Luck or Dedication?

I've recently ticked over 5 years of ownership of my 2006 E90 320d M Sport (155k km's on clock) and for a long time now I've thought about what I could change the car for and I always draw a blank. I love my car and I've never had any major issues with it thankfully. It really has everything that I could want. In fact, I don't want to change my car, I want to improve it (it's happening at a snail's pace so far!).

Aaaanyway. My question goes something like this;

You often read about owners who've managed to keep their car going after ridiculous hundreds of thousands km's and for the most part the car looks tip top. Do you think that making a car last that long, assuming it's a reputable marque, is down to luck or just hard work and dedicated servicing/attention paying off? Perhaps a mixture of both?

It seems to me that for the most part it tends be Jap and German made cars that last the test of time. It wouldn't be unusual to see a 16-17 year old Nissan Micra, BMW, or Merc still flying around. Having said that, you will also see old Fiesta's and Mondeo's knocking about but these always look a bit worse for wear.

I service the car regularly and I'm always open to suggestions that guys make on here in terms of best practice re different service intervals etc. I know that some people will consider this a tad boring/unadventurous but I really do intend on keeping my car in the family for as long as I can make it last.

That's fairly long winded now reading back over it but I suppose you get my drift! I'm just interested in what other peoples thoughts are on this?

Cheers

I put it down to both.

I have my e34 2years now, and I've put almost 20,000miles on her so far.

I bought her from a bloke I know that treated her like a baby and always took good care of maintanance - luck

Since I've had her I've kept up good maintance, repaired/replaced what she needed - dedication

Luck is finding a peach, dedication is keeping her...peachy :D

Sent from my magical talkie device

Paddy McGrath's car is probably a good source of inspiration to start with, or those US forums too. Some tasty e90 motors out there.

I've done about 60k in my E36 in just under 3 years of ownership. It's now at 190k. People will cry about high miler cars but I test anyone to show me a car as clean and problem free as mine. Ya car isn't original but I'm taking care of it. A car can last as long as you want if maintained. This car had never broken down until recently when the cam sensor died. I cracked the sump and had it trailered before but that was my fault. Cheap cars attract cheap owners so that's why there isn't many around. When was the last time you saw a clean 405 or a clean bravo? You don't see them they were just driven to the grave.


Sent forward in time from my Nokia 3210

Dedicated servicing and maintenance is the answer.

My Dad has a '07 Merc Sprinter from new and has over 350000 KM, Never any serious break downs, Also have a '95 Granada that lasted about 190k Miles before engine went. (Just under 200k on it now)

I had a '00 1.4 Escort with 170k Miles (1 owner) and it still drove perfectly fine and was in decent shape.

My own E36 has 182k on it, With no major problems.