I'll second the opinion about the quality of modern cars. I have
been astonished by the almost trouble free experience I've had with
my '92 T-Bird (bought new). At 11 years and 135K miles, it still
has the original belts, hoses, ignition wires, etc. Two of the
original tires went 77K miles. The only repair needed was the
"idle" servomotor that went out at a few years ago (the car ran
fine, but "idle" was about 1800 rpm).

David Johnson