You're on to something; old cars lasted over 200k miles just as much as new ones do, if you're willing to spend the value of the car on engine and transmission rebuilds more often. (and fight rust proactively)
Maintenance vs Value is not that strange of a criteria; it tends to be the criteria warranties (and, in case of accident, theft, or flooding: auto insurance).
But newer cars do last longer, 200k miles pretty easily for many brands (the Ecoboost head gasket and collapsing lifter issue that destroy a camshaft being the American outlier of the last decade).
Timing belt is a great example of making maintenance easier and more cost effective than a timing chain, and is one of the major factors that took automobiles from 100k to 200k miles. (Timing Chain / Timing Chain tensioner early failure was an issue on Fords for a period of time)
Maintenance vs Value is not that strange of a criteria; it tends to be the criteria warranties (and, in case of accident, theft, or flooding: auto insurance).
But newer cars do last longer, 200k miles pretty easily for many brands (the Ecoboost head gasket and collapsing lifter issue that destroy a camshaft being the American outlier of the last decade).
Timing belt is a great example of making maintenance easier and more cost effective than a timing chain, and is one of the major factors that took automobiles from 100k to 200k miles. (Timing Chain / Timing Chain tensioner early failure was an issue on Fords for a period of time)