B5 Passat - dealer only for brake pads/discs - when the car needed a clutch replacement the cost was one of the reasons why I traded it for a Corolla.
There should be viable non OEM parts market.
VW (and others such as some Jeep) uses an electronic parking brake which requires a scan tool to command the ECU to enter maintenance mode in order to retract the electronic motor on the rear axle to allow the piston to retract.
You can do this at home if you have a scan too. If you do not have a scan tool it is still possible to do it manually by disconnecting and removing the EPB servo and manually retracting, but it tricky and not recommended.
They use triple square fasteners on the bracket, and are typically a pain in the ass for this make.
Is there something else I'm missing?
The classic 'Mini' had it just about right: what isn't on there can't break or fall off.
I've done a few thousand on the e-bike now and it is only getting used more and more. Car trips are now anything in really bad weather, long distance or with more cargo than the bike can take.
They usually serve to allow for automatic roll-away protection. On new Jeep Latitudes they come on automatically when the vehicle senses you have the vehicle running and are stopped, with the door open, or neutral. Owners like the hand holding ... it's a Jeep thing.
It does increase the price a little bit and if you do not have an OBDII scan tool and need to buy one. If you operate the EPB maintenance mode very incorrectly it is possible to damage the EPB mechanism. They're pretty easy to operate and replace if you know what you're doing.
The labor for a replacement clutch replacement is typically pretty high. I think the book time for the clutch job on a b5 is really long, something like 10 hours.
Pretty sure the situation might have changed now once the model was replaced by the B6/B7 and as the Mk4 Golf aged out of warranty.
The Corolla had after market parts was readily available a few months after I bought it new.
There absolutely are cars for which it is difficult to get some aftermarket parts but this isn't a good example.
Old Land Rovers, late 70s onwards, are a dream to get parts for. At least from the UK, and given you can live with aftermarket parts.
Dorman (USA) makes a lot of these kits, you can often get all sorts of surprising parts from them, but they sell out their runs, too.
Thing about that kind of part is there aren't a lot of sales. There usually isn't millions of people out there ready to buy the weatherstripping, so the aftermarket often won't do a production run for it as it can be rather unprofitable.
Now and then a supplier will start making something crazy though, a few years ago I was looking for body sheet metal repair parts for a w123 300d--and found them! Uro production body sheet metal was available domestically for this 35year old jalopy.
Can't find the parts anymore I believe (I haven't tried) but there were so many of those w123 and w124 globally that people wanted to glue em' back together. Basically 100% of them have serious rust problems, seems to be mainly because of the way the sunroof is designed. I digress.
Heck, even weatherstripping and carpets are getting available again! Quite expensive so. Still cheaper in some cases then simple repairs in more modern cars. If you can do the work yourself that is.
While I do love Toyota this is simply not true. Pads for the B5 Passat start at $25 at Autozone.