[MuseChaser]

Almost without exception, the reason I've had to "retire" a vehicle over the years has been salt and the subsequent total corrosion of the frame/unibody/body panels, brake and fuel lines, gas tanks, mounting points, etc. Eventually it gets so bad and so unenjoyable to fight that stuff that I give up and move on to the next sacrificial vehicular offering to the sodium sowers. We aim for at least 200k miles, and have beens successful everytime...our record so far was a Volvo 240 with 275k on it, with a Bmw 325i, a Ford Aerostar, and a Benz ML430 all close behind with about 235k each, give or take. Every vehicle still ran great engine and tranny wise. The only engine trouble I've ever had was dealer/recall-induced via our FR-S. Did have to replace the transmission in our current ML500, but that was evil used car criminal dealership induced.