Yeah, Most are a garbage can on wheels. IT all depends on the owner and service record though. My dad bought it new in 88 and drove it 100 miles round trip to work until '97 then I drove it to college from 98' to last year because of the 105 mile round trip (we live in the woods where the 2 strokes roam) and we racked up miles fast but ALWAYS changed the Amsoil every 6,000 miles and filter every 3,000 and valve adj and tranny oil change every year (mostly because of my 25MPH in first gear and harsh shifts to get what little power it had out of it). and we flush the coolant every 3 years. The only parts replaced are as follows. Clutch, (my fault) wiper motor (oregons rainfall's fault) fuel pump, alt., and just last month a water pump. My friend's dad picked up a Subaru 4x4 back in '80 when my friend was only 4 and my friend still drives the heck out of it at 450,000 miles on the orginal tranny and engine! now thats awesome! Over on www.thedieselpage.com there is talk about a guy with a 1989 dodge Cummins Diesel who just flipped one MILLION MILES on the orginal engine! (million mile ram) is the topic tital

 

Diesels will run forever! So do the Subaru's, that boxer engine was pretty good really. Thats low maitenance for 300,000. I just put the fifth trans in my '88 Mustang (all but one my fault (bwa-haha) about 2 weeks ago.

 

I don't see why some of these guys think it's a miracle that a lowly Korean hundai can make it that far-that is with proper maintanence. My sisters '92 headed for the junk yard at 89,000 but the engine was still in good shape (she skidded into a curb and tweeked the entire car and tore the front left suspension out...that's what happens when a car is assembled with calk&glue rather than welds. Good thing she never had a real accident.) To be fair her's wouldn't have made it without help, at a mere 42,000 the valve rail rattled loose and almost 'sploded the entire top end. Valves needed regular adjustment, she needed two clutches(her first clutch vehicle.) and lastly the bloody parking brake system was worthless, bad because the driveway at her house was steep and more than a couple times she would find her car rolled into the street in the morning.

 

Oh, back to the point, she was running standard pennsoil. My brother 'sploded his 3.8v6 in a '94 thunderchicken two weeks ago(134K), he always ran Mobil 1, but the con rod let loose(clean break under the wrist pin), nothing to do with the oil. I've 'sploded a 12.6 liter deteriot deisel(lost con rod too), and a 70' oldsmobile 'rocket' 350, broken crank at 2nd journal(defective damper is suspect).