exactly this. I've been driving my Toyota for 15 years, never had a problem with it. But I still, to this day, have it maintained. The cost of that maintenance is pennies compared to purchasing a new car. If you can afford it, it's foolish not to.
Toyota is great about that. There was something in the steering column that needed replaced on my '95 T100 and and 15 years later they sent a notice offering to fix it for free. I never did get it replaced, it was a 'we gotta keep the vehicle for a couple of days' and we'd been driving it since it was brand new without issue so I decided to keep on since the risk seemed incredibly minimal.
>Toyota is great about that.
after you sue them https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-01/toyota-faces-class-ac... https://www.caradvice.com.au/780759/class-action-filed-over-... https://autoweek.com/article/recalls/toyota-will-settle-truc...
I see the .au domains and while I don't know how stuff is in Australia, the United States it looks like more than 10,000 class action lawsuits are filed a year [1]. Hell I just got an email about one this weekend where apparently Audible was sued for not making it more clear that credits expired if you didn't use them... I mean, as long as I can remember (and I've been a member over a decade) Audible has explicitly stated that you can only accumulate so many unused credits and that if you cancel any outstanding ones are nullified. Lawyers make BANK if they win a class action.
So did they get sued and then issue a recall, yes it looks that way but in the case of my recall it was voluntary and involved no lawsuit that I know of. They found some defect that happened under extremely specific (and unrealistic for 99.99% of drivers) conditions and issued a voluntary recall. When I got the notice the Truck was 15 or even 16 years old and we hadn't had it at a dealership in 2 address (I'd never had it at a dealership under my name) yet they found me to tell me and then sent the notice every few months for a couple of years until I notified them I no longer owned the vehicle per the instructions in the mailings.
[1] https://gettingthedealthrough.com/area/82/jurisdiction/23/cl...
That said: I still do every scheduled maintenance, which helps tremendously. The main problem with older vehicles is that people stop following the recommended services as the car gets older. Which is of course the opposite of what you should do with an old car.