"mine has been great, it's got 150,000 miles"
yeah. Come back and visit that in another 150,000 miles.
With exception of the new mustang I have, most everything else is well beyond 150,000 miles and one is about double that. I keep my stuff. When things start showing signs of failure I replace or repair the part. As a technician, "usually" I can do that without too much issue. I grew up dirt poor and vehicle repairs were normal. I remember well, when I lived up north. Dad had a 1964 Oldsmoblie I think starfire? It had that nasty "slim jim" transmission. Transmission failed one day as he was driving to work. So he had a buddy tow it home with a rope. That evening after I got outta school we pulled that transmission out and rebuilt it at home. Auto transmission rebuilds aren't exactly easy, and the slim jim was a very interesting design. If you know, you know. If not, you should experience one. Pain in the neck! One of the worst transmission designs ever. they were tough as long as they worked but when they died they were junk and a lot of guys scrapped the car because of it. Gosh I hated doing that rebuild, pulling/reinstalling was just as bad, no garage, had to work outside in the snow, below zero. I was bundled up so tight that if the thing fell off the jack that it would have just bounced right off. And I was still cold. I hate cold.
I do not "expect" cars to last 300,000 but if/when they do I take pride in it. When the old mustang was getting tired (2004, v6 auto) I bought another to replace it (was dirt cheap), fixed it up and started driving it while I prepared the 2004 to go on marketplace. It had just turned over 401,000 miles when a young lady said she wanted a Mustang, the price for mine was right, and she was a mechanic at a car dealer on the other side of the state so she wasn't afraid of the mileage. $2300 later she drove it home. I ran into her the other day while visiting friends and she STILL drives it, said she had to put a water pump and timing cover gasket on (common on 3.8/3.9L v6's) but that's the only issues. It has just barely under 500,000 miles when I talked to her. That's gotta be a record for a 2004 mustang with a lowly v6. That little V6 engine, when it didn't have major issues early on (under 100,000 mi), it seemingly ran forever and the car generally got wrecked or fell apart around it. But like anything else, you have to take care of em. Oil changes alone aren't taking care of things. There's trans fluid, differentials, coolant, brake fluid, cables, u-joint lube points, spline couplings, and a whole lot more and if you don't maintain all that stuff, it's gonna fail at some point. We often call it "wore out" and in fact it usually is but could've been prevented by maintaining. Particularly brake fluid and coolant--they seemingly never get flushed.
