Ha You aren't kidding about hoping things would last on that British junk. My roomie in college (with NO mechanical ability) had a 1968(or 9?) Triumph TR4A IRS. Fast little thing which almost got away from me a few times but I'll blame that on beer. Of course being British, everything broke. I replaced possibly every instrument gauge (after the big short incident), the transmission (after both first and second were gone) and the front rotor and wheel hub after the front tire passed us one night.
Story: We heading home from college (about 30 miles) and we are coming up a corner (Parker's Hill) and we see a tire go sailing by. Chris (my roommate) says "what the **** was that" then realises that it is his front tire at which point he uttered some biblical phase that began with Holy. Well the car (running on the rotor now) got all out of shape and we we lucky to bring it to a sparky finish a half mile from home (before cell phone). They used these stupid spinner methods to attach the wheel. I always thought it was an idiotic engineering tribute but I was then convinced.
I had a Ford Cortina. Oh man,tortured that one. Won't even go into the Miata other than to say new tires should last more than 4,000 miles and still pass inspection.