most modern cars are fairly solid in the engine dept, its all the other shit that scares hell outta me. lotsa moderns autos are worth a fortune, and some appear to be fairly fragile. transfer case on a volvo V70XC i did a little while back was a 5k job, with about 90 minutes labour in it.
airbag and ABS faults can easily run into the thousands, as can ECU type issues as revvy noted earlier. or diesel injection pumps...
89 corolla ftw