328i vs Accent: The BMW Costs $14,601 More Over 5 Years

Our calculator puts the 2011 BMW 328i at $35,370 to own for five years. The 2011 Hyundai Accent comes in at $20,769. That is a gap of $14,601, or $244 more every month for the BMW.

The Accent is the cheaper car to own, and it is not close. The BMW's low purchase price is the trap here. At an assumed $7,300, it looks like a bargain luxury car. It then spends the next five years charging you for fuel and repairs at a rate the Accent never comes near.

The sticker price is the smallest part of the story

We assume $7,300 to buy the BMW and $3,900 to buy the Accent. That is a $3,400 difference up front. Many buyers stop thinking there.

Don't. Depreciation, the value the car loses while you own it, is only $1,651 for the BMW and $882 for the Accent. That is a $769 difference. Both cars have already lost most of their value, so neither one drops much more.

The money is somewhere else. Over five years, the BMW costs $7,807 more in fuel and $4,590 more in repairs. Those two lines add up to $12,397 of the $14,601 gap. Insurance adds another $1,435. Registration is identical, and our calculator shows $0 for maintenance on both cars.

So the BMW is not expensive because it falls in value. It is expensive because it drinks more and breaks more expensively.

Fuel is the biggest bill, and the BMW pays more of it

Fuel is the largest line item for both cars. The BMW's five-year fuel cost is $17,111. The Accent's is $9,304.

Broken down by month, that is $285 for the BMW and $155 for the Accent. The BMW costs $130 more every month, just to move.

That $130 is a bill you pay again every month, whether the car is in the shop or not. It is nearly half of the BMW's total monthly premium of $244 over the Accent.

If you want the MPG ratings behind those dollars, look up each car on fueleconomy.gov: the 2011 BMW 328i and the 2011 Hyundai Accent. Our figures turn those ratings into what you will actually pay at the pump over five years.

A small engine in a light car is simply cheaper to feed. A six-cylinder luxury sedan is not. The BMW's fuel cost also creeps up each year, from $3,288 in year one to $3,559 in year five. The Accent goes from $1,788 to $1,935. Both rise, but the BMW rises by more dollars.

Year by year, the BMW pulls away rather than catching up

The BMW never has a year where it is competitive. In year one, our calculator shows $6,249 for the BMW and $3,769 for the Accent. That is already a $2,480 gap before any repair trouble begins.

By year five, the BMW is at $8,165 and the Accent is at $4,683. The gap has grown to $3,482.

Both cars get more expensive as they age, and the reason is repairs. Depreciation and insurance actually shrink a little each year. Fuel rises slowly. Repairs are what push the totals up.

The BMW's yearly repair costs run $988, $1,317, $1,646, $2,140, and $2,798. The Accent's run $478, $637, $796, $1,035, and $1,353.

Both cars show repair costs nearly tripling from year one to year five. But the BMW starts higher and climbs higher. In year five alone, the BMW's repair line is $1,445 above the Accent's.

There is no crossover point where the BMW gets cheaper. If you plan to keep either car for five years, expect the later years to hurt more than the early ones. That is especially true with the BMW.

Repair risk: the BMW is the one that can ambush you

Our $8,889 five-year repair estimate for the BMW is a average. Averages hide bad years. A German luxury car with over 120,000 miles has more complex parts, and complex parts cost more to fix when they fail.

The RepairPal site is a good place to check how each model rates for repair cost and how often owners report unscheduled shop visits. Look up both cars there and compare the ratings. Our calculator's numbers point the same direction: the BMW costs $4,590 more in repairs than the Accent over five years.

The Accent's $4,299 repair total is not nothing. It is a cheap car, but at this mileage it will still need work. The difference is that a bad Accent repair is usually a smaller bill. A bad BMW repair can easily be a bill that is larger than what you paid for the car.

That is the real risk with the BMW. A $7,300 car that needs a major repair in year four, when our estimate hits $2,140, can leave you deciding whether to fix it or walk away.

If an unplanned bill of that size would wreck your month, the BMW is not the car for you.

A note on insurance

Our insurance figures are estimates based on each car's value and class. They are not quotes. Your own rate will depend on your age, your record, and where you live, and it will differ from ours.

With that said, our estimate is $7,464 for the BMW and $6,029 for the Accent over five years. The BMW is $1,435 higher. That is a smaller piece of the gap than fuel or repairs, but it is another reason the BMW costs more every month.

Who should buy the Accent

Buy the Accent if you want a car that costs $346 a month to own, not $590. Buy it if you commute a lot, since the $130 monthly fuel difference adds up fast with every mile. Buy it if you are on a tight budget and a $2,000 repair bill would be a real problem.

The Accent is also the right choice if you just need a car that works. It is not exciting. It does not have to be. Over five years, it leaves $14,601 in your pocket compared with the BMW.

Who should buy the BMW

Buy the BMW only if you care about how it drives and you have the cash cushion to cover the cost. That means a repair fund you can draw on without stress, and a budget that can handle roughly $590 a month all in.

It also helps if you drive fewer miles than average, because that trims the fuel bill, or if you can do some of the repair work yourself. Without those advantages, the BMW is a luxury badge on a car that gets expensive to keep.

For most people choosing between these two, the Accent wins. The BMW is not a bad car. It is an overpriced one to own, and the low purchase price hides that for the first few months.