Maybe we spend more than we have to, but neither of us is a DIY car maintenance person. We have our cars serviced regularly according to the manufacturer's recommendations. We have a mechanic we trust. We don't want to break down or have an accident because we tried to save a few bucks by not maintaining our vehicles properly. Our cars are 10-11 years old with 110 and 155K miles on them. They look great, run great, and hopefully will last many more years. While perhaps we could save $$ if we did less maintenance, it's worth it to us to minimize the chances that we'll be stranded somewhere, or worse, have a preventable accident.