For sure there are - I currently drive a '96 Toyota T100, which I bought for $5500 a few years back. It is reliable as hell, but the miles take their toll, and one must keep up with the maintenance. Timing belt, water pump, brake calipers, starter motor, etc... they wear out, and it adds up; but it still costs less overall than a newer car would.
I've done plenty of wrenching in my time, out of necessity and enjoyment alike (used to do a lot of jeeping, then motorcycling), though these days I usually prefer to employ professionals. That's why I prefer older vehicles I can afford to buy outright: I can trade time against money, depending on which I happen to have more of at the moment, instead of being locked in to the fixed monthly expense I'd have with a low-mileage car.
Timing belt is a 10 year maintenance item. ~1000 dollars mostly labor
Waterpump is replaced at the same time as the timing belt, and they rarely fail now a days. ~ 300 bucks for one as added part during the timing belt labor
I assume you are talking about brake pads as calipers rarely fail, 5-7 year maintenance interval, easy DIY job ~500 for a set of 4.
Starter motors also very rarely fail I've had the same one for 20 years in my rx8 hpde toy. Even still they are ~200 bucks and literally 2 bolts and 30 minutes of time.
We havent even hit 2000 dollars yet in critical maintenance over 10 years. If you actually knew anything about wrenching you wouldn't be saying newer cars are easier and cheaper to work on either. I dont know how you are doing 1000/ year on maintenance on an ICE but then again you presumably offroad " jeeping " which would make your experience an outlier on what commuter cars actually experience for yearly maintenance.
You asserted that ICE maintenance is cost prohibitive, but when I break down the cost its called nitpicking? New car note cheaper than maintenance. Yeah youre a wrenchlet. bye
Someone quoted a figure for electric car maintenance, as a downside to the technology. I remarked that this actually sounded pretty good, relative to my experience with ICE cars. Someone else observed that I could choose to buy cars with a lower maintenance cost. I agreed that this was true but explained why I prefer to do things the way I do. Then you came along with a chip on your shoulder and started griping, for reasons known only to yourself.
>Someone quoted a figure for electric car maintenance, as a downside to the technology.
It is a downside compared to ICE maintenance which is significantly lower.
>Life is full of trade-offs: if I did that, I'd have to carry a loan
to which I replied there are plenty of cars sub 10K which you wouldnt need a loan for and that you could easily maintain for less than 1000/year
>I remarked that this actually sounded pretty good, relative to my experience with ICE cars
When I broke down the cost of the maintenance items YOU listed as over 1000/year over 10 years I said that those items you listed dont need maintenance every year, and the cost of replacing them is far less than 1000 dollars a year. To which you replied that I was nitpicking
> Then you came along with a chip on your shoulder and started griping, for reasons known only to yourself.
Im not griping I am just telling you that you are wrong when you say that 13k/10 years is cheaper than the maintenance items you listed. Just like the other guy said.
Then again you own a jeep and you know what they say about jeep: Just Empty Every Pocket :P
I've done plenty of wrenching in my time, out of necessity and enjoyment alike (used to do a lot of jeeping, then motorcycling), though these days I usually prefer to employ professionals. That's why I prefer older vehicles I can afford to buy outright: I can trade time against money, depending on which I happen to have more of at the moment, instead of being locked in to the fixed monthly expense I'd have with a low-mileage car.