My older brother had a Chevette for a while in the 80's. A lot of people in our small town worked at the same paper mill 30 miles away, so when it broke down along the road he could catch a ride with somebody heading to work. He would call me and tell me what part to get and I would replace the alternator, water pump, whatever roadside and just leave it there after I fixed it. After work he would catch a ride from the mill to his car and drive the rest of the way home.
Replaced damn near everything before it had 75k miles on it.