yes and no...

I bought my 122 from the original owners mechanic of ~30 years.

The guy knew the entire history of the car.

Original owner lived in Oakland his whole life. Car still had the dealer license plate frame on the front from the Oakland Volvo dealer.

He said that the 57k was really 157k and not 257k or higher.

Seemed like a pretty honest dude. Not in any hurry to get rid of the car.

Could he have been lying? Sure. But I tell ya, the car is in pretty good shape with no sign of significant rebuild work. Specifically the suspension. Unless there's been some serious work done to the suspension, a 40 year old car with 257k miles (or more) is likely going to drive/feel quite a bit different than a 40 year old car with 157k miles, IMO.

In general I'd say your right though, especially vehicles with multi-owner histories. Evertime an old car sells the chances of the owner lying about true milage compounds.