I put over 80K miles on my Kompressor using it as a daily commuting vehicle. It was reliable, economical, comfortable and quick enough for the job. Was it as stone cold dependable as an Accord? Probably not. Would I have rather had a Honda for the commute? No.

I like old cars. But, because of time, mileage and service history they do require more maintenance than newer cars. I will say that most of the issues that I've had occur were not surprises. They often show some sort of warning signs that I did not act upon before soiling the sheets. My experience with newer cars, on the other hand, is that they just stop working. With computers adjusting engine parameters automatically, you may not know something is happening before that CEL flashes. Hopefully the code it flashes is descriptive enough that you can act upon it.

I have heard stories of cars that only needed periodic payments and fuel to run reliably for 100K+ miles. I've never owned one.