I think changing oil is the least annoying thing about owning a gas vehicle. I think the 100% top problem is Smog checks and catalytic converter replacements.
I've had to replace about 4 in the lifetime of the cars I've owned. If you replace a car every 5 years then you may not have to deal with it, but if you are a broke college student driving an older car or someone who buys a car and drives it for 10+ years it's a real problem. Especially when the engine starts to get more tired or someone uses a cordless Sawzall on it...
Every other repair I've made to older cars has been relatively painless compared to the price of a catalytic converter. Radiators, head gaskets, clutches, and brake master cylinders were a couple hundred bucks. But catalytic converters? Some of them are up to $2500 just for the part.
Electric cars have their own long term reliability issues, but for gas cars my main problem is the cat. Everything else lasts with good maintenance. Unless it's a Chrysler...
Oh I always buy cars of 10+ years old and keep them until they become too expensive to maintain.
One of them blew a transmission which was the end of that obviously. Another one had an ECU error but drove normally so I kept it until I left the country anyway.
But a cat never failed on my and then I'd just switch to another car anyway. But I've never spent more than 2200 on a car anyway :) The last one was not bad though, full leather heated seats, automatic everything etc. Really nice condition too, it's just that big cars are really unpopular and thus expensive here due to the road tax.
But these days I just don't even bother with a car anymore.
Those are pretty trivial things that don't involve a huge amount of time, hassle, or money. When I'm thinking of the downsides of ICE vehicles, and there are many, those would be at the very bottom of the list.
