maintenance, petty car body degradations.. things gets pricey real fast

I've got 200,000 miles on my Toyota and it's only ever had oil changes, brake pads, and new tires.

It'll probably make it another decade. Or two.

Did you know before hand this would be the case ? cause even when choosing a model that was deemed well made and long-lasting, we hit an unfortunate engine belt timing failure (100k cars were concerned, we got one..) and had to replace the whole thing.

Yes, if you get a Toyota and maintain it, it would be expected to make it past 200k miles. They are by far the most reliable cars. Timing belt failures are only catastrophic for interference engines, and most cars use timing chains now, which have a much lower failure rate.

How many times did you replace the timing belt (and probably water pump) before the failure ? Curious what vehicle this is