To say "it's not a consideration at all" is overstating it a bit. Sure motors can last three or four or five hundred thousand miles, but daily-driving a 344,000 mile car every day, 80 miles a day, I can tell you it's the myriad of little things that's more troublesome than worrying about some catastrophic engine failure.
Ever had the displeasure of folding your ass into a seat that's had 5,000 hours of 220 lb. man-meat bouncing around in it? How many squeaks, creaks, and leaks do you think there are on a car that's hit the same 30 or so bumps twice a day, 5 days a week for the last 10 years?
Sure, all these things can be fixed. I could go through and replace struts, ball joints, every bushing in the car, fix the A/C, try to find a decent set of seats, fix all the little leaks, replace the muffler, and hell, maybe even throw on a coat of paint and tint the windows...and have a car that's maybe worth $1000 when all is said and done.
