Personally I recommend Toyotas because they're no drama. You get in, turn the key and go where you need to go. When they fail they generally give you plenty of warning and will keep going anyway. Usually if you just do basic maintenance they'll run forever though. 300k miles isn't uncommon at all. I've put 130k on my 4Runner so far with absolutely no problems whatsoever (and I've taken it places in the desert most people have never heard of). I wouldn't hesitate to get in and drive 100 miles off pavement on a whim even with all that mileage, runs like the day I bought it.
If you do need to work on them they're put together in a way that doesn't make you wonder wtf the engineers were thinking. I've owned and worked on cars from all of these brands as well as a few I'm probably forgetting:
Toyota
Chevy
Ford
Volkswagen
GM (Saturn, Pontiac)
My Saturn SL2 was the easiest American car I've ever worked on, lots of clearance to get to things. Ford was by far the worst, in order to remove the AC compressor I also had to remove the radiator (which necessitated a coolant drain and fill) and power steering pump because there was 1/4" less clearance than needed to pull the bolts. If I'd paid someone it would have been thousands in labor.
By contrast I pulled and replaced the entire suspension on my 4Runner last summer in about 10 hours with just hand tools (upgrade, not replacing failed components).
If you do need to work on them they're put together in a way that doesn't make you wonder wtf the engineers were thinking. I've owned and worked on cars from all of these brands as well as a few I'm probably forgetting:
Toyota Chevy Ford Volkswagen GM (Saturn, Pontiac)
My Saturn SL2 was the easiest American car I've ever worked on, lots of clearance to get to things. Ford was by far the worst, in order to remove the AC compressor I also had to remove the radiator (which necessitated a coolant drain and fill) and power steering pump because there was 1/4" less clearance than needed to pull the bolts. If I'd paid someone it would have been thousands in labor.
By contrast I pulled and replaced the entire suspension on my 4Runner last summer in about 10 hours with just hand tools (upgrade, not replacing failed components).