> But not many cars get to this driving distance

That's just because they don't receive appropriate maintenance. In my family we had plenty of Italian and german cars, we maintained them, most hit 300k+ kilometers. Our 9000$ Lancia Y still worked fine after 350k+ and we only got rid of it because it cannot enter Rome due to emission restrictions.

▲

jacobgorm 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

Italian cars work great in the warm and dry Italian climate, but have historically had trouble with corrosion in colder climates that they were not built for. My dad loved Alfa Romeo’s, but none of them lasted very long in Denmark. In other words YMMV.

▲

Hamuko 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

We had an Alfa Romeo and it did not enjoy -20°C. That model has almost completely disappeared from the market after 20 years, with the remaining ones usually being sold as projects or for parts.

I think they also had problems with timing belts? Google results are suggesting me that they had to halve the change interval, possibly because of our shitty roads. Volvo belts also last for 10 years in their native Sweden but only 5 years here.

▲

tonyedgecombe 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Italian cars from the sixties through to the eighties were notorious for corrosion. It did mean you could buy something interesting for not very much money though. After the nineties they got a lot better.

▲

skylurk 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

https://xkcd.com/3123/

▲

retox a day ago | parent | next [-]

Please don't do this, you aren't adding anything to the conversation

▲

tshaddox 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I believe the phrase was originally about "mileage" as in fuel economy (i.e. miles per gallon), but "total mileage" (i.e. odometer reading) is pretty close!

	▲	skylurk 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		True! Nice pun, jacobgorm :)

▲

gambiting 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I mean, you can get any car to last forever, it's just a question of being economically reasonable. My mum still has a 2004 Land Rover Discovery 3, one of the original ones with a 4.4L V8, and that car has a half a million kilometers(300k miles) on the clock now. Everything works, inside and out, I drove it at motorway speeds last month and it still felt super stable. And these cars have a terrible reputation for essentially ruining their owners and the electrical systems going haywire. The secret? My mum spending an equivalent of anywhere between 2000-5000 euro a year(!!!) on servicing and repairs to keep it in tip top shape. The car is probably worth only 5k, maybe 8k at a push. It doesn't make any logical sense, but it can be done.

	▲	epolanski 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Maintaining a fiat car in Italy is very cheap.