In commercial trucking, which I was involved with for 25 years, the concept of “life cycle cost” is paramount.
I remember my buddy back in 73 (the first OPEC embargo) sold a beautiful Buick 225 for peanuts and bought a Vega. Took him about 2 weeks to figure out that was a dumb move.
Had it totally rusted through in two weeks?
the difference todayis you can get a decent sall car with great mileage, the vega was one of the worst cars ever made.