The urban folk knowledge I was told is that a) Germans love leasing cars, not buying them and b) if you salt the roads in winter, cars will rust sooner rather than later, and that's only something you can delay, not prevent.

Ergo (so the folk knowledge goes), their cars are engineered for a short-term market. Amazingly reliable and fun in the designed for lifetime, after that, it's in God's hands.

I have no idea how true that is, but it feels kinda truth adjacent, from my compassionate listening to owners of secondhand BMWs.

Oh, and apparently, there's a bit of a European car part cartel in my country, so spares are even more expensive than they already are.

I've never had to deal in urban folklore when owning Toyotas though.