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Well... I'll be the one to say if you want to buy a car and spend less than $2k in maintenance, you probably can by deferring preventative maintenance you should be doing now. But, it'll end up coming back to bite you.
I got a great deal on a 2000 S with 82k miles. It wasn't in perfect shape, and it wasn't maintained by a picky previous owner. Since I am anal, a lot needs to be done to the car. I have $990 in parts receipts within the past month and a half. And I expect to spend another $2400 over the next several months to finish a few major jobs (IMS, clutch, RMS, AOS, and new top).
Could I get by without spending all that now? Sure. Am I rolling the dice that something worse wouldn't happen if I held off? Absolutely.
Now, what about year 2, year 3, etc? Will costs go down? Probably not for the first few years as I would also like to replace the worn suspension, brakes, etc.
If you want to spend less in maintenance, buy a car thats been maintained, and spend the most you can up front. I could have spent more, but, I am of the mindset that if I didn't do it, it probably wasn't done or wouldn't have been done right or to my standards. So, I'd rather by a 'it needs' car than an 'its been done' car and replace the parts anyway.
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