Hi ya TWR, in answer to your question, I think it would probably be a 1987 Nissan Silvia 1800 turbo, apart from the normal servicing stuff nothing ever seemed to break on that car.
My Astra sport. It never broke down and passed all its MOTs, the only thing that went wrong with it was the cam belt snapping while I was driving it. It only had 18k on the clock so Vauxhall paid for the damage.
I had a Volvo S40 which I did 90k in over 3 years without a hitch except......
The day before it was due to go back, the immobiliser in the key failed leaving me stranded 50miles from home.
Suzuki Jimny Soft top.
We owned it for 8 years as a runabout, it was bulletproof, never put a foot (wheel) wrong, whatever the weather, apart from standard services all we had to replace was a radio aerial that someone bent double one night,
A 1 litre, 3 cylinder Daihatsu Charade.
I bought it tax free in W. Germany, had it for 10 years.
I had to replace the back box on the exhaust twice in all that time. Nothing else.
My Ford Puma 1700. How I loved that car. I had it from new for nearly 14 years (0 - 60 in 8.8 seconds on the old scale). I paid £15000 for it and got my money back in droves. The only time it broke down was when I went down to the local supermarket and the battery died. It went to scrap when I traded it in for something else so I was the only owner it ever had.
My Skoda Superb has just clocked up 160,000miles. Water pump failed at about 120k, rear shocks at 140k and apart from that and usual servicing never missed a beat.
About 20 years ago I took over ownership of my brother’s Peugeot 305 diesel estate, and it was utterly brilliant. On an E plate it was already getting on a bit, but nothing ever went wrong with it. Started first time in all weathers, never chucked out any black smoke apart from that first splutter on startup.
By the time some idiot wrote it off by driving into the back of it, the clock showed 250k and it was still perfect.
My 1979 Vauxhall Viva that I learned to drive in. It cost me £50, I drove it for two and a half years and went all over Europe in it and when the gearbox went I sold it for £20. Dead easy to service it myself with a strobe light and half inch spanner. No computer or complex electronics to go wrong.