At 285k miles the majority of the vehicles steering and suspension components will need to be replaced. Replace steering box, drag link ends, tie rod ends, track bar bushings, shocks and steering stabilizer, wheel bearings, trunion bearings, and sway bar bushings. All of these worn out items will add up to significant excess movement in the system as a whole. It is usually less shocking financially to replace these items slowly as the miles pile up. Since no maintenance or repairs has ever been done the components have all been pushed beyond their service life completely resulting in a large lump sum of repairs. As far as cost, when one purchases a vehicle cost of maintenance and repairs needs to be part of the planned budget, not just the purchase price. May be a sensible time to find a cheaper vehicle to drive. A low mileage corolla or camry are great options and are less expensive to repair and maintain.I'm in the camp of "fix what is broken". I'm trying to find out what is broken. But if you're telling me that I need to replace the entire front end, then I'm going to tell you that my wallet, and wife, are going to be very unhappy!