IMO, the answer is none. Definitely considering you can't buy a new truck in an older model and older model has many definitions. "Planned Obsolescence" is the name of the game and has been the corporate model for a long time, it's just getting worse year over year. 100% Quality Control on every vehicle out of the factory is utterly impossible as well and is pointless when you know you built stuff to break at some point. You nearly can't buy anything anymore without planned obsolescence not being part of the corporate profit structure, vehicle or a f**king coffee mug heater plate. That's just the way it is today and we all support it, because we throw the dice and take the chance and at this point in time in history, you mostly don't have a choice, there's nothing else available. I feel like the best thing we can do is share experiences, educate ourselves and implement mitigation measures to reduce the odds of getting stuck in the PO trap.
A side story about PO. We bought a Skill 100 planer, made in the 50's/60's era to shape our surfboards. Paid $1k for it. I'm sure that wasn't the price tag back then, not even close. We knew what we were buying when we bought it (made to last and never any problems, i.e. PO in mind when it was made was not in the corporate structure), it looked good as new and performed good as new. 15 years later, looks good as new and performs good as new. You just can't get this kind of stuff anymore that is recently manufactured, very rare. This planer will be performing as it does today 400 years from now.
I'm in the business of getting a newer truck by next year, not brand new off the lot (I like to let everyone else do that and fix some of the initial problems beforehand if they are present in said vehicle). It will likely be in the 5th gen era. That's probably as close as I will get to "reliable" and nowhere near guaranteed.
The answer to your question is, there is no definite clear answer here anyone can give, especially since we can't buy older model trucks brand new. That's why whenever I plan to buy a vehicle, I spend about a year just creeping around places like this gathering information on what PO issues everyone is having. Not to completely avoid them, but understand how I might be able to maintenance and mitigate, and even that is not 100% full proof.
You know, those bad lifters more than likely have absolutely nothing to do with a 2017 model. Bad lifters in a HEMI from what I have gathered is prone, but more likely from lack of proper maintenance and I'm not talking about the manufactures required maintenance and recommendations. I'm talking about what real people have been documenting here for years as mitigation efforts. Plenty here with 150K+ miles, no lifter issues at all, ever. I don't think it's all a stroke of luck (excluding late advancements in electronic components in this statement, LOL).
As far as the "Stealership". Go somewhere else. Your obviously aware that's a ripoff and that's why you called it the Stealership. I have never had to deal with this issue and have never paid for new lifters. But me understands I could buy an entirely new crate engine and have it installed for far less than 18K (Thanks Yoda
).
As stated, the Stealership is there to steal and should not be considered, especially with a 2017 not under warranty. I unfortunately had to recently buy a 2023 C300S from a dealership, the unfortunate part was having to buy it from the Stealrship. It was a two week back and forth debate, I got what I wanted. It had a whopping 3800 miles on it. I couldn't pass on that. The initial invoice had a $1200 reconditioning fee. How on earth does a garaged C300S with 3800 miles on it need to be reconditioned at the tune of $1200. Yeah, that was bull$hit and immediately removed from said invoice when I raised it. That's what they do, that's the Stealership model. Tread water carefully and swim gracefully with whatever decision you make. Good luck man, I hope all this provides a little point of reference!
