It's hard to get past 250,000 miles without sinking a large sum of money into these cars. Our family has a 245 that has done 510,000 miles, but the car has rebuilt one part at a time. Some parts have been replaced 2, 3, or 4 times. The car was pretty reliable until it hit about 250K and then it needed a lot of work. It's needed a large cash infusion every 75-100K since then.

I wouldn't mind driving one of these to 300 or 400,000 miles, but I would not buy one with that many miles on it.

Things that go bad > 250K:

-Rear suspension bushings
-Clutch if a stick, auto trans. rebuild if it is an automatic
-Front end bits (wheel bearings, steering rack, control arms)
-Fuel system parts: ECU, both fuel pumps, fuel pressure regulator, IAC Motor, dirty fuel injectors that don't respond well to cleaning, etc.
-Head gasket will eventually fail
-Hall effect sensor in distributor / crank position sensor on 89 and newer cars
-Power window motors and regulators, power locks, interior door latches that break
-Leaking windshield, leaking window seals

There's more stuff that I can't remember now.