15 reasons why economy cars aren’t always the cheapest

If a car consumes less, it’s because its engine has been designed differently from what has been done for decades. It has therefore taken a considerable investment on the part of manufacturers to ensure that you don’t have to go back to the pump every three days. And of course, these technologies won’t be offered to you.

Hybrid cars are among the most economical, since they recycle the energy wasted during driving to recharge the battery. Nevertheless, the battery alone can account for up to 40% of the vehicle’s total cost. In other words, the hybrid system practically doubles the price compared with a simple internal combustion engine.

This type of vehicle also relies on lightness to reduce fuel consumption. This allows them to be driven with very little power. Special alloys of aluminum, carbon fiber or other materials are used, renowned for their lightness but much more expensive to produce than traditional steel.

Even after purchase, there are still some cost differences. Since you have a special engine, servicing it requires a mechanic who specializes in economical systems. You can’t leave it to just any mechanic if you don’t want any nasty surprises. And of course, his salary will be much higher.

Just as new vehicles are expensive to produce, spare parts aren’t cheap either. So every time there’s a problem, you can expect a hefty bill. What’s more, some of these parts have to be specially imported to order. Guess who has to pay the import costs?

If you’re producing a new car and you know it’s going to be fairly expensive, you’re not going to mass-produce it for fear of an economic fiasco. This caution will increase the unit cost of production compared with another model produced in large quantities, since the assembly plants also require investment.

To avoid high repair costs, you can turn to a good insurer. However, the cost of insurance varies according to the type of vehicle and its price. And since your car is both expensive and equipped with sophisticated technology, your insurer is bound to charge you a high premium.

To convince you to buy their car at a higher price, dealers will offer a better warranty than other, cheaper models. What’s more, any expenses incurred during this warranty period are already included in the purchase price of the vehicle. So the longer the warranty, the more expensive it will be.

New cars are required by law to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible. While low fuel consumption can already do some of the work, the construction of the vehicle is another story altogether. Sophisticated technologies require more energy to produce, which means that the assembly line itself has to be modified, resulting in greater expenditure.

The gearbox plays a crucial role in making a vehicle more economical. You need multiple gears with smooth shifting. By extension, the whole transmission needs to be adapted to this complex gearbox for optimum results. You can guess what the financial impact will be.

To control the entire fuel consumption optimization system, you need a large number of sensors and ECUs to analyze information on driving and the car’s overall performance. The more you want to optimize fuel consumption, the more complex this electronic equipment will be. I won’t tell you the rest!

As we have seen, hybrid and electric vehicles recover a great deal of energy and store it in their batteries. This takes place mainly in the brakes and engine, where heat is captured and converted into electrical energy. The more we want to save, the more we need to recycle, with more advanced systems of course.

You can’t take your economy car to any garage for servicing. The establishment in question would have to have the right equipment for diagnosis, servicing and any repairs. All this equipment required considerable outlay on the part of the owner, and even obtaining operating licenses was more complicated.

With all the on-board technologies associated with low power consumption, these low-cost models have everything going for them. And dealers understand this! They don’t hesitate to position these models in the premium category to inflate the price. After all, they’re there to make money, aren’t they?

A car may be considered economical today, but in a few years’ time, it will be commonplace. The manufacturer can’t rely on this argument indefinitely if he doesn’t want to see his sales plummet. He is therefore obliged to quickly recoup his investment with a high selling price. And this will continue to apply for generations to come.