I'm no gearhead though I can definitely understand why some are, i's just not my hobby. Below is what I've owned in chronological order, most were passed down to me from family and/or bought for cheap.

1. 2007 Toyota Corolla: Was my older sister's car before she went to college. Functional, but no oomph in the engine and was very spartan in features. Baby blue isn't the number one color of choice for a 16-year old guy either.
2. 2004 Buick Century: Passed down from my grandma when my sister needed the Corolla back. I liked it more since I thought it was funny driving a stereotypical geezer car that had only 12K miles on it at 11 years of age.
3. 2008 Pontiac G6: Bought from my grandparents on the other side after that grandma quit driving. Wasn't amazing and it was sometimes a pain maintaining with Pontiac being gone and all, but it was a step up in features. Had a lot of sentimental value though, my late grandparents grew up dirt poor and went with inexpensive cars out of thriftiness but 'splurged' on this during retirement, and were proud to pass it on for it to work well for years thereafter.
4. 2017 Honda HR-V: I sold the G6 after moving to Chicago and owning a car became impractical at the time. After switching jobs I suddenly needed to drive to work again so I bought this in August - it's no dream machine, but the 4WD does well in bad weather, it heats well this time of year, and the bluetooth is real handy for podcasts.