It is great to hear they last over there, here in Australia, drivers are not known to keep high mileage cars. most over 300,000km in second hand market (every brand) are usually in poor condition, but most people who buy new cars, do not keep a new car for over 200,000km and get lazy with servicing after warrenty period expires. That said, i havent noticed volvos being much better mechanically than other brands even in warrenty period, i used to scour auctions, and saw a few s40 and s60s with the same noisy top end as in my s80, under 150,000km mark. i dont know the reason for that, might just be me coming across bad examples... and it might just be the swedes pride themselves with their native cars and take better care. I did say i love volvos, they are unique and always ahead with safety. My dads 244 was my favourite (and a 242 bertone i nearly bought, but didnt have enough cash), i remember a car was parked in front of us on an uphill slope (cant remember the car, as i was a kid), the driver must have left it in neutral without handbrake on. it started rolling back, picking up speed... it impacted the volvos huge bumper and got a dent in it's body. my dad got out, noticed zero damage on the volvo, so drove off without waiting for the other driver to return. Here in Australia, our local car industry died several years ago, and almost all of our local car industry has been wiped out with most vehicles over 300,000km sold odf to scrap metal, but there is a big scene for classic and modified Aussie cars, which requires a different driver, service and car than most daily aussie drivers.