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Comment by GloriousKoji | Hacker News Reader

I'm fairly confident in terms of total cost of ownership and reliability of a new Focus will outlast the 5 year old C class.

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I'm pretty sure this isn't as true as it once was. All of the used cars I've purchased that were manufactured in the last 15 years have been nearly impossible to destroy (without outright crashing them) even with extreme negligence. Not only that, but they were always in pretty good shape. That's just my experience, though. I've still not even come close to the cost of buying new versions of any of the cars I've owned.

Buy one for 15k. It will still be better and i doubt the difference will come to more than "total cost of ownership".

of course it's a bigger car so more expensive to run. so buy a 5yo focus and get the best of both worlds.

Yeah, was my thought too. A 2018 Focus will probably be pretty reliable, still have some parts under warranty, and have a lower TCO than having to insure and repair an older Mercedes.

Maybe outside of North America. The automatic transmission had big problems here. Ford tried to game the fuel economy with a cheap unreliable transmission. Unlike other regions which got torque-converted autos and popular manual options, almost all the Foci were sold with a dry Dual Clutch Transmission (DCT). This worked on the highway, but around town is was programmed to "crawl" like an automatic, slipping the dry clutch and wearing out very fast. Big class actions happened and now Ford quit selling cars here, only Mustangs and trucks.

Some older Mercedes might have a lower TCO than a 2018 focus, but only because the focus is disastrously unreliable.

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