So, we are always hearing about collectors buying old cars with ridiculously low miles that they are going to put away and not drive anyway. Seems like a waste of a good car. Personally I am more impressed by cars that have been enjoyed for hundreds of thousands of miles and are still going strong. Will a good car last forever with proper maintenance? Do you have a favorite, faithful automotive companion? Tell us about your really high-mile cars!
While not too extreme, we've racked up 175,000+ miles on our '09 Fit Sport with nothing but basic maintenance.
I sold my Prelude with 232K, my e46 with 227K, and my current truck has 266K.
I also had an Acura MDX with 197K when it got t-boned and totaled. I bet it could have went a lot longer.
Not mine, but one of my customers has an e39 540i with 350+K
I once bought a Ford Tempo for $50 ... it had 388k on it. Imagine driving a Tempo for that long. Had maintenance/repair notes written all over the engine compartment with a Sharpie.
My uncle does a lot of commuting for work, and his '09 Vibe GT is about to hit 200k. He also has an '04 Silverado 1500 with 178k. My '89 Volvo 240 wagon had 275k on it when I sold it, and my current '92 Olds Custom Cruiser has 209k.
The FIL has an '81 VW Rabbit, 4 Door, diesel. Has well over 300k, and he has owned it since new.
He will not get rid of it because my wife and her sister came home from the hospital in it.
It sits in the garage next to his AACA concour grand national '48 chevy (his first car, unknown milage, but higher than VW, minimal since restore), Tesla P85S (100k+ miles), and Cayman S(60k+ miles).
1987 4Runner.
452,135mi.
I want half a million.
I had a 91 Saab with the 2.1. It went to almost 350,000 before destroying an upper end bearing
My 12 mazda5 crested 151k today, bought with 100 miles on it. It's been pretty dang reliable to date and should reach 200k by fall 2017.
I put 286,000 miles on my normally aspirated 1987 RX-7…I never had to rebuild the engine and although the compression in the rear chamber was getting a bit low, it probably had at least 25K left in it.
My turbocharged E30 318is has about 280,000 miles on it and is still going strong. The bottom end has never been apart, and over the course of an HPDE weekend, I lose a max of only about 1 qt of oil. Pretty sure that one will go forever.
I also have a 2005 KTM 950 Adventure with 76000 miles on it, which is decent for a bike. It's been stealing miles from the BMW for the last few years, haha.
One of my customers had over 650k on a Savanna box van. Original engine and trans. Original intake gaskets too, if you can believe that 
He drove something like 60-100k per year for Landstar. More or less, if he was awake and there was a delivery available, he was driving. For that van's replacement, we rigged a battery isolator and set him up with some deep cycle batteries and some inverters mounted on the inside of the box, and he put a bed in there and used it like an RV. I still remember the time he was in Texas shuttling back and forth during a heat wave, and he mentioned that he left it running at night for A/C so the van was running for two weeks straight. According to the PCM it got up to 265 degrees at one point 
So we added an aux fan in front of the radiator... Those LQ4s are TOUGH.
I really wanted to see my Quantum roll over 400k but the chassis and wiring harness just weren't having it. When I pulled the head off of the engine, I noted the cylinders still had visible cross-hatch (barely) and there was no cylinder ridge. The last 50k or so of its life were done in open loop because six of the ten exhaust manifold studs were broken, all the extra air getting sucked into the exhaust was making the O2 useless.
370K on my first VW beetle according to the records. 73 superbeetle, 5 engines and 3 transmissions in that time.
Oh yeah, the Quantum had its original head gasket and clutch I think VW made their clutches out of granite in the 80s.
My 1991 Escort has 418,000 miles, brothers 1970 Mustang convertible has 335,000 miles and the Dodge diesel has 400,000 miles of hard work.
Escort is my pizza delivery vehicle that I bought with 132,000 miles. Did you know that lifetime guarantee parts are great! Replaced my axles 3 times and they have really earned their money on clutches and brakes!
Mustang went across America twice 2 years ago and we just finished putting a new top and windshield in it yesterday! Getting ready for a trip to Indianapolis in September!
Bruce
I have the engine from an Opel Kadett that racked up over 480k miles on the original engine. The guy I bought the car from purchased it in '78 with @80k on it and the 400k miles he put on it were in NYC as a courier for 25+ years.
While there wasn't a lot left of the car, if I ever decide to build an engine for an Opel I'm going to use that block. Karma or love or even just good seasoning, it's earned the right to keep going.
My first accord still holds my record at 225K+. The wife will surpass it soon enough. Her Accord has 215k and she is about to start ref season. My civic is a baby with only 95k and it finally needs front brakes. Both of my neons had around 175-185k before deer and rust ended them.
The other thing I forgot to point out about the Quantum. Because of the way VW/Audi geared it, it cruised on the highway at 4000rpm. (24" tires, 4.11 final, hardly any overdrive). At least, I governed myself to 4000rpm, which was around 75mph-ish. The PO mentioned driving it from Detroit to someplace in North Carolina at a near constant 85mph...
https://www.youtube.com/embed/9t6whzOU2vM
From BEFORE the exhaust manifold decided to start falling off. Never did do anything about the crappy speaker setup, it only had the two tiny speakers in the front doors. Played Slayer just fine at least.
I still have not reset the top speed function in my GPS, as I hit 103 in that car on the long downhill section of I-71 southbound near US 30. It... did not like going that fast. But I had to crack a ton with the car just once, and downhill was the only way it was ever going to do that, as it was so tired that its top speed was around 80 on flat ground. At this point, resetting the GPS would be like deleting e-mail from a friend/acquaintance who died.
2005 Yukon Denali, 1996 Bronco (Environmental Police surplus) and a 1996 XJ Limited all within 200 miles of 200,000.
Oil looks(ed) new on changes on all three.
Replaced my 2003 GM 1 Ton extended van, 6.0L with 309,000 and still running strong (sold to a carpet installer) with a 2007 Silverado 1500 5.7L with 293,000 Miles, drives the same as when it turned 100,000 miles. Both retired from our company fleet.
My 1986 M535i has about 210,000 miles on it, but I guess considering its age that's really not that many miles per year.
FWIW: One of my customers has a 245k mile '84 RX-7 with its original engine.
At the time, my own '84 RX-7 had 244k. Its original engine died at 150k because of a moronic PO. (Anybody who puts an ACT SuperExtreem OMGDethClutch on a stock 12A is a moron. Also the car had body damage like it was sideswiped into a guardrail or something, to the extent that the rearend was also broken. Which is how I was able to get it on eBay for under $500...)
The customer's car is in far better shape than mine, although it has been resprayed at one point in its life. Sadly it has the horrendous dowel pin oil leak that '83-85 12As tend to get, and at 245k miles, I am not certain that the rotor housings will be any good if we were to pull the engine and replace them. Have been looking for a good S3 12A core engine for quite a while for this customer.
Track SE-R has 278k miles and running strong. The last 2k have been all been track days or autocrosses and / or the commute to and from them.
The new to me GMC sierra Denali has 308k and runs and drives really well.
My 924s has north of 350k but that is estimated. The odometer stopped at 57k back I the early 90s when I reset the trip odometer. Never fixed it never really cared.
The 86 toyota i took my license test in had 310k when the odometer broke. I drove it hard for 2 years and only had to replace a head gasket and rear diff. Its still running around 8 years after my dad sold it.
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