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Interesting.

I know quite a few people who have M-B's and they are good, reliable cars. They are very popular around here.

But that's my point. If they were utter crap, they'd have gone out of business long ago. Even poor reliability cars, these days, are still pretty good. Going from a 4% chance of a major maintenance cost in the first 5 years of ownership to a 10% chance means most owners are still happy, it just means that there are 6% more unhappy ones. 

For a lot of brands, the odds are that an average person might need to go through multiple models over a period of 10-15+ years before they reach the >50% chance of a major reliability problem. Whereas for a high quality brand, maybe it takes multiple models over a 25+ year period before they encounter a >50% chance of the same.

It's why anecdotal "evidence" for something like this is untrustworthy. The only way to really understand it is to aggregate it over large sample sizes of many vehicles. 

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/who-makes-the-most-reliable-cars-a7824554938/

I have 99K on the 17 Impala

same timing belt

haven't spent $500 in maintenance

just oil changes and tire rotation

I have 99K on the 17 Impala

same timing belt

haven't spent $500 in maintenance

just oil changes and tire rotation

The difference is in the parts. We know this going in, and I'm fine with it.

Even if it cost me $1500/year, that's still a cheap car payment for a very finely tuned machine.

The cabin air filter is easy to change also of course.  My ex had a Chevy something, small car before the Cruise, that she gave to my son, with 97,000 miles on it.  I knew she didn't take care of it, so I did a once over, including changing the plugs.  I was afraid they were seized, but they came out easily.  It drove better with the new ones, but the old ones still worked, they were just eroded and the gap was bad.  I changed the wires as well, and the oil and air filter (which was pretty bad).  Easy to work on that 4 banger.

I'd have the brake fluid changed maybe after six years or so.  I don't do that one myself.

If you use synthetic oil, you can go 10-12K miles without changing it IMHO.  Most cars now have an indicator on oil needing changing.

An issue with many foreign cars is a breakage of the timing belt leads to major engine damage (valves hitting cylinder heads).  Most US cars don't have that issue.  They just stop, dead.   So, foreign cars TEND to recommend more frequent changes than US cars.

Back in high school and college, this was one of my "dream cars" for being sporty.  Not a dream car like a Ferrari or Lambo, but an obtainable dream car: