Blazers are like a Phoenix
 

You replace one part at a time until its just like new, and then start all over. it's a beautiful thing, but a brand new blazer one piece at a time from the parts store is really expensive.

It really comes down to maintenance, but you are right. My moms blaze was neglected for 10 years. When I rebuilt it, I sank in roughly $3500 in parts. Now, dads gypsy has only recently been taken off the road with close to 500k miles. We've kept up on the oil changes & such, so the parts bill so far is around $1k.