| I paid $4500 for mine with 150k miles on it. I bought it in college as well over two years ago, and the biggest single purchase I've ever had to make was getting four new tires. I think it depends a bit on luck unfortunately. It's never broken down on me @ 187k miles now as my DD and has started every time I've been out to it (unless I've been fooling with something :) ) The car is not expensive to maintain if you have somewhere that you can work on it yourself. I was able to pick up a 5 speed transmission for $200 that works pretty well (has a little grind going into 5th if you slam it) and if you've got a day off, some tools, and a little mechanical ability you can probably make it a 5 speed for under $750. On the other hand, I also purchased a tranny for $150 that did not work to my liking (shaft bearing was very noisy) so that was kinda $150 out the window. Recently I moved and got 28 mpg highway driving with the car fully loaded, and average a little over 20 if I'm mixing highway and city with some little spirited driving. It's just luck of the draw, if you do your own work, it has good compression, not leaking fluids everywhere, and you're prepared to do PREVENTATIVE as well as regular maintenance these cars easily last 200k miles. Mine even had the original shocks and springs for probably 170k miles/17 years.
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