Originally Posted by Nick1994
I'm not so sure.
People all the time say if you "maintain" your car that it'll last longer and have fewer problems. But there's so little to do on the maintenance schedule of modern cars. How is following the book on coolant changes every 100k miles, spark plugs every 60k, and air filters every 30k going to stop batteries from failing prematurely? A/C compressors from going out? Window motors from going bad?
I guess what I mean is say 2 people buy a 2009 VW Jetta new. Person A maintains the car to a 'T', and does all maintenance by the book. Person B does Jiffy Lube oil changes every 10k. Coolant changes? What are those? Takes the brakes down to metal on metal, original cabin air filter, etc.
Then when the car is 10 years old someone will say "buy the one that was maintained so well, it'll be a good reliable car". Yeah, but the electrical is still gonna go out with the same odds whether or not it was maintained by the book, same with the odds of the water pump going out, getting a bad alternator, the suspension being toast etc.
There's obviously a longevity difference between a car that someone drives in idle everywhere without touching the accelerator, a car driven normally, and a car where the person floors it at every green light, races up to and stops at every red light with full braking force. All of the moving, physical parts will wear slower in option 1, moderately in option 2, and quickly in option 3. I used to know a guy who raced cars for fun. Every few months he was replacing suspension components, brakes, tires, at 10k miles a transmission, etc.
In general, I feel like most people drive at a level where the difference won't be huge if they keep up on regular maintenance/mechanic visits/getting weird noises checked out.