In December 2007, I went with my dad to test drive new cars. His Mazda 626 was getting long in the tooth and my cousin needed a car, so he sold it to him and we went looking for another car. Once my dad decided on a Toyota Camry, he turned to four-year-old me and asked, “What color should we get?” Excitedly, I yelped: “Red!” And a day later, we picked up our 2008 V6 Camry that, 18 years later, is still in the family.The Camry – and a handful of other Toyota models – are looked upon as soulless appliances, which, as both an automotive journalist and someone who grew up in Toyota vehicles, I’m here to tell you is far from the truth. These are the cars that bear witness to our lives. They take us on vacations, to proms, graduations, weddings, and funerals. Minivans and boring sedans aren’t the fun stuff that we love singing the praises of, but the cars that will turn half a million miles without many complaints are worthy of our praise just the same. 500k Miles Is Nothing For This Redditor’s Camry RedditOne month ago, a Reddit user posted a picture of the gauge cluster of their 2016 Camry displaying the hood open and the odometer which read 500,402 miles. The caption, which read “Getting an oil change right now!” is something familiar to any high-mileage vehicle owner. The user said each time the maintenance light comes on, an oil change is scheduled. Some back-of-the-napkin math reveals this Camry has had exactly one hundred oil changes in its lifetime, and at $50 or so for each visit to Take 5, that’s $5,000 spent just on oil changes (another reason to start learning how to perform repairs on your own).The Reddit user, going by the username “u/SheriffCrazy,” revealed their Camry has its original 3.5-liter V6 engine, its second 6-speed automatic transmission, and third radiator. That transmission? Toyota says it “lasts the lifetime of the vehicle, often extending beyond 200,000 miles.” The Sheriff, as I’ll refer to them, said the transmission was replaced at 450k miles and is unsure if they ever had the fluid changed. Some credit is owed to the aforementioned Take 5, which the Sheriff says is good for hooking them up with coupons, but most Toyotas are known for going well beyond what the “best by” date says, especially the model the Sheriff drives. Toyota’s Formula For Longevity ToyotaThe brand’s reliability standards is a trope we’ve all heard before, but the recipe Toyota uses to bake its cars isn’t a secret passed down through the generations. The 2GR-FE V6 and automatic transmission were used in many different vehicles across both the Toyota and Lexus lineup, so if things did go wrong, there were millions of engines produced and a million parts made for them. The list of models containing this engine is endless. Everything from sedans like the Camry, Avalon, and Lexus ES, to crossovers and SUVs like the Rav4, Venza, Highlander, and the Lexus RX. It even shows up in the Sienna minivan, not to mention the Lotus Evora and Exige.Before turbocharging took center-stage in mainstream cars, whoever touted the most displacement in their engines reigned supreme. Toyota used 3.5 liters to make 268 horsepower and 248 lb-ft of torque in the Sheriff’s Camry, and all Camrys before then dating back to 2007. A basic 6-speed automatic moves power to the front wheels unceremoniously, but the name of the game isn’t to throw you back in your chairs, it’s to provide a smoother powertrain that doesn’t have to strain itself to provide strong power.The V6 might make peak torque high in the rev range at 4,700 rpm, but Toyota’s intelligent variable valve timing system provides 210 lb-ft evenly from 2,000–6,000 rpm.The 6-speed automatic found in Camrys with both the 2.5-liter inline-4 and 3.5-liter V6 comes with varying suggestions of when to have fluid changes performed. After some research, 60,000–80,000 miles appears – but some dealers also suggest 100,000 miles as being the marker for changing it out. Sadly, the V6 engines wouldn’t come mated to a manual transmission, no matter how nicely you asked. Unless, of course, you wanted to shell out three times as much for a new Lotus that packed a supercharged V6 and a 6-speed manual. Oil burning is said to occur with 4-cylinder engines, but nothing severe has been reported with the V6 engines. Toyota Changed It Up For The Seventh Generation Camry Toyota This generation of Camry has two distinct models across the six model years spanning from 2012-2017. Toyota refreshed the exterior design for 2015, changing every piece of sheet metal apart from the roof. Both gas powertrains carried over from the sixth gen, with a revised hybrid powertrain entering the picture in 2012.It was touted as being “the most technologically advanced Toyota” produced at the time, with advancements in materials used, sound dampening, and fuel economy. Safety standards carried over as well, with new systems like smart stop assist and blind spot monitoring making their debut in this generation.Toyota Toyota’s Entune infotainment system made its debut in the 2012 Camry, along with a slew of other comfort features making a name for themselves. Under the skin, the basics of the V6 and inine-4 were still there and going strong, which is probably why all Toyota touched when it refreshed it was change every single body panel.Inside the Sheriff’s car are all the same goodies that Toyota eagerly announced for the 2012 model. Kelley Blue Book’s list of the most common services performed on a 2016 Camry consists of basic upkeep. No major repairs are required to keep them running and on the road, which is why we think a used Camry is a better choice than a new compact car at the same price. What Made The Sheriff’s Car So special? ToyotaDespite an impressive life, we already know the Sheriff’s transmission went kaput about 50,000 miles ago, before any other part of the powertrain, and we know the car has chewed through two radiators. But nothing in the comments of the post allude to any other major repairs having been done. The Sheriff lives in Texas, and the lack of freezing temperatures certainly helps preserve vehicles. Though, depending on what part of the state it’s driven in, high heat can be detrimental to vehicles. This Camry, however, has shrugged off everything that’s been thrown at it in the last 10 years.The comments are littered with Toyota owners rejoicing and sharing the odometer readings of their cars. A few are well on their way to hitting a quarter of a million miles, but most were sharing stories of their relatively new-to-them models with only five figures on the dashboard. Some issues that are discussed surround the transmission, which claims say are toast after only half of what the Sheriff put on their car. Basic maintenance and upkeep go a long way, but let’s take a look at just how much it costs to operate a car for that long. For that, we need a bigger napkin...Sure, it’s daunting to look at how much this costs for a Toyota Camry, but if you factor in a different vehicle, that changes the overall cost of the car, monthly fuel costs, and maintenance. Not everyone is a hyper-miler like the Sheriff, so don’t worry too much about how much it costs them to fuel their car or the wear and tear they deal with that makes maintenance more frequent. When I worked at a Toyota dealership while still in school, I saw a handful of cars with more than 200,000 miles on the clock. The most I saw was on a Camry with 460,000 miles, which gave me great hope that my car will surely last as long. The trick, it seems, is to never give up on a car that treats you well. Because if you treat it well, it will serve you for hundreds of thousands of miles to come.