Mitlov - BTW, have you bought a 3-4 year old pre-owned premium car recently and experienced first hand the costs incurred ('cos I have & I don't regret it), or are you just presuming that the myth that premium cars = trouble is true.
If you buy wisely you really can end up with a great owning & driving experience (and a much nicer interior and fit & finish) for the same total capital cost outlay as a "transportation appliance", even if you do have to pay a few extra bucks a week for gas & insurance.
Wow, that's quite the straw man argument there. I didn't say
premium cars have higher maintenance costs. I said
German cars do. And for the record, I said "higher maintenance costs," not trouble, which are two entirely different things. Cashing out big bills for scheduled maintenance and wear-and-tear items, because German parts are damn expensive, is not "trouble," but it's certainly "higher maintenance costs."
And yes, I own a four-year-old German car--one of the very cars you mentioned
As my signature notes and my avatar depicts, I am the happy owner of a 2004 Jetta 1.8T 5MT. It has not broken down or left me stranded, but the running costs are far higher than the Civic and the Legacy I've owned in the past.
I don't regret getting my Jetta one bit. But denying it has higher running costs than, say, a Corolla or four-cylinder Camry is like denying that a BMW M3 gets worse fuel economy than a Yaris. Admitting that your car has higher running costs doesn't mean you regret owning your car.
