Looking for suggestions on a good high mileage automobile.?

Volvo makes a nice over the road car i would suggest also looking at older Audi 100's and A6 between 92-95 or so should get you a nice one get quattro if you live in the snow belt like me you'll never want anything but an AWD car again. they can cost a little to maintain for things like synthetic oil and stuff like that but if you find a decent mechanic or do some of it yourself its not bad at all. i spent way more money repairing my 94 Camry than i have ever spent on my 89 100 and my 97 A6 combined. and the Camry died with only 154K miles on the clock (everyone says it must have been a lemon but the car was tinny and crap even without the problems) the Camry was also horrible in the snow it had no traction even with good snows on it. I sold my 100 with 189K and my A6 has 145 and is going strong. i would definitely recommend the Audi and would also go with the Volvo over toyota and honda.

"I'm sort of leaning towards a Volvo"

A $5,000 Volvo will be a POS. As will nearly all European cars in that price range as most owners stop maintaing them as it's not cost effective for an older Euro car.

Sorry to say, but your best bet is a 96-99+ Civic or 94+ Accord, both with a manual trans (older Honda AT were just not very strong). Both have a double A-arm suspension which give them good handling for economy cars and they both get great mileage. Just look for one that has recently had timing belt/water pump service done and maybe a clutch job (with receipts) and you're set.

LOL, you just blew away the only two brands of vehicles that will give you exactly what your looking for. While repairs for a Toyota is more costly then a Chevy or ford they happen 85% less of the time which means much less down time for time in the shop.

My camry (1987) which blue books for only $1200 has 400K miles on it, I've owned since it had 85K. I sold it for $900 last year with over 400K miles to a friend who wanted a beater car. my maintance schedual for my camery was to change the oil once every year, or 60,000 miles which ever came first. It has 9 oil changes in 8 years. It gets front brakes every 40K, rear breaks every 90K and a tuneup once. one alternator, and had the ac fixed and converted to the new stuff once. BTW the car NEVER left me stuck anywhere, never had to be towed and never had maintaince done except when I was off from work and didn't need to use the car. except one time, I had to get a new tire cause I road over a nail and didn't get if fixed for two weeks, during that time I was using it on the highway with average speeds of 75 mph with a tire that was low on air. it crumbled and I had to limp it on it's donut spare to the first shop i could find to buy a new tire and a full size spare.

It has minor problems, like the electric heated seats stop heating, the rear passenger elctric window stopped going down, and the electric antenna motor stopped working. for mileage it got 32 highway average on medium grade and no idea what it got city cause I don't drive that often.

Now my new car, a 2001 corrolla I put 105K on it since I bought it in january 2006. it had only 3K on it when I bought for $7,000, in that time I changed the oil once the back brakes once and the front brakes three times. and knock on wood, nothing has broken on it, it only gets about 27 highway because of it's lack of an overdrive transmission (i won't make that mistake in 5 years when I buy another one).

Now my good old chevy just plain sux, in the first 30K it has used frontbrakes, rear brakes, a new serpintine belt, an air cleaner, it left me stranded for a clogged fuel filter (which cost me towing and loss of a days work till I got a train back to my corrola)

As for being overpriced resale value, now way dude, you can't expect a well built machine to be cheap like all the crap that is out there today. So I'll pay extra for less maintaince and ZERO DOWNTIME. and even after I beat the crap out of the car I get some money back for it.

In addition, American sold toyota's are all assembled in Detroit Michigan by American workers, unlike my chevy that was assembled in mexico by mexicans. The funniest part about it is that the plant that assembled my toyotas was originally owned by chevy and purchased by Toyota America Corp in 1985.

BUY AMERICAN! and suport your country!

I think the Miata is the only car that would fit that description. You could probably find a cheap VW Golf Convertible too, but that is not very reliable or sporty. I've had two Miatas and they are great cars. I get about 29MPG in my 2006.

Try to see a car that the fuel is interchangeable gas and alcool. According to the traffic you can use one or the other.

Mercedes car with 617 diesel engine.Mine gets 38 mpg on wvo diesel mix.Low maint. vehicle too.

I'd say go for a Kia Rio...they are cheap and good on gas. I love my rio :)

saturn s series...up to 34 mpg