re: 8% of New Vehicles on the Market Cost Less than $30K

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The lifespan of a car from 1972 may be only 75K miles. But you could probably restore that car in the 90's and have it running for another 75k miles. Then do it again. With a 2017 model once it dies you may not be able to restore it because the tech needed to do so will be unavailable.

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You kind of get into diminishing returns, though. I love an old car as much as the next guy but there’s a point where something that old just isn’t near as comfortable or convenient as something 20-30 years old. I think the sweet spot starts in about mid-90’s if you want a true daily driver old car. You can still fix them ok to have a lot of the current vehicle features, passenger comfort and ride quality are not far behind today’s standards, but they don’t cost a ton.

In your example you had to fix up the car 3x to achieve 225k miles (over 50 years). A “newer” used car today can do that without having to be completely fixed up multiple times if you buy the right one and maintain it.