Hmm, that's interesting. With my last couple of cars, it seemed as if the maintenance costs were starting to spike somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 miles. But maybe that was a cognitive illusion.

Part of it was probably that (a) I hadn't taken care of them as well as I might have (which is the second point, I guess), and (b) Boston-area weather really pounds the hell out of cars--but, then, the Magliozzis have to deal with that too!

Matt McIrvin