We bought one of these in 1995.

It was then passed on to my brother in law and then to his younger brother. It is still going strong.

The wheel cylinders on the rear drums started leaking and needed replacing about three years ago. It has also had one exhaust, one battery, one set of front pads and a seat belt buckle.

Apart from oil, filters and petrol, that has been it.

It may not have done a monster mileage, but it has been fantastically reliable and ridiculously cheap to run.

Great cars, and miles better than the Micra that replaced it.

Yes, I'm talking about cars with the highest likelihood of minimal mechanical or electrical failures. This Honda I know of has been very good, and I know of a couple of people with Lexus LS400/LS430 models that have never suffered a fault (whilst owned by said people).

I've had my Audi for about twenty seconds and I've already had a seat problem, a headlight failure and a gearbox management issue. All three problems were fixed by Audi (after some haggling) but this is a brand new car with little more than a thousand miles on the clock. The Honda Legend is worth perhaps fifty times less money, but has not suffered any such failure in a period fifty times greater. That's annoying for one thing*, but for another it's bloody impressive on the part of the Honda.

"And, 40 years after Gordon took the keys, the car has the same engine, same radio, same axles, same transmission and of course, the same driver. He is the only person who has ever driven his P1800."

Presumeably he would have replaced it if it broke down and needed to be fixed all the time!

I've got a Daihatsu Fourtrack (known here as the Rocky). Originally registered in Germany in 1986. We bought it in 1996 with approx 85000 km on the clock and transferred it to Belgium.

It's now on 74000 km (it's only got a 5-figure counter). This translates as 374000 km (if it was only 85000km when we bought it) or 474000 km if it had already been round the clock. When we bought it I wasn't too worried if the mileage was genuine as it only cost the equivalent of £1500. Changes to the the road tax system meant that it cost nearly £1200 per year in road tax. By removing the rear seat we could register it as a light commercial vehicle for agricultural purposes (approx £6O per year). I think we paid £1500 to buy him.

We've certainly put a huge lot of kilometers on it - using it as a support vehicle for an agricultural contracting business. It gets the worst treatment, driven by everybody. It's been in the ditch at least twice that I know of. It spends the whole summer towing a tank with diesel for filling the combine harvesters.

For fun we sometimes use it for off-road trials: (will try to add photos tomorrow)

It's the only vehicle we have which gets through our technical control (like the MOT) every year without problem. (My 3 yr old Discovery just cost 1800 Euro). In all the years we have replaced the tyres once - normal wear and tear - and the alternator.

It had a waxoyl treatment when it was new, and the bodywork is still fantastic. Not a Dai-rot-through like so many.

The only complaint is fuel consumption - 14 liter/100km.

In October last year we sent it to Poland towing a trailer to deliver a second-hand machine we had sold. The trip was nearly 4000 km in total - we were only 5 km from the border with White Russia. Did it without problem.

Beat me to it Jimbo, clear winner!

Honda in general, hands down.

My mum has a Rover 600. Shes had it from new (1997) and since then, has only ever had 1 service which was last year (apart from general wear and tear bits). Its never failed an MOT or broken down (apart from dead 4 year old batteries) and is still going strong today at 86k. Also, considering all it ever does is a 2 mile round trip to her work and back everyday, it's not doing too bad!

And yes, the Rover has a Honda engine and is basically an accord with a different body.

W123 Mercedes 250D ... makes a Panzer look under engineered!!

Almost certainly a Japanese 4x4/pickup of some kind.

hey i suggested the German Oil Burner favoured By taxicab drivers from Cologne to Cape Town, not a big petrol one

Do you mean as a make and model, or as an individual vehicle?

I always find Toyota Mr2s to be very reliable.
But then I think of the Top Gear thing with that indestructible Hi Lux thing.