I was going to say "old Magnas never die, they just fade away" but the difference is that it's no longer old when you put in new parts, and they do not cost the same as the car. When you buy a car, you pay a lot for the bodywork, interior, and a lot of other things which don't wear out much at all (seats, bumper bars, rear axle, dashboard, timing chain, large engine mounts, many cables, brake calipers). It's only the moving mechanical parts that need to be changed, and many of them last years as well. My car's engine is 20 years old for example.
It's much cheaper to replace parts as needed, before they get too bad (you need car maintenance software urgently to set dates) and do some anticipatory/proactive maintenance than to buy a whole new car, unless your fuel economy is really bad. Of course, this will entail doing most of your own mechanical work (over 90%) which needs time, tools, expertise and knowledge about where to obtain good parts, both new and second hand. It's a way of life, that brings peace of mind when the results are a working vehicle for many months when you would otherwise have to come up with a whopping big wad of cash in one hit, instead of fairly small, often insiginificant amounts over a much longer time, with no interest applied to them! (IMG:
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