One important issue regarding the maintenance of anything these days is the declining quality of replacement parts. Anyone who maintains a Mercedes-Benz with Autozone parts is a fool and is believing a false economy. The correct, OEM parts are very cheap and even those have taken a major dump in quality due to globalization, etc. Virtually nothing is made in Germany or other highly industrialized countries anymore. Some of the most (formerly) trusted names in European parts have changed ownership several times and are a shadow of their former self in terms of quality.
Even still, these diminished "European" parts are head and shoulders above parts from Autozone. The reason that everything from Autozone has a lifetime warranty is because the parts are made by nutless monkeys in a bathtub in Tijuana and it is cheaper for them to just keep giving you another one than to pay someone more than 50 cents an hour to make the part. I buy lots of oil and drain pans at AZ, not hard parts.
