Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience Carl.

As I responded to others here, I don’t make assumptions about repair costs. I use actual data from Edmunds.com. Having said that, their data is an average. There will be many people who experience lower repair costs, and many who experience higher ones.

Also, if you’re handy with making repairs yourself, buying an older low-mileage car is likely cheaper than buying new even if you keep driving the same car for many years.

However, for those of us who, like me, are not handy with auto repairs, the cost and time wasted on taking a car to be repaired by a mechanic are why I make the recommendation that I do.