I generally trade in every 3 years and have had 3 saturns now. In light of the company going out of business I have decided to try keeping my 09 Aura "FOREVER" LOL and try keeping it for several hundred thousand miles.
Assuming I keep up on the maintenance, can I expect this car to run a long time?

sure....................why not.

anyone have a saturn with several hundred thousand miles on the clock?

I bought a 1993 SW2 5 speed new, gave it to my Daughter and Son in law back in 2000. They sold it to a friend with 470K just under two years ago. That friend drives it to and from work to this day.

not at all uncommon

most well maintained vehicles except the chevy cavalier (which randomly implodes) and most chrysler products will last

Do I get a prize?

i believe you deserving of a prize -- you've already received it -- lack of parts support for your Ions

What parts do I need ............ ?

it's a future prize

My Saturn SL has over 304,000 miles with no engine problems. The only problems that I have experienced is the manual shift cable breaking, and the front wheel bearings needing to be replaced. I am thinking about purchasing a used 09 Aura, any thoughts?

AURA ........... damn nice car.

Yes Sir, the Aura is a nice car.

It may not make much difference to some people, but to me there is a find line of distinction between the original Saturn in that it was designed from scratch to be built and sold as a brand specific automobile and the last of them which were some form of a Badge Engineered Opal Vectra. Not that they are the only one who have done that but the list of no longer produced automobiles in the U.S. seem to be populated by that concept.
That does not mean something negative at least. As long as Opals continue to be built in Germany I am sure parts will be available to keep them running for a long time.

ASTRAS are put together all over the world and the North American ASTRA was not built in Germany. The AURA was built in the US and hardly looks like a VECTRA. All are shared platforms as was the L Series, the S-Car never was.