Lifetime TCO is the appropriate metric. That's life of the car, not how long a single owner has it.
Median lifetime is 19 years. At 12,000 miles/year that's 228,000 miles.
Median lifetime is 19 years. At 12,000 miles/year that's 228,000 miles.
For a vast majority of car buyers, there are only two prices they will care about. How much it costs when they get it, and how much they get when they sell it.
And to the original point, a low TCO will have no impact one someone's ability to buy the car in the first place.
And if you include a middleman, like a dealer for a trade-in, they won't ever pay for gas or maintenance, so they're even less inclined to factor the remaining TCO into the price.
The price the buyer is willing to buy at is directly related to the costs he is going to incur operating the vehicle.