The modern car is a maintenance night mare. A transmission job is 3k to 4K, I've never had one go past 150K miles. Emissions anyone? EGR valve for my Camry 400 bucks!!!!!
No it isn’t. Sure if something break it’s expensive to fix, but it doesn’t break. That’s the trade off. Do you want a transmission that will break every 3 or 4 years but costs less than $1000 to fix, or a transmission that probably won’t break while you own the car but if it does will cost $4000 to fix? You want the later, because on average it’s cheaper. Plus of course there’s the maintenance plan. If my transmission breaks it will cost me $0 to fix, because it’s covered.
The modern car is a maintenance night mare. A transmission job is 3k to 4K, I’ve never had one go past 150K miles. Emissions anyone? EGR valve for my Camry 400 bucks!!!!!
_________________________________________________________
Maybe you need to pick better cars, or better routine maintenace.
Here’s my experience.
1964 VW Bug - Bought in 1967 with 12K miles. Went 265K before I rebuilt the engine.
1970 American Motors Ambassador Station Wagon - Bought new. Went 285K with no problems. Traded in 1980.
1983 Chrysler LeBaron - Bought new. Went 325K with only CV joints and I think, timing belts.
1990 Plymouth Reliant K Car - Bought new. Went 385K until shop changed oil and filter, and forgot to put new oil back in. Only CV joints and timing belts.
1992 Ford Ranger - Bought new. Went 110K miles until totaled.
1994 Ford Ranger - Bought new. Went 255K until gave to son. He’s still driving it.
2004 Dodge Dakota - Bought in 2007 with 105K. Now had 245K with another 70K towed behind our RV. Only new radiator and new water pump, two years apart, and new AC compressor. Still have.
Had other cars in there too, of course. But usually traded in with fairly low mileage.
Never needed new engine or transmission except where noted above.