...on modern cars.
I realize that driving habits and how well you take care of the car is the single biggest factor that affects how long it lasts. Sure, some cars are real stinkers, but have any of those been made in a while?
Seems that when I was a little kid (think mid-late 70s, think streets full of Detroit Iron with an *occasional* import) everyone talked about "100,000 miles". One Hundred Thousand was the magic number where you considered your car pretty much "all used up". That was the milestone where you had to pump the shit out of it to get it started in the mornings, and it'd finally balk to life with a huge cloud of gas and oil smoke. You've got so much blow-by that it doesn't really matter if you leave the choke out or not. This is when you avoid really long stop lights, because the master cylinder has enough internal leakage to let the brake pedal sink to the floorboard by time a normal light turns green. This is when the clutch was toast, or when the automatic's dipstick was all full of sludge and foam. At 100,000 miles there was enough play in the front suspension (and maybe the rear too) that it was downright *scary* to exceed 50mph. At 100,000 miles, you've already torn down that hanging headliner and are now using it as a seat cover or a floormat..... etc.... I've owned cars from the 60s and 70s, and sure enough, when you got 60-80K on one of those cars you sure could tell.
Nowadays, I routinely see cars for sale with 150K on them, and sell they do. They're not completely worthless. My 99 Ranger has 125K on it, original everything. Maybe it's false hope, but the way it starts, runs and drives, it sure makes me confident that I can see 200K with only some minor stuff. The steering is tight, the clutch is still good, it shifts alright, the engine sounds great- only some minor lifter tap type noises, but that's typical Ford and you *really* have to listen to hear it (over the typical Ford power steering pump growl, that is). It also has not a SINGLE oil leak. That is the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
My girlfriend has a 1989 Honda Accord that's in the 300K neighbourhood. Yeah it takes a little work to get it started every once in a while, the sunroof leaks, a couple windows won't roll down, it leaks a quart of oil every 1000 miles and it wanders all over the road. But at
300,000 miles i think it has *earned* the right to be a little bitchy when it wants to be.There's a topic in the ng right now (reliability of turbo cars) where a poster talks about junking a small Chrysler just short of 500,000.
500K! That's insane!So how many miles are a lot these days? What do you all feel are (with proper care) the longer-lasting cars and trucks?
Let's order a few rounds of beer and discuss!
-phaeton