Time to give up

I think that it is a case nowadays that modern cars give you maybe £0.0 spend for the first two or three years - then hit you with £1500 unexpected repair bills - frequently. Talking of the "old days", decokes might be needed every 4 years along with a complete change of cooling pipes and brake flexi and rigid pipes, then the clutch plate would die along with the complete exhaust - then maybe a steering box for good measure, it all seemed to a DIYer at least, that you were quietly drip feeding your car with money - and we accepted that, so normally very few BIG money hits.

There is so much truth in this. My SAAB 96 needs new track-rod ends every 6000 miles and you just do it as part of the servicing. Most of the other bits have grease-ports and you can spend as long pumping grease as you do changing the oil and filters. The concept of an air filter lasting 40,000 miles would have been incredible (in the proper sense of the word) to a 1960's engineer.

The borrom line is that the whole car industry is pushing us more and more to buying new and displosing of the cars before they start costing money at 3-4 years old.