I had a Jeep Cherokee that lasted 232,000 miles and 10 years.
Still, most Fords I have rented and/or GMs I have ridden in were rattletraps.
I have a Toyota now and have to stifle a grin everytime I fire it up.
I've taken 4 different Ford F-250 4X4's over 250,000 miles.
I have a '96 Cherokee that we have never had to do the first thing to. Just oil changes and routine maintenance. My brother bought my '89 Cherokee and drives it every day with almost 300,000 miles on it. Someone at Chrysler was smokin' crack when they decided to stop making them. :(
Still, most Fords I have rented and/or GMs I have ridden in were rattletraps.
I have a Toyota now and have to stifle a grin everytime I fire it up.
When I bought my very first new car in 1990, I wanted to "buy American." In my price range back then, I could afford a little Ford (an Escort, I think), some little Chevy which I can't recall, or a Toyota Corolla. Well neither of the "American" cars were made in America. One was from Mexico, the other from Canada. The Toyota was built in the US. I wound up buying the Toyota. I traded that car in on a 2000 Corolla after 197,000 miles. I could have kept it, as it was still running great, but it needed a LOT of mechanical work (time for a new timing belt, major tune up, clutch, brakes, tires, front end, shocks and struts - I was still on the original clutch and front end), so it just didn't make sense to sink all that money into a 10 year old car, with nearly 200,000 miles on it. I have no doubt that it's still running somewhere. During that 10 years, the only problem I had was a freak incident, where the exhaust manifold cracked, burning a hole in the radiator. That was the only service done, other than normal maintanance.
My 2000 Corolla has about 119,000 miles on it, and the only problem so far was a bad sensor, which was replaced under warranty.
Mark