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Between 10 minutes and 100 years. This answer depends entirely on how the car was looked after, including how it was used and driven, along with how often it was serviced. If it was babied (and serviced on time) you should expect at least five years or around 200,000km of faithful service from your Patriot, but each car will have led different lives so don't take that as gospel - have any potential purchase checked out by a specialist.

How long is a piece of string? If driven with care and serviced by the schedule (at minimum) any well-built modern car like the Hyundai Santa Fe should last at least a decade and several hundred thousand kilometres. As with all cars there will be repair bills when consumable or wear items degrade through use, but the Hyundai shouldn't be as expensive to repair as top-end European or Japanese competitors.

The current-generation RAV4 is 4570mm long.

It is likely that there is a head gasket problem; it was a common issue with the early Carnival. Buying a secondhand engine is inviting trouble. It could also be struck down with the same problem and you could find yourself back in the same situation. I would be doing the head gasket rather than buying a secondhand engine, that way you know it is fixed.

The 1115kg Mini Cooper comes in at 3821mm long.

I doubt your neighbour’s diagnosis. Take it to a suspension specialist, specialist Subaru mechanic, or a Subaru dealer.

There are five colour combinations available on the Soul: Bright White, Clear Silver, Titanium Silver, Bright White with an Inferno Red roof, and Inferno Red with a Cherry Black roof.

You don’t tell us why your ute needs a new head at just 134,000 km, so it’s hard to comment. If nothing untoward has happened to cause the problem, like overheating, then you could try and convince Mitsubishi to cover the cost of repairs, but unless you have a full history that clearly points to a manufacturing fault I think you would struggle to justify a claim.

There is just one Phillips-head screw holding the door panel on, located behind a cover plug under the armrest. The door panel then pulls off its snap-lock clips, starting by tugging at the bottom corner and working upwards.

Starters from equivalent Mazda models, like the Bravo will be the same. You could also buy a reconditioned starter.