My approach is to have a nice, higher-mileage car and a beater car. The beater car fills in when I need to carry something nasty and when the nice car needs work. Next spring for example, while my nice car (1999 BMW 528i, 145,000 miles) spends a week or so on jack stands getting some DIY suspension work, my 1985 300D will get me around.

Not a practical approach for most people, but I like older cars and it works out to be dirt cheap on a cost per mile basis.