Realistic Life Expectancy of a car?

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
AAA reports that (barring accidents) only 3% of car owners keep a car from cradle to grave. These 3% buy a car new, than run it into the ground until it is junked. We've done this to two cars in our family.

So typically, a new car buyer will divest himself from his vehicle long before it's used up.


We've done this with two cars.
The advantage is that with decent maintenance, the car remains fully functional for its entire life, and costs per year and mile end up being pretty low.
You'll likely replace maybe the starter and clutch (if it's a stick) along the way, and you may have to spring for a rad, a water pump and an alternator, but these are not usually expensive fixes.
With reasonable use, assuming you aren't grossly overwieght, the seats hold up fine, as does the rest of the interior.

 

[CBR.worm]

I only want a car that drives, looks and feels new. Other than rock chips this degrades more with time than miles. I used to drive 40-60k a year and
My cars would be like new well past the 200k mark. Now I drive more vehicles, so each one gets less miles and all of them are degrading as much without the miles. I would say both of my '06 vehicles are in worse condition than previous examples that were 4 years old with double the miles.

Road conditions and environment play a huge role. Where I am we have no bumps, no potholes, no traffic jams, it never gets cold, etc. if you are driving a car in Baltimore full time it is not going to last as long as Florida. Just think how many more shifts the tranny sees in 200k of city miles (it probably won't make it) vs 200k of interstate miles (no problem for any decent car)

 

[hattaresguy]

I think if you stay on top of stuff older vehicles tend to be pretty reliable.

I do preventative maintenance, and never have issues running a vehicle a long time.

For example when my truck hits 100k miles I'll replace the shocks and go over the front end seeing what else won't last 100k miles. I'll probably do brake calipers and wheel bearings at the same time.

When any of my vehicles hits the 10 year mark I replace the coolant lines, radiator and water pump.

Treat them like aircraft or boats and overhaul systems when they are about done and they will run just about forever.

 

[L_Sludger]

Originally Posted By: insomnia
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Originally Posted By: insomnia
Yesterday, my CEL went on in the middle of the high way. I immediately got off and went to the closest auto part store (AAP).
Wow, you're a lot braver than I am. When I get a CEL on, I open the sunroof and hit the eject button!


For a sec, I did think of stopping my car on the side to inspect the car. But there's no smoke/vibration or anything and it's night time on the highway. I love my car, but I'll hate to get ran over by another car.

Haha. Actually, the last time I got a check engine light on, I was driving down the highway at night with my Scangauge plugged in. I immediately menu tabbed it to the Scan mode, got the OBD code, and (I shouldn't have done this) dictated the engine OBD code into my smartphone, and found out right away that it was a knock sensor fault. This was all within about 45 seconds of the light coming on.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
I think up here its not that uncommon for people to buy a new car and run it until its a $1000-2000 beater atleast. So that's probably part of the reason Civics and Corollas are the top selling cars here as well.

Also I guess if you've got a simple common car, even things like engine or transmission failure don't have to take your car off the road. The body on my Neon is starting to go, but if it wasn't I would price out a transmission from the wreckers installed, if the trans failed.


Baloney!

What you would do is price out a wrecked SRT4 drivetrain transplant!

No excuses now.

Oh, that would be nice! But some rust and a little incident at the track have the body in rough shape to do a transplant into. Maybe the next Neon! I think I'll probably end up with a 2nd gen RT or maybe an SRT-4, although like you say, turbo's and reliability aren't usually synonymous... Especially with age.

 

[rjundi]

My friend/roomate from college is lead design engineer for a parts supplier for seals used in Jeep, Nissan and Toyota.

He said a really fun thing was going on Jeep's test(abuse) track with their engineers to test his seals performance. The key thing was they simulate a design life of 150,000 miles in their vehicles in 5-10k miles.

OT: He is one of four of my college roomies working in part or fully for a foreign branded car maker. We were a dazed and confused bunch then all successful now.

 

[lovcom]

My 2007 Yaris has 127,000 miles. Original everything, including brakes; except for tires, as I'm on the 2nd set now. Does not burn any measurable oil. No failures, no repairs; just normal maintenenace.

In that time all I've done was oil changes, serpentine belt change, filters, plugs at 110,000, radiator flush at 110,000, tranny flush at 100,000.

I fully expect to reach 300,000 miles trouble free. As for the interior, it is in near mint condition.