[immadashell]

Last year I traded in a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited with 65,000 miles on it. It had every piece of original equipment (including the tires) with the exception of the windshield wiper blades. It started every time I turned on the ignition and got me through all of the snow and ice upstate New York could throw at it without fail. Yeah, the fuel mileage sucked but it made up for that in spades with reliability and zero maintenance. And it probably would not crumble up like an accordion if it had ever gotten in an accident like all the Honda's and Toyota's, etc.

[Flying Circus]

That accordion like crush in an accident is to protect you. The more the car crumples is the less they have to scrape you off the dash board in a serous accident.

Most modern cars shouldn’t need any mechanical repair in the first 65k. Now if you can make it to 150k and can say you’ve not made any mechanical repairs you probably have a Honda or Toyota or maybe a Ford, but almost certainly not a Chrysler (Jeep).