My best was a hand-me-down '79 Rabbit. My parent's bought it brand new in 1979. 2-Door, Yellow, 5-Speed, Black Leatherette. No mods, no rebuilds, just oil changes, brakes, couple of mufflers, tires, battery or two or three, couple of starters, some bondo (funny story, the car never started on its own. We always parked it on a hill and popped the clutch to start her. Well, my Dad was doing the push and jump in the car to pop the clutch and he missed and the car ran down into our meadow and side-swipped a tree! Best part about it was my Dad running after the car yelling "STOP!" Classic family story!)
Only got rid of this car due to failing PA inspection in '97. It was my first car and my Dad was riding with me when it rolled to 200K. Besides those normal maintaince items, nothing was ever done to the car...heck, even the clutch was original!! Car had 260,000 on her when we bid it goodbye...
Now, three diesels later I have a new 2006.5 Jetta TDI. Had only 6 months, already have 15,000 miles on her...not even close to being broken in!