It's not a sweet ride, it's more like an automotive appliance. It's reasonably comfortable, I change the oil regularly and take it for all the scheduled maintenance and services. But I don't take particularly good care of it.
Everything is cheap with it, tires, gas, etc.
It's only broken down on me once, and my insurance covered the tow costs, the part was a $100 Oxygen sensor.
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I recommend taking a look at consumer reports, look at make models for cars you are interested in, look at the used car reliability history and pick the cheapest possible car with perfect or near perfect reliability over the last 5 years. Then buy a brand new version of that car unless it's the first year of an all new model year. If that's the case, you can usually buy the outgoing model at a discount and benefit from a few years of manufacturing know how.
I came from a family thought bought exclusively used cars (and still does) and in the time I've owned my 1 car I bought new, my parents have been through maybe 7 cars? A friend of mine who also buys used exclusively, but doesn't consult Consumer Reports has been through 11 cars.
I also went through a string of used cars until finally deciding to just buy new. You might get lucky with a used car, but you never know what's happened to those cars and most people end up getting rid of cars because the repair costs are getting too high.