The last GM vehicle I had was a 79 Chevy Malibu. It was a retired Seriff's cursier with 123,000 miles when I bought it for $500. I drove it 96,000 miles before I sold it. The only failure in that five years was the starter solinoid. I was busy with a Telethon, so I called the dealer to fix it. The SOB replace the starter instead of the solenoid, and used an inpact wrench on the mounting bolts. They twisted one off, but didn't tell me. A week later I am a hour away from home, it is one AM and the starter just spins because it has rotated away from the flywheel on the one bolt.
I had a '63 Catalina convertible. My first car. It ran great, and other than a tuneup, I put a full set of new tires on it. That was followed by a '66 GTO that was bought with a blown engine from an idiot who took it to a race track and tried to put his foot through the floor. A spun crank, and two connecting rods were damaged. I had a spare crank, bought two rods and put it back together. I replaced the two speed auto with a three, which was too bigh for the transmission oil cooler so I lost a couple used transmissions. Later I had an 'Olds Starfire' which was a compact Pontiac with different trim. The head cracked at 125,000 miles. I had it remanufactured, and drove it for several more years until a drunk ran out of the road and pushed it into my '73 Chevy stepvan. She totaled her car, my car and did $200 damage to the Stepvan. I bought a beat up '68 GMC handyvan when I got out of the service for a work truck. Beat to death, and was painted with orange acrylic by a house painter. It was a retired 'Stanley Steemer' van, and he painted over all those huge signs. I drove it for about four years before the engine blew. I was told it was an old taxicab engine. He had shoehorned a Chevy 283 into the thong becaus ehe didn't like the 292 it had when he bought it. The guy was strange.
I owned a 79 Dodge RAM. It had been in storage for years without being started. It was gummed up, beat up, and pretty sad looking, but it was $500 and I needed a truck. I cleaned the old plugs, and managed to get it to fire up on two cylinders. I let it idle for 15 minutes, coughing, smoking & shaking as two more started firing. I drove it for a couple days, and the other two were working, so I gave it a tuneup. I drove that truck for five years. The 97 Dakota I have now I've had over five years. It was $2,800. The crap clearcoat is peeling, and it has other problems, but it still runs and is safe.
The only new vehicle I owned was the '83 Toyota pickup. It lasted seven months.