According to our inspection stats we have almost 50.000 old Volvos on Finnish roads that have over 300.000 kilometers on the clock. Mostly old V70 taxis 2.4 (D3/D5 diesels). Another engine that lasts pretty much forever is 2.0 Duratec petrol (also used in Ford and Mazda).
Of course old Toyotas and Hondas last a long time but in our climate (a lot of road salt in winters) Volvo is proven to be the most robust car.
A couple years ago I bought a '97 Volvo 960 that had over 300,000 miles/500,000 km. It had lived its whole life in the desert, so no rust issues. I had receipts going back almost the entire life of the car, totaling within just a couple thousand dollars of the car's original MSRP. The biggest expense over the life of the car? A/C repairs. It had phenomenal A/C, but inevitably I too had to sink some money into that during my ownership. The biggest challenge I had with the car was the brittle interior plastics breaking, and parts availability. I sold it because I no longer needed the car, but I miss it now. Its seats were the best I've felt in a car, and I've sat in a lot of seats.
I have a Volvo with 195000 miles (so in the 300k club) but sadly it has just sat on my drive not used for 12 months now. The exhaust fell off on the motorway and then my wife no longer wants to get in it. That sort of failure is just a normal old car thing. I really need to get it going again or get rid of it (which would make me sad). I reckon with a fresh charge on the battery with will run without a problem and a with a few recommissioning jobs (and a small amount of welding) would be on the road again and driving nicely.
