Goals for this thread are two-fold:  Cautionary tale for perspective buyers and wondering out loud how bad luck we've had. Picked up a 1986 M20J August 14th 2018 for $110K, 12 years and 1200 hours SMO.  A couple of notes, the below is for two pilots getting their IFR ticket and about 140 hours total flight time on the plane. Maintenance Costs in first year: $45,000 AvGas: $8500 IFR Checkride/Prep (2 pilots) other flying related expenses (memberships etc): $7400 Total: ~$