Too Great Expectations.(News)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

CALL ME JADED, BUT WHEN A car works well for the first three months, six months or year of its life in my garage, I think it's commendable. In fact, I talk it up.

Heck, nearly four yearstouch woodafter buying my wife's Land Rover LR3, it's running like an Olympic marathoner. I couldn't be happier, because my wife is happy. That's not the case for Darren, a reader in Columbus, Ohio. He took me to serious task for singing the praises of our long-term Chrysler Town & Countrydubbed the Norgeon a recent transcontinental flog. It was the finest set of wheels my boys and I could have taken for our testosterone-filled journey.

But it seems Darren is P.O.'d that after nearly 100,000 miles on the clock of his older-generation Chrysler minivan, he had to invest in a new heating and air-conditioning system and an instrument panel. And after 120,000 miles, nearly four times driving the circumference of the earth, he had an issue with rear A/C hosing, too.

Not to sound flip or like a citizen of a disposable America, but at what mileage are you comfortable that you've amortized your van's cost? How ...