“I love this car, but OMG”: Volvo XC40 owner goes viral after breaking down nearly $5K in ‘normal’ repairs

Never forget: cheap is expensive. It makes sense because whenever you try to “game the system” and find shortcuts for how to acquire and maintain a vehicle, you usually run into backend costs that make your initial savings irrelevant.

But there’s another side of the coin when you choose to go for expensive cars, and a TikTok content creator explained just that when she broke down the cost of actually maintaining a luxury vehicle.

There’s a lot of talk that comes with owning a luxury vehicle. Recent discussions about owning such cars have evolved more toward attaining them and less about how to keep these cars on the road. TikTok user Cali Marie explained that she got her Volvo XC40 because of how well regarded it is on social media, but now has a warning for anyone crossing over from admiration to purchasing.

The first thing Marie wants her viewers to know is that she loves her car. It’s not the Volvo XC40 failing to live up to the hype but how her first maintenance went. It seemed to go smoothly: the car needed oil, alignment, winter preparation , and a pair of new wipers – all standard stuff. But what wasn’t standard was the price the mechanic ended up quoting: a cool $4,953. That’s probably what you’d pay monthly for the car itself, and if it’s the maintenance plan, you can now expect to pay double.

The ultimate girl car?

Per motor1, Marie calling Volvo “the ultimate girl car” should not be considered a random coincidence. Reportedly, Volvo had been working behind the scenes to ensure the crown that once belonged to brands like Range Rover Evoque was well and truly hijacked by the Swedish car manufacturer.

Women are often ignored when it comes to creating mass-market products. And because they’re not in the room, even features like car seats and seat belts were constructed in such a manner that made the driver’s seat uncomfortable for most women.

For Volvo, this state of the industry presented an opportunity. In 2004, the brand hired an all-women team — and just like that, features like washable car seats, assisted parking, and unorthodox storage options emerged. As you could imagine, the esoteric nature of the car became universally beloved, and those features were later adapted by some of Volvo’s close competitors.

There’s serious competition in car manufacturing right now, and that means Volvo has had to try to get there first or at least get there in style. And that becomes expensive, so the only way Volvo can keep this up is by ensuring even the most innocuous parts, like a wiper, are priced highly. So if you want excellence, remember the cost of entry won’t be the only thing that’s high.