I am patient and persistent, and like to think ahead and plan for the future. I bought a 1994 Corolla in January 1994 for $15K. I still drive it as my only car. It has 527,000 miles on it. I know very little about cars, though. I can change tires and add oil. I changed an air filter. Once. I find experienced and knowledgeable people and let them do what they do best, including maintenance. I’ve paid to replace the transmission once (at around 380K) and the engine twice. The transmission was $2K, the engines $2.5K. My costs in the last 32 years have been far less than if I had bought even one more new car.

I enjoy having younger people in the car who ask, “How do you roll down the window?” Me: “With the hand roller.” “How do you lock the door?” “With the lock button.”

Having said all that, it’s incredible to me that it’s lasted so long. When I bought it I was going for 200K miles. When I got to 200K I wanted 300K. And so it’s gone. Now I want to get to 600K. I have had to replace everything that lower mileage cars have to replace: tires, wipers, shocks, brakes, belts… I’ve had to replace the windshield a couple of times. I had a low speed fender bender a couple of decades ago and had to replace the hood and the right front fender. It was broken into once 25 years ago and some CD covers were stolen. The CDs themselves were in the player under the seat. The interior is almost completely original. The driver’s inside door handle and sun visor I’ve replaced. I have a steering wheel cover now because I wore down the original steering wheel which now has a deep pit on the right side. The seats, windows, and rugs are all original.

Did I mention that my Corolla gets 30 miles/gallon? I expect to replace it some year. If I had to do it today it would be with a hybrid. If charging stations become much more common I’ll go all-electric. We’ll se what happens. I’m patient.