We've had our little Austin Maestro since the late 1990s and it was quite a cheap second hand then, as in it was already at least five years old. It had low mileage at the time, it was cheap cos it had had a knock and someone did the back in. We got that sorted by a mechanic friend and it was fine then. After that we've had mostly clear driving since.
I've always liked it for being generally good with fuel and also nice and spacious inside. It doesn't look all that roomy from outside but it's plentiful inside, in the back and front.
It tickles me that people complain about the reliability of their cars which are much younger cars than our Austin Maestro. Ours always starts up every time, never misses a beat. It's left in a garage so that might have something to do with it, and we always keep it well maintained.
I don't know that it would win any beauty contests but as far as I'm concerned that works in its favour since it means it's less likely to get nicked.
These days the biggest problem is rust really. We've had a couple of panels replaced over the years but it's starting to spread across the underside of the car now so I suppose that's going to be the end of it sooner or later.
Another thing making me want to look at newer cars is safety. There's no headrests in the back of our Austin Maestro, which is a bit of a worry now that the kids are big enough to need them. I suppose there's all sorts of other safety features on newer cars.