If you don't have a lot of up-front money, sometimes those beaters can work out for a while. My GF once purchased an old Camry from some grandma for $500, quickly drove it for nearly 100,000 miles (long drives for sports and school), and sold it for $800, with extremely minimal maintenance costs. Certainly a great deal, and like all beaters, it had character! But in the end, I helped her to sell it because it was a death-trap and I didn't trust it to protect her, even for driving around town.
Newer, nicer cars are more safe and comfortable, and if anyone needs those features, it's the person who spends all day behind the wheel, not the person who rarely drives. I did a cost-analysis before I bought my current car and found that the cost of buying my newer used car was almost identical to buying a succession of older, cheaper used cars of the same model. So by buying the better car upfront, I get to enjoy that better car for years while not actually paying much more money in the long run. Eventually the one good car finally achieves beater status and is the same as the last car in my hypothetical string of beaters. When it dies, you buy another good car. It requires you to come up with all of the money upfront, instead of paying it out in little increments, but that's a small price to pay for being safe and comfortable for years. YMMV for other models of car.
Of course, as Gillbot mentions, you can also take comfort in not being attached to a car. With a beater, you don't mind a new door ding or feel like you need to wash it all the time. If it gets stolen or hit, who cares? But for me, I'd rather sweat that stuff a bit more in return for a better experience behind the wheel, since I really like to drive and have to do it so much.
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