I'd really like truecar or carmax to start using estimated maintenance (maybe with MPG and expected resale) to provide a better sense of total cost of ownership

I'd really like truecar or carmax to start using estimated maintenance (maybe with MPG and expected resale) to provide a better sense of total cost of ownership for new and used cars. We need some way to make maintenance costs something producers actually transparently compete on, just like fuel efficiency and resale value. It's just so hard to get that data. Even here we're grouping cars by make. Not model, not year, because there's just not enough good data on this. It's a welcome start, but it'd be interesting to see what would happen if we just made all repair shops report more about the prices paid for what services at what mileages for each vehicle. We might uncover some really interesting things, and drive useful innovations from producers.