

According to Mike Southwick, vice president of fleet management for Associates Fleet Services, the reasons for the stability in maintenance costs for passenger cars in commercial fleet usage were:

• Price reductions for passenger car replacement tires by major national account providers. For instance, Bridgestone/Firestone has announced price reductions for the fourth consecutive year.

• Low inflation has resulted in stable labor rates and cost for service and repair items.

• Extended-life transmission fluids and coolants have reduced the per-incident and per-vehicle costs for these items.

Top Expenses are Wear Items

The top three maintenance categories are preventive maintenance, tires, and brakes, which are all wear items.

"As lifecycles become more extended, preventive maintenance becomes more and more important because fleets are trying to protect vehicles early from what could happen at higher mileages," said Southwick. The fact that maintenance costs have remained flat is another indicator that vehicle quality continues to improve, said Southwick.

Survey Methodology

Associates Fleet Services provided the rolling expenses for 36,506 passenger cars for 15 maintenance categories, broken out by mileage groups, incurred between Jan. 1 and Dec. 22, 1999.

When analyzing this data, it is important to keep in mind that vehicles were coming in and out of service throughout this 12-month study period.

For example, in the under-36,000-mile range, some vehicles had fewer than 3,000 miles, while at the other extreme other vehicles had mileages close to the 36,000-mile cutoff. Similarly, in the higher-mileage range, many cars were taken out of service during the 12-month period prior to 96,000 miles, which was the high-mileage cutoff point in the study. Incident Ratio reflects the number of repairs per hundred vehicles. For instance, an incident ratio of 30 percent indicates 30 repairs per 100 vehicles. It is important to note that of the figures shown in Charts 1-6 reflect expenses above and beyond any manufacturer’s warranty coverage. Cost data and number of incidents are for the most recent 12 months in service, regardless of the mileage traveled during the 12 months, as long as the mileage did not exceed 96,000.