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...So, let's do the math:

Maintenance/repair at $10,000 over 10 years = $1,000 / year.
Cheap new vehicle payment at $400 per month over 10 years = $4,800 / year (not confined to one vehicle over the full ten years!).

I can pay for a lot of maintenance and repairs annually and still come out way ahead on that one! For example, this year was a pretty expensive year for me in terms of maintaining my fleet. I had to replace the clutch on the 2013 Forester, put new plugs and ignition coils in the 2018 Crosstrek, replaced the turbo on the 2014 Q7 (among other items), etc.... I spent about $3,600 on all of that, or about $1,200 per car.

As you say, even if you are getting to the point of paying $1000 to $1200 a year to maintain a car, that's just $100 a month, compared to a minimum of $400 a month for a new car payment or lease.

And actually a more realistic number for a car payment these days is the $725 a month me and my wife are paying for her new Subaru. It was a four year loan subsidized by Subaru to 1.9%. I know many people today go five years on a loan, or even six or seven, but I'm glad that we are now down to just three years left to pay off our Outback.

Currently the amount we still owe on our Outback is about $26,000 for a car that had an original list price of $36k, but which we got discounted to $34k. Anyway, with 11,000 miles on it and not really a scratch on it that I've seen, even though we park it outside, my guess is that even as a trade-in it's probably worth $26k? Anyway, I don't think we have negative equity. In another year the loan amount will be down to $17k, probably it'll be worth more than that.

When we bought our Outback Huffman Subaru in Louisville gave us (as they give all buyers) three years of oil changes and tire rotations, and so our first three years of maintenance will be very low.

After that my guess is we'll average about $500 a year for next seven or so years. Of course that'll be quite uneven, with some years just being two oil changes and a tire rotation for $150 or so, but I expect a bill of maybe $2k for the 60,000 mile tune up + transmission fluid change.

Anyway, I'm guessing that after we pay off the car maintenance might average $50 a month or so compared to a new car payment of $700 or more.