I would think more about the future liabilities of a worn-out SUV versus a subcompact. Tires will cost at least a grand, vs. $500 for a subcompact. Insurance and gas will cost more. Suspension is more complicated. You have six spark plugs and wires to replace instead of four, not to mention 24 vs 16 valves to stick, leak, or break. Your transmission is probably 4wd and will cost more to rebuild. Everything costs more.
If your total cost of ownership for the next year is expected to be over $4k, you might actually save money spending more on a car. A Nissan Versa, Honda Fit, Chevy Spark or similar might be had for $3k with half the miles, twice the mpg, and half all the other expenses.
Edmunds TCO is a great resource. It won't try to calculate the ownership costs of beaters, but you can still see a pattern in the late model cars, where old subcompacts cost less to buy and operate than old SUVs.
No..., no, they won't. I paid $526 for the 32" Goodyear all terrains on my full size SUV. There's no need whatsoever to spend $250/each for Highlander tires (other than to unnecessarily inflate the cost of ownership, anyway). I have a lot of complaints about this post - it comes across as general SUV-hatred without having knowledge of the vehicle. How is suspension on a Highlander more complicated than on a car? The 3MZ-FE engine in the 06 Highlander is coil on plug (no plug wires at all). Yes, 6 spark plugs are more than 4. The service interval is 120,000 miles. Denso Platinum spark plugs are $2.14/each. This means, at an average of 10,000 miles a year (a reasonably high estimate for a Mustachian?), they will need replacing every twelve years with a cost differential of $4.28. That's 36 cents a year in additional spark plug costs. Monroe struts for a Honda Fit are $93.79 on RockAuto. Monroe struts for a Highlander?
$82.79. Want to go no-name cheap? Honda Fit - OSC, $59.79. Highlander - OSC,
$51.99.
Tires?
4 for $309 plus shipping (with a 65,000 mile warranty) for a Highlander.
The cheapest tire I would consider running for a Fit is indeed cheaper, at
4 for $217 plus shipping. Note the significant tread life hit, with a 40,000 mile rating (loss of 25,000 miles, actually making the cost per mile higher).
Anecdotal, but still..my dad gave my brother his 2002 Highlander last year. It is north of 300k miles and is still chugging right along.