He's exaggerating slightly, but not much. Total parts in his W126 is probably over $12K and he needs to get it painted.......so, the $20K number is reasonable.

I tend to run mine a bit leaner...........the two older vehicles have about $5K apiece in parts. The SD has run 50K miles in 5 years and the SDL has run 35K miles in 3 years. However, he has considerably more new parts under the hood.