Typical mileage lifetime of a modern car?

A question dear to my heart at the moment - what is the typical mileage life expectancy of a modern, petrol engined car? I.e. how long before it is uneconomical to keep maintaining / replacing broken parts?

The reason is, I run a 2001 model Honda Accord 2.0 petrol with 93,000 miles on the clock. The aircon just packed up, which I understand is very rare on this car, and will cost £600 to replace compressor etc., so I'm just thinking what sort of mileage the car is likely to last to, in order to assess whether it's worth spending the dosh.

I love the car in every respect, it drives very tightly still and appears to have been well maintained (apart from the aircon!) and has been totally reliable over the 2 or so years I've owned it. But on the other hand, there's no room for sentiment if I'm not too far away from max miles.

All views useful!

TIA

Pete

Reply to
Peter Boulton
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Personally I would try to get rid of it on Ebay unless you can live without the aircon! (there's probably someone out there can get a breakers yard unit and sell on) Having said that Honda are at the top in reliability

Mileage doesn't seem to be that important now esp. Honda, Toyota, etc (My Nissan Bluebird I sold with 172,000 and it still started perfect no smoke, no oil use)

Reply to
Blue Frog

Hi

Company I worked for ran a fleet of around 60 Honda's, avg mileage before renewal was about 160,000. One of the big mileage guy's had 240,000 miles.. My own company Honda departed ownership, with 120,000 on it, but it proved to be the worst Honda that the company had ever had the pleasure of running!

Basically it's down to how it's driven, up and down the motorway, they'll go on forever.

Regards

Nigel

Reply to
Bear

300K at least I'd reckon. About 100-150k and you might start getting issues with upholstery wear. You might do better trying to get aircon spares from a scrappy in a more Southern country.
Reply to
Doki

My mates R reg Vectra is on 240,000 and hardly ever gets a service as well as spending a great deal of its life with a trailer full of fruit machines on the back.

My wifes BMW had 190,000 on when she parted with it. You regularly see cars with nearly 200,000 miles on for sale on Ebay.

Long and short of it is that if you keep up with even basic servicing, they'll last decades and mileage is a non issue.

Reply to
Conor

Too True. I just sold my Citroen XM with 222k on the clock, running like a good un too. It's was a f*ck sight nicer to drive than the 05 plate Mondeo TDCi I've been saddled with by work too :-(

Mike

Reply to
Mike P

Viewed from a different perspective: After 8 years or when the car had done

80 000 miles, your pride and joy would be considered to have only scrap value by the industry, viz. it was considered "uneconomical to keep maintaining/replacing broken parts". This was in the 60's and 70's. Much has changed since, of course. Some idea of the speed of this trend can be gleamed from the Parker's Guide. The more up to date precise figures (of importance especially in a court of law) you are looking for should be available from your car insurer.
Reply to
Lin Chung

Modern engines can go up to 250,000 or more depending on type of driving. It's really more about the number of cold starts, since one cold start is equivalent to several hundred miles' driving.

Bits of the suspension (shocks, bushings) will start to give up at

100,000 or lower and need replacing. The clutch may last anything from 30,000 to the life of the engine depending on driving style and road conditions.

Cloth seats will often look a bit ragged by 80,000 or less, but can easily be retrimmed.

Cars are usually economically repairable - if you like the car and want to keep it, that is - as long as there is no major body rust. The book value of an oldie but goodie isn't necessarily the price you'd have to pay for another decent runner.

In the end, most cars are scrapped due to a lack of love by their owners. Look at all the 16 year old MX-5s out there; the components aren't a whole lot better than any other car (in fact, the body panels are ungalvanised and scarily lightweight) but people look after convertibles better.

Reply to
Zog The Undeniable

OP here. Many thanks to everyone who has taken the trouble to post a reply to my question. You have certainly given me the reassurance I needed to persevere with the car.

I enjoy driving it, it's reliable, and the cost of repairing it as it ages is still going to be far less than the cost of replacement etc.. So, well worth it.

Cheers!

Pete

Reply to
Peter Boulton

That was my conclusion when I needed to replace the entire exhaust on my '95 Cav last year. Car was worth about £350, cost to replace exhaust £460. But I knew the car's engine and body were fine, and I would have been lucky to find a car for that money that didn't need additional expenditure.

Reply to
PM

Indeed. Worth spending if it's a well maintained car you've had for a while and you know it's a good example of one, and you're planning on keeping it a fair while longer.

But HFM?? I'm assuming it won't have anything fancy like twin cats (for that price it'd have to have a cat) - you could have surely done better than that on price?? Mind you, if it was the whole exhaust from manifold to back box, plus needed the remains of snapped manifold bolts drilling out and re-tapping, then I suppose it could be a reasonable price....

Reply to
AstraVanMan

It was indeed the whole exhaust including manifold and cat. Bear in mind that the cheapest I ever got the back box alone done for was £120. Don't know if the manifold bolts came out easy or not. The guy I used charges £40 per hour but he is the best mechanic I know and is IMO worth the money.

Reply to
PM

Bloody hell - what's it made of, Diamond-encrusted stainless steel? Is it a V6 one with twin-tailpipes or something fancy, or just a regular 4-pot? I had the back box done on my 2 litre Carlton Estate (same design right up to the end of the run) for about £50. Maybe 4-5 years ago, but I can't imagine it'd be much more than about 60-70 quid now. You need to phone around more!

Aye, £40/hour's well worth paying for someone who won't rip you off and genuinely knows their stuff, but on most common stuff like Cavaliers etc, I don't know a single person who's ever had a problem using pattern exhaust parts over much more expensive OEM parts.

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Nah, too bling for me :-)

Regular 4-pot single pipe. 2ltr SRi Cav.

Kwik-fit - who did my Mondeo back box AND a puncture repair for £29 - wanted £130 for the Cavalier back box

Kwik fit's £130 was AFAIK a pattern part. Mr Exhaust was the same sort of price. The £120 was, surprisingly, from a Vauxhall main dealer. I've come across the phenomenon of a main dealer being cheaper than others before - when I replaced the rad on the same car, the dealer was cheaper than the motor factors and a specialist radiator supplier.

FWIW on another Cav I had, the pattern exhaust was OK but the fixings weren't, there was too much play and the exhaust banged around on the underside of the car.

Reply to
PM

Think your right there, the missus has a 10 year old Volvo 850 and its fine with 130K on the clock but she just don't luv it anymore, 'cos its old.

Never once let her down, still drives fine, and at MOT and annual service time, hardly anything wants doing..

But its now considered "old" and thats all thats wrong with it!.....

Reply to
tony sayer

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