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My last car nickel and dimed me at the end. Infiniti I bought new and lasted up to around 200K miles.
Now, I cared for this vehicle a lot. Washed and waxed and cleaned constantly, full DIY synthetic oil changes ahead of schedule. I chased down every little squeak and rattle and fixed it. Actual repairs were infrequent, and I spent most of my time doing preventative maintenance ahead of the recommended schedule. And for 180,000 miles that car was reliable and started up and got me to work without issue and still looked brand new.
Towards the end, that last 20K miles, the repairs got more frequent. I kept up with them, but it was always something new. A wheel bearing here, a control arm bushing there, a door lock actuator, or some little electronic component. The cost of parts added up, as well as my time in repairing the car. When it got to the point I was spending $200-300 or so a long on a mix of repair parts, as well as my time on a nice weekend when I could be golfing...it was time to ditch that car.
As much as I hate the MTA at least fare hikes are communicated at least 6 months in advance and it's only $3 a trip.
If a car breaks down you can be talking a $3k bill in worst case scenario despite proper maintenance and care. A vehicle has the potential to dip into negative ROI very very quickly unless you are leasing to my understanding.
Cars are pretty complex machine with lots of moving parts. Its interesting to me how you can take a model of a certain make and find two cars that have been driven, maybe by multiple people in multiple locations. One of them just needed minimum maintenance and has lasted 200K miles while the other one is struggling to reach 200K and has had many dollars thrown at it.
As Americans, we wouldn't be so dependent on cars if we had a robust, modern, and extensive train/subway system in every major city. Obviously major airliners and car manufacturers wouldn't like that so here we are.
I'm fine with my car now. But once the extended warranty expires I'm trading it in. I've been ontop of all maintenance but I'm not willing to baby it beyond the point where it's no longer economically feasible.
But as alredy stated, cars have a ton of moving parts, and routine maintenance is just the way it goes. Your only other option is not treating it nice and having it stop on you in the middle of the highway, like all the cars of all the other folks who neglected that check engine light.
IMO What is problematic is that many of the automobiles that can be serviceable over the long term are not practical for every one. If you look at the cars on Auto Trader with the highest miles it's usually a lot of big trucks or cars that are. expensive to buy new.
Cars are generally designed to go about 150K pretty easily with basic maintenance, after that many of these parts have reached their usable life cycle and could go out in the next few thousand miles or last another 50-100K, just all depends.
Expect to replace Struts and all sort of random rubber whether engine mounts or bushings and then the annoying engine leaks comes from worn gaskets.
If the car was designed horribly, like having to drop the exhaust to change a oil pan gasket on car A vs Car B where its a few bolts and 1hr of labor or an engine mount just lucky blocks removing a $20 sensor by 2/10 on an inch and requires a few hours of labor to get to, Car A will be the nickle and dimer. Lets call Car a Ford Taurus and Car B Toyota Camry.
My big beef is $120-$150Hr for labor, when you know the tech is getting $20-30hr at best and now it seems like dealerships cause more problems to your car than fix, due to them taking crap apart to try to sell you Fuel System cleaning, Air Filter changes, or cabin air filters or just rushing through jobs.
My big beef is $120-$150Hr for labor, when you know the tech is getting $20-30hr at best and now it seems like dealerships cause more problems to your car than fix, due to them taking crap apart to try to sell you Fuel System cleaning, Air Filter changes, or cabin air filters or just rushing through jobs.
That tells you exactly which department at the dealerships is making them the most money, it's not the sales department!
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