The ‘fix it’ era with automobiles is long gone, and we are in the era of replace it. Carmakers have embraced the replacement method as it cuts down time for vehicles and saves them money. While some mechanical parts can be fixed in ICEs, electric and hybrid vehicles can incur more expenses, and some of them may harm the resale value of the car.
According to reports by NexusMedia, some repairs are not worth it at all, and one must think whether something is worth fixing, or it’s just better to sell the car. That said, here are the top five repairs that can leave a major dent on the resale value of a car.
5 car repairs that ruin resale value
Hybrid or EV batteries
With electric vehicles becoming popular globally, repairs to the battery pack on an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle is an expensive affair, as the study shows that on average, it takes $12,500 (Rs 10.7 lakh) to fix it, while it also eats away 45 per cent of a car’s resale value.
Engine and cylinder fixes
The study ranked engine and cylinder-related repairs as second, costing an average of $7,000 (Rs 6 lakh), while also taking away 40 percent of the resale value of the car. A once normal process is an expensive fix, or a sell, depending on what you want to do.
Automatic gearboxes
Automatic gearboxes rank third and one of the reasons is that most new cars come with one of the varieties of automatic gearboxes — CVT, torque converters, or DCT. As per the study, fixing an automatic gearbox could cost around $5,000 (Rs 4.28 lakh), while harming the resale value of a car by 35 percent.
EV inverters
Electric vehicles and hybrids rely heavily on an inverter, and if the component decides to pack up, the fix costs around $3,500 (Rs 3 lakh), while also shaving off 20 percent of its resale value. However, the study shows that this is not a common problem, but it still occurs.
Air suspension
Air suspensions have been the go-to option for carmakers to offer the best ride quality possible, and modern cars can adjust them electronically. Given that the suspension takes most of the impact from the road, the fix is not cheap — $2,750 (Rs 2.35 lakh). This also impacts the resale value by 15 percent, however, the fix is also worth it.
