"ray" wrote in message news:tjFPh.8205$6m4.7006@pd7urf1no...
Engineers design engines to a spec. The test groups test them to meet that spec with some safety margin. Nobody publishes their internal design goals or their internal test requirements. I've heard (no facts, just speculation) that Ford tests engines to 175,000 miles. The engines are maintained per the written requirements, failures are not allowed, and the engines must perform within certain specs at the end of the test. Essentially this would mean the engine must run like new after 175,000 miles. I have no idea what this translates into in terms of Consumer life....I would suspect, it would be a very long time. For me engine life has never been a problem. If the rest of the vehicle was like new after 175,000 miles, then I might only replaces cars every 8 years instead of every 5 or so. I rarely get rid of vehicles because they are poorly (1 Toyota and 1 Plymouth were ditched for poor performance). I usually get rid of them because they look old, or because I just want something new. My Sister is the opposite. If it moves, she is happy. Her 10 year old Civic looks like crap (faded paint, interior plastic crumbling, paint actually falling off the bumpers, underhood looks like the inside of an oil can, etc), but it keeps moving. She occasionally says something about getting a new car, but then the Honda moves again. I predict she will procrastinate until it is either wrecked, or the clutch fails. Both are due (every vehicle she has owned has been traded immediately after either the transmission and/or clutch failed or it was wrecked).
Ed