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I recently sold my Jetta TDI. It was unserviceable by ordinary people. The regular, fixed expenses included a $1300 timing belt and a $1700 DSG clutch. Those are expected at every 100k miles. Then there is the 45k transmission service that involves an external pump and measuring cups. It only changed about a quarter of the tranny fluid but cost $900. (The DSG is not listed as a wear item, but the second one began to fail after only 10,000 miles and I recognized the noise it makes while on its way to failure on several TDI’s.)

This is why I bought a ‘92 Suburban for $2800m and a 2001 Lincoln Town Car for $2300. For a few hundred each, in repairs I could do myself, I am getting sterling service out of them.

I carry the legal minimum on insurance. If the car or truck get totaled, I’m out less than the deductible I normally carry. Then I’m off to Craigslist for a replacement.

I generally drive a 01 Sierra. Last GM car I will ever purchase in a long line. You’d think after 100 years of building pickups, GM could have gotten some things right. Like the steering intermediate shaft (lost count of how many times they revised it - I stopped replacing it and lived with the clunk after replacement #2), the driveshaft slip yoke (same story), cancerous rust on the body and frame despite regular washing and waxing, heater core that requires the entire dash to be removed just to get to it. I could write a whole page on little things that regularly go wrong with the 00-06 pickups.

I will say the LS engine has been bulletproof, although noisy with the “GM says it’s normal” piston slap. OTOH, I’m on the third rebuild of the transmission.

Also have an 02 Sebring convertible that’s more of a toy and currently not on the road. Too many other things to do right now.

We also have a ‘13 Escape we bought off a lease. Too many doodads for my taste. I got an extended Ford warranty for the length of the loan. I have a bunch of specialized GM and Chrysler tools. I’m not about to invest in a Ford set too unless I plan on opening my own garage. By the time it’s off the loan, it will either be too unreliable to drive, or the Internet will be full of fixes that I can do myself and used tools I can get cheaper.

What annoys me about the newer cars isn’t so much that they’re not fixable, but that you need to spend almost what the car costs to obtain the tools required to diagnose the simplest of problems, and then the solution is always to throw expensive dealer-only parts at it. Very few things on modern cars actually get “fixed” anymore. You just replace parts that shouldn’t have broken in the first place.