Over 17 years and 151K miles I've replaced or rebuilt everything.
Mostly for performance not out of necessity in most cases.
Stock ECM worked fine for about 15 years, I bought a spare to take to the track that I modified for Direct Scan software, it too is fine. I think the ECM's are strong if you don't mess with them much.
Tranny held up fine for 140K miles with a cooler on it, only had a 2-3 flare problem which was minimal but I wanted a good light race rebuild. Cost there was $1400 with a billet servo and good clutches and R+R.
Rear is stock, swaybars boxed with bushings, Bilstein shocks, control arm bushings. Normal maintenance stuff with good parts used, rear end will most likely need a flush with new oil and posi-lube.
Like with any car if you like to fix stuff that is marginal or broken you can easily spend $3K on it in parts and labor.
It ain't a POS Camry you just drive until it won't go no more and ignore all the problems.
Normal wear items need to be addressed and replaced for best performance.
I think there are tons of great parts out there to upgrade the car with even for daily driver use.
If you are serious about buying the car have someone experienced with the wear items on these cars go with you and you can perhaps negociate down the nagging repairs that cost money, such as exhaust system components like cracked headers and the control arm bushings, the headliner, water leaks, rust or anything that can put money back into your pocket for maintenance.
I would not buy a used one without a lot of spare parts or about $3K in extra cash to fix one up for daily use.
Just MHO.
