What is a good mileage to look for in a Honda Civic, Scion xB, and Toyota Prius to be used for a few years without too many problems?

I'm looking at the above mentioned cars to be used for 1-3 years, but I do not know the mileage to look for. I d like to know the milage lifetime for each car mentioned, and approximately at how many miles the car will survive without having consistent problems. If you could give me the answer for each kind of car, or even one of them it would be greatly appreciated.

Too many imponderables, but most modern cars should be good for 15,000 miles a year and run reasonably well if properly maintained for at least 100,000 miles. The older the car and the harder it's driven, the more you need to spend to keep it going.

Hi so todays cars are designed to last 8 years or 100k miles beyond which it is just your luck. So when my last car a toyota land cruiser reached 8 years old i was wanting to sell it. Well held onto it for a further 6 months. Boy did i pay for that mistake 3000 pound and a lot of other issues so it got sold. So now a band new car.

With the parameters you have set I would say anything below 35,000 miles is good. Let me also say that if you are purchasing a vehicle used from say a dealership, figure some way to get it checked out to ensure it's functioning. However, if a car has less than 35,000 miles on it and it was properly maintained, then it's likely that it will be a good car. Car Fax reports go a long way to, make sure to get one of those from the dealership as well. I do not recommend purchasing a vehicle privately. That is unless you know the person very well.

If it came from a city, do not buy it. All those bumper to bumper traffic, stop and go, and idling is bad for the car.
a suburban car, about 12,000 per year
an rural car, about 20,000 per year

ideally, you want a car with high mileage that was driven on the highway. Driving on the highway at 70 mph for 40,000 per year is much much much better than stop and go traffic for 5,000 per year