When it comes to purchasing a new car, many of us want the best option that we can afford, but if you’re a forward thinker, you are probably also taking into consideration how much that car is going to cost to maintain. Luxury car brands, such as Audi and BMW, are typically more expensive to buy, but they are also more expensive to maintain, requiring higher octane fuel, higher quality engine oil, and typically a European-car specialized mechanic which can get pretty costly.

When it comes to newer, more specialized cars like a hybrid, we don’t often understand how the different type of powertrain requires different maintenance, even if you’re fond of changing the oil in your own car or doing your own brake-pad replacement at home. Hybrids are only recently becoming a more and more popular option, and that means that hybrid mechanics aren’t as common. But with cars that are old enough to be in and out of their warranty, like the Toyota Prius, we get to take a glimpse into how much it actually costs to maintain a popular hybrid.

So is it more expensive?

Now that older hybrid like the Prius is out of warranty – many owners have begun taking them to their private mechanic rather than the dealership for general maintenance. While it isn’t always the case, dealership maintenance has a reputation for being more expensive than your run-of-the-mill mechanic. This is typical because they are specialists in whatever brand or brands the dealership represents and they work on that brand day-in and day-out.

While there are some benefits to bringing your car to the dealership for maintenance, it can reportedly increase your maintenance cost – a price many owners are willing to pay to insure their car is being worked on by a specialist.

That can be especially true for exotic car owners, and even hybrid owners, even if it’s just out of ease of finding a good, reliable mechanic. Regardless of where you take your car, however, a hybrid like a Toyota Prius isn’t any more expensive than the rest of the Toyota lineup.

Maintenance costs

According to Consumer Reports, the Toyota Prius isn’t just affordable to maintain, it’s more affordable to own overall. It’s gas mileage, for one thing, is so efficient that it blows most average cars out of the water, saving you a ton of money every year in gasoline alone.

Another interesting thing Consumer Reports points out is that the electric motor almost never needs service. There are no true mechanical parts like in a standard combustion engine. The gasoline engine is, however, a standard combustion engine, and it is just as easy to work on as any other Toyota engine is, and that also means it’s just as affordable to maintain as other Toyotas are.

While it may seem daunting because it is unfamiliar, owning a hybrid car doesn’t have to be any more expensive to maintain than your standard combustion-engine only car, and with the increasing demand and ever-growing development, the variety of hybrids will only continue to grow.