The very first car I ever owned was a Buick Skyhawk that my dad bought for me. It was red and used and pretty rusted from the salt used to dissolve the snow in New Jersey but it was all mine and I loved it.

As I grew older, I tried living without a car in New York, and then I did that really scary thing – I shopped for a car by myself. I don’t remember if I went in with a certain car in mind but I came out (after a great deal of patronizing behavior from the salesman) with a Ford Escort. I got the car because the salesman assured me it was safe and reliable. I’m pretty sure what he meant was it was the only car on the lot I could afford.

As the years went by, I stuck with Fords, buying a new Escort every couple of years because I had to. The ones I had kept breaking down. The worst breakdown occurred on a Los Angeles freeway interchange at rush hour. It was raining and I was already late picking my son up from daycare. I didn’t have a cell phone, so I was stuck listening to nasty people honk at me until a young man was kind enough to help me to the side of the road and offered me his phone to call the sitter. If it had been a movie, it would have been a comedy but to me, it wasn’t funny at all.

As I waited for AAA to come and tow me in, I was miserable to the point of tears, but what can you do, right? All cars break down all the time. Or so I thought.

A year later, my husband and I walked into another car dealership to buy yet another car. This time we went to a Toyota dealership and I distinctly remember why. With a new baby in the house, we had really over extended ourselves so we had a tricky time getting a car loan. We tried to go cheap – another Ford – but the loan officer at the bank told us to buy a Toyota. You’ll get the loan, he said, because Toyota’s are reliable and they hold their value. Yes, they cost more upfront, but they’ll save you in the end. I didn’t believe it, but he was the man with money so we agreed.

We bought our first Toyota Corolla and I was amazed. I could merge into traffic without sputtering! I wasn’t ashamed to drive people around in my car and best of all, the car never broke down. Never.

We paid for oil changes and did tune-ups and I had to have the tires replaced once, but the car never left me stranded on the side of the road.

When it came time to turn in my husband’s old car, we went with Toyota again. A Tacoma pick-up. Today, my teenage son drives that truck and even with all the miles on it, it runs and runs.

Last year, I switched from the Corolla to a new Yaris and I couldn’t be happier. The Yaris is a fun, smaller car (I like the feel of a car around me) with the same reliability as my former Corolla.

When I think back at all the money we spent repairing the cars we owned before our Toyotas it makes me mad. I wish I had known about the advantages of going Toyota back when I walked into that dealership alone for the first time. It would have been nice to have a solid, reliable car for myself and my child — my baby, who is now old enough to drive himself.

I’m participating in a Toyota/TwitterMoms campaign, which inspired this post. My opinions, thoughts and feelings are my own. As a TwitterMom, I’m eligible for a courtesy gift of $50.