Timeframe does matter: if you bought Japanese cars in the 1970-80s your experience on what you needed maintenance-wise was night and day different from American cars. My family in Southern California bought things like Honda Civics which made it to 200k with basically only routine maintenance; we had friends with GMs who had a hobby keeping them working and never kept them as long.

Lot of it is luck of the draw, the odds of which are influenced by environment. My own data point is with used motorcycles but all of them have had varying degrees of issues that grounded them for some period of time until I could fix the underlying issue. But many people I know have stories about older cars breaking down and leaving them stranded on the side of the road.

I don't doubt at all that there's good used cars out there. But for a lot of folks, it's worth the extra money for the peace of mind comes with a new off showroom floor new car with a completely known history with a manufacturer backed warranty that includes roadside assistance.

I know this is going to sound stupid but I bought my Subaru at 200k kilometers. Thing is, everything that breaks in these cars was recently replaced. All the other repairs are usually below $100. What would those 200k even matter? Even more that it was so cheap I could buy a new one whenever I want.