Daddy is grateful for his 10+ years old Toyota Corolla. It has about 80k miles when he bought it used and paid $8k plus. It has been the most expensive car he bought to date :) It has since accrued more than 100k under his belt and fortunately it still runs well to date.
All his previous cars were half the price cheaper than this car. Most of the time, they do what they supposed to do: take him to work, take-out, and wherever he needs to go. However, they had issues and needed repairs from time to time. Whenever his budget allowed, he sold them and upgrade to a more reliable car with slightly higher price tag (still below $5k). It all ended when his last car broke down and needed about a month to be fixed. He quickly found this Toyota Corolla on craigslist. It was couple thousand more than he wanted to spend, but he was glad that he bought it. One of the best decision he has made.
Besides the periodic standard maintenance, this car has been reliable and has not given him any issue. One great thing about this car is that it uses timing chain instead of timing belt. Timing belt maintenance is very important cause if it breaks, it affects other part of the engine and will be very costly to fix. From online sources, timing belt replacement is recommended around every 100k (YMMV, refer to the vehicle manual) and easily costs $300 or more. With timing chain, it could last for the life of the car. One less thing to worry. Yeah!
We drive the car mostly in the city. From our own records, it constantly yields about 30 miles per gallon and that is pretty efficient in our opinion for city gas mileage. And, it does not need premium gas like those luxury cars. Regular unleaded gasoline (fuel, petrol whatever you call it) is good enough.
One of the best part owning a Toyota Corolla with 2 kids is that, with mom and dad, the four people fit perfectly in this compact car. Dad has insisted to keep the car from day 1 when we planned for two kids because he knew (yes!) the car is just fine with 2 kids. We chose not to upgrade to SUV like some parents would. We know bigger car like SUV definitely comes with better comfort and easier handling with small kids, like changing baby diaper on the flat load trunk at the back. But, have you seen the price tag for those SUV? More importantly, the gas mileage for those gasoline sucker? Did anyone tell you the maintenance for those car is more expensive? We got two kids and we survived their baby days with this small compact car.
From KBB, the car value at the moment is ~$3k. That is $5k depreciation (from $8k purchased price) in value across ~10 years. Average about $500 each year. That is pretty low cost owning this vehicle in our opinion. Secondly, getting just the liability insurance (required by law) for this car saves us more than half in insurance premium. Based on our own calculation with consideration of the car low value, auto insurance premium/deductible and our auto and medical insurance coverage, we opted out of full coverage insurance for this car. Your situation may be different than us.
When the car is old and low value, naturally we do not get too stressed out if it got scratches or little dents caused by someone. Since the car is just a normal looking 10+ years old low valued car, we think the probability of it getting stolen is quite low. If it happens, it would not hurt much financially, but it does likely break daddy's heart though. Also, we are fine with leaving this car at the uncovered (cheaper!) airport parking space when travelling. This is one of the reason why we prefer to own low valued, but in working condition stuff. Even more true when we got young kids who are happy to mess things up. Owning less is having more :)
Recently, we discovered a hidden gem of this car that makes us appreciate it even more. Check it out here. Hopefully this car continues to be in good condition for many years to come.
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