If you do your own maintenance then it makes even less sense to "pay for quality" because the cost of addressing issues yourself is minimal. It's very rare to have issues out of the blue anyway.

I drive an early 90s shitbox and have an almost exactly 60mi commute. Obviously it would be a massive waste of time to try to keep it in tip top shape at all times but it's really not the stressful "am I going to break down today?" experience that some would think. The main difference between my current shitbox and the variety of late 2000s and early 2010s cars I used to drive for work is that the 90s interior rattles a lot more and there's more wind noise.