Hey car people...how long can a vehicle survive with an oil burning issue?

On my way home from work yesterday, I was driving behind an old and tired early 2000's Chevy Malibu that was belching [b]blue[/b] smoke, which is a sign that it had an oil burning problem.

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bowman81 · M

It has worn/cracked piston ring(s). They will run, but with reduced power output for quite a while but you have to keep them full of oil. If you run it dry it will die a quick death.
It is probably not worth fixing on a 20 year old car.