REAL NUMBERS
New car vs used luxury
About the same money buys a new 2026 Honda Accord Sport-L Hybrid, or a used 2023 BMW 530i, 2023 Lexus ES 350, 2020 Mercedes-Benz S450 or 2019 Lexus LS 500. This is the total cost of owning each: what you pay, minus what it's worth when you sell, plus loan interest, gas, insurance, maintenance, repairs, taxes and fees. Defaults are the numbers from our Episode 3 video, with U.S. averages checked Oct 10, 2026. Change anything.
Swipe the table sideways to see all five cars.
Default values and sources (checked Oct 10, 2026)
- Years 1–5, every car: Edmunds True Cost to Own, 5-year breakdown by year, base trim, 15,000 mi/yr. Insurance, maintenance, repairs, taxes and fees as published; value loss as Edmunds' share of value lost, applied to the price you enter
- Edmunds method: repairs = cost of a zero-deductible extended warranty minus provider overhead; resale = private party, clean condition, 15,000 mi/yr
- Accord, years 6–10: Edmunds True Cost to Own for a 2021 Honda Accord Hybrid EX-L, which is five years old today
- Prices: Cars.com nationwide average listing price by model year, Oct 10, 2026. Accord: Edmunds MSRP for the 2026 Honda Accord Sport-L Hybrid, $35,495
- MPG: EPA / fueleconomy.gov combined: 2026 Accord Hybrid Sport 44 (regular); 2023 BMW 530i 28 (premium); 2023 Lexus ES 350 26 (regular); 2020 Mercedes S450 22 (premium); 2019 Lexus LS 500 23 (premium)
- Gas: AAA national average, Oct 10, 2026: regular $4.37, premium $5.28 (EIA weekly Oct 5: $4.354 / $5.400)
- APR: Experian State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q2 2026: average 6.35% new, 11.19% used
- Market resale option: Cars.com average price today of the same model 5 and 10 years older: Accord Hybrid 2021 $23,061, Accord 2016 $15,661; 530i 2018 $17,581, 528i 2013 $9,399; ES 350 2018 $23,279, 2013 $14,137; S-Class 2015 $28,319, 2010 $12,432; LS 460 2014 $21,586, 2009 $10,928. Values in between follow a steady yearly rate
Method: Edmunds assumes 15,000 miles a year, so maintenance and repairs scale with the miles you enter. Used cars start with 15,000 miles per year of age. Edmunds publishes nothing past five years for the used cars, so their years 6–10 extend Edmunds' trends: value keeps falling at the year-5 rate, maintenance repeats its 5-year cycle, repairs and insurance keep growing at their year-4-to-5 rate, and registration stays at the year-5 level. Year-1 taxes and fees are Edmunds' figure scaled to the price you enter; there is no second sales tax after year 5. Your insurance quote scales that car's whole Edmunds insurance row by the same factor. Gas prices are held flat in today's dollars.
This is a model, not financial advice.