Posted on: Sunday, May 23, 2004

Big SUVs running bigger bills

By David Kiley
USA TODAY

DETROIT — The high price of gasoline isn't the only pain in the pocketbook for owners of big sport utility vehicles.

Parking and repair expenses and the need for higher maintenance also contribute to making ownership of a big SUV more expensive than owning a car or smaller truck:

• Parking garages and lots in some cities, including New York and San Francisco, are charging drivers of midsize and large SUVs an extra $10 on top of standard fees.

Imperial Parking, a Canadian company that owns lots in Boston, New York and other cities, is among those charging extra for big SUVs such as Dodge Durango and Ford Expedition. The company has charged extra for vans for a long time, but some lots in large cities have extended the added fee to SUVs "because of the number of them and the space they take up," says spokesman Gordon Craig.

• Some cities, including Chicago and Palo Alto, Calif., have stepped up ticketing of SUV drivers who park in spaces reserved for compact cars or let their truck cross over parking space lines.

• SUVs have more problems — so potentially more repairs — than cars, according to J.D. Power and Associates. Power's Initial Quality Study, which tracks complaints in the first 90 days of ownership, says SUVs average 140 problems per 100 vehicles vs. 125 for cars.

• Meanwhile, Edmunds.com, an online auto research service, says it costs more to repair and maintain many SUVs than it does many cars.

That's because the SUVs' extra weight puts more wear on brakes and tires, says Larry Laumann of Edmunds.

They also have bigger engines and more substantial suspensions, which mean more parts to break down or wear out, he says.

• Goodyear Tire says SUV owners who fill a 23-gallon gas tank twice a week and neglect tire pressure, a common occurrence, waste $675 a year, based on a gas price of $1.88 a gallon. That's because an SUV's weight exacerbates lost fuel economy from soft tires.

Not all the extra costs of SUVs are paid by SUV owners. The Dent Wizard chain says it's getting more dent-repair business from car owners with door dings.

"By far most of our business is passenger cars with door dings from parking lots," says Maria Makroulakis, administrator of the Leonia, N.J., Dent Wizard. She blames New York-area parking spaces that haven't kept up with the size of SUVs.