Best advice ever -- "Secondly, make sure the car you pick has no timing belt." A timing chain will give over 300,000ks before any trouble, if then. We've had some Fords with over 750,000k and never even looked at the chain.
Corolla and their likes are absolutely amazing as a private vehicle in the suburbs, economy, space, but I do think the minimum engine capacity should be at least 1800 cc. for an automatic with a/c.
