i've bought cars that "needed" a new clutch, and the owner claimed they were undriveable, only to drive them another 30-40k miles and then sell them to another person who actually knows how to drive a manual transmission car..

clutches can last the life of the car if you know how to drive them. my chevette drove 500k miles on its original clutch, and it was still going being driven by friends for another 3 years after i gave it away.