My current car is a 1999 Camry with 212,000 miles.
Cool, it's finally broken in! The gutless wonder Toyotas of the late 80s and 90s are insanely reliable cars.
It seems to be doing great, but the windshield will need to be replaced before I can renew my tags, and I will need new tires within a year.
Windshield shouldn't be more than about $150, based on my experience with having windshields replaced. Tires - you use small (read, "cheap") tires. Keep an eye out in the newspapers or ad mailers for tire sales. My best for 13" wheels was about $120 installed for 4, stacking coupons. The guy ringing me out was impressed.
Yours are likely a bit larger, but if you shop around and find coupons, you should be able to do 4 brand new, decent quality tires for under $300.
I bought it two years ago, and I don't know much about how well it was maintained.
On those, it really doesn't matter that much. It's fine. You almost certainly have a timing belt, and it's likely that it wasn't replaced before (unless you have records saying it was). It would be worth paying a shop to do that - a timing belt failure is generally catastrophic to an engine.
I park outside my apartment building, and it definitely has trouble on cold mornings.
What kind of trouble and how cold? Slow to crank? It's likely an old battery. $75 should get you a new one, and most parts stores will install it for you if you ask nicely.
I'm reasearching options that get good gas mileage, and I'd like to spend less than $5,000 and have it last a good while.
Good luck. Cash for Clunkers ruined the cheap but good used car market, and it's going to be years before it recovers.
Though you might be able to find a Mazda 2 for not much more than $5k.
Cars like Honda Accords or Toyota Camrys in the $5,000 range usually have 200,000 miles. Right now those appear to be my best options. I know very little about cars, and don't have any friends or relatives that do.
You've already got one! :)
Not working on cars or not having friends who do is annoying, but YouTube makes it easy to learn now. Doing your own work is seriously cheaper.
Again, I'm not looking to buy now, but I want to be prepared so when something major happens, I am ready. Anyone have any better ideas?
Replace your windshield, start looking for a set of tires, get the timing belt dealt with unless you have evidence it's been done (that'll be somewhat expensive, but shop around for a local repair shop that will do it - it'll be a lot less than the dealership), and learn to do your own work.
Other than some weird, unlikely failure, your car has plenty of life left in it. Assuming it's not rusting out.