A car is as good as the wear it has received.
If you drive like a saint, regulary serviced, and replace broken components immediately, it'll go on for years without big problems.
But if you thrash it. If you are intimately aware of the rev limiter, if you wait for the paycheck before repair x in the engine bay, then these all take their toll on the car.
And its not a Mk2 problem as much as its a general car problem.
tin