What do you consider high mileage?

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Originally Posted By: Delta
I know I'm gonna get flack for this, but at 100K it's time for me to replace a vehicle because to me it's at it's life expectancy. High mileage starts for me at around 60K. Typically repairs start before then and it starts nickle and diming me to the point over its value. I've personally never owned a vehicle that went to or over 100K without needing a ridiculously expensive repair that was close or over the value of the vehicle. The Equinox at 80k something needed a head gasket and/or intake gasket along with other nitpicking stuff. My 2007 Nissan Frontier was on the verge of motor replacement at 72K. This is all with recommended maintenance done on it over the years. There's a couple more in there, but I'll spare details. Either I'm very unlucky, or I've just unknowingly bought junk. Those two previous vehicles were bought used though.

The Jetta turned over 70K the other week and I'm sorting out and figuring out its replacement twords the end of the year. Knock on wood it's actually been the most reliable.


Now that you have a new Toyota, your expectations might change. My wife never had a vehicle get over 100k miles, either but now her Rav is pushing 300k. VWs are not known for reliability.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
An Equinox, Jetta, or Frontier are not known for reliability at all, you should get much more life out of that Camry.


True, probably mostly bad choices. Although we had a 2000 Avalon with the 3.0 that succumb to electrical gremlins in the end at around 62K. I did have a 04 Frontier with the 2.4 I4 and 5 speed. I never had to do nothing to that thing out of the ordinary. I should have kept that thing, but it got too small for my needs. The 07 Frontier was a great truck, but the previous owner must have ran it hard and put it away wet. I'm pretty sure the Jetta's replacement is another Frontier V6 4wd, but new this time.
 
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Over 150k miles. That's where major things have started to go wrong with my vehicles.

I'll go along with this... Even if engine and transmission are fine, by 150K mi suspension is generally due for rebuild... It's when I generally let them go...

As mentioned by others kind of depends on usage, my '98 Grand Marquis with 71K mi is a good example, a 95% in towner, if it makes it to 100K it'll likely be done for...

If you drive 20-25K mi year(maybe a 1/3 that for me), I see 200-250K mi as a piece of cake
 
I agree with this ^^^. Over the years, I've found age, driving and maintenance habits and environment can be more detrimental at times to the overall car condition than just mileage. If I've owned the car from the beginning of its life, I know how it is treated, so I would consider 250k high mileage to me. However, I have an 04 Dodge Ram I bought new with only 74k on it and have had some parts go bad that I think I would have gotten a lot of mileage out of, but would have went bad at the same time due to seals hardening and things like that.
 
Originally Posted By: Kool1
100,000 miles = vehicle is broken in
200,000 miles = got my money's worth
300,000 miles = driving on borrowed time


Sounds good to me! I consider 100k the halfway point in a car's life. Anything over 200k is gravy.

Oddly enough, it seems cars with 100k on them sell for about 1/2 of new so I either use up the first half of it's life, or buy them when they are worth nothing at 200k.
 
Cars are machines....when parts need replacing I replace them. When it needs paint it gets paint...
But...
When the gremlins start to rattle and drive me crazy 'cause I can't find and exorcise them, THAT'S high mileage...The Camry still feels solid @ 136k miles....
 
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There is another approach to answering this question. How about any vehicle that you keep even though you've paid off the loan and the factory warranty has expired.

Without a car forever loan you could be characterized as an outcast in the financial community and without the factory warranty you would certainly become a risk taker.

Can you imagine having to pay a thousand dollars or more for even the most minor repair on a late model vehicle? To avoid such risks all you have to do is make car payments for the rest of your life.
 
Almost any nameplate can go 300k, question is:

At what repair cost?

Another potential pitfall is like this new '16 Civic, good genetics but all new tec..think they'll have issues? '16 Corolla by contrast has an old driveline but bet they go way further on fewer repair dollars.

Toyota has the most durable line-up for the long haul...Honda a distant #2 ..the rest vye for the sub-prime third, fourth and below.
 
Depends on the vehicle, how broken-in, how driven, how maintained. So there is NO one answer fits all. I am a daily driver, buys new, follows the maintance manual and easy driver. I think Cars I buy like Mazda CX5, Subarus, Older Saabs etc are considered middle aged at ~ 80 to 100,000, old at 150,000 and old at anything over 175,000. High mileage is when you start having big dollar issues from the vehicle and not just for the engine in my opinion. Ed
 
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Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
Having to pass California smog is the tough one for my Honda. So far it's been okay but as some of those necessary parts start to disappear it might get a bit difficult.

Seeing how important your Honda is to you, when it doesn't pass smog consider moving to am state where smog isn't required ( like Florida ).
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Agree, depends on vehicle. Some start falling apart at 100K, some just won't give up at over 300K. For a commercial truck, has to go over 1 million miles before I consider it "high miles".
 
To me "high mileage" is whenever I no longer feel comfortable taking the car on a cross country trip. Which totally varies by the reliability of the vehicle in question.

My 1987 dodge caravan with the 2.6L mitsibishi? I considered it high miles once it was at 110k miles.

My 1999 Saturn SL? I'm over 230k and i'd still drive it to california (I just took a 2000 mile trip with it while towing/hauling nearly 2000lbs to boot) without being afraid. Especially now that i've replaced the few things likely to be an issue in the 200-300k slot - alternator, starter, water pump.

Some of those dodge cummins pickups I probably wouldn't be afraid taking off cross country with half a million on it as long as it had a clutch replaced sometime.


It really totally depends on the vehicle.
 
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Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
There is another approach to answering this question. How about any vehicle that you keep even though you've paid off the loan and the factory warranty has expired.

Without a car forever loan you could be characterized as an outcast in the financial community and without the factory warranty you would certainly become a risk taker.

Can you imagine having to pay a thousand dollars or more for even the most minor repair on a late model vehicle? To avoid such risks all you have to do is make car payments for the rest of your life.


LOL well I'm a outcast, since 1968 I've financed four and only ever had a warranty on the Grand Marquis I bought in '08... If they break down I fix them, transmissions, engine, whatever... Not counting tires, I've paid for repairs maybe a 15 times in that time period, all but three or four were paint jobs...
 
75K miles.....for full sized sedans in Ford/Mercury/Lincoln that I've been driving for the past 15 years. They start nickel and diming from that point. Usually sometime in the 75K-125K mile point a couple $500-$1,000 repairs are going to pop up. I've been lucky on engine and transmissions since 1992 though as not one of them failed until the 210-230K mile point.

A lot depends on how many miles per year and how old the vehicle is. Driving a lot in salty winter slush is a killer for the undercarriage if not treated early on. All highway miles in 50-80 deg weather is a good start for 200K miles. Driving 8K miles per year is lucky to get past 125K-150K miles. Age eventually overtakes the mileage.
 
high mileage to me is any vehicle that has over 13,300 miles for each year it has been on the road.(off a 3 year lease it can't have more than 40,000 total)

I will only buy a car that has less than that amount. Then I will drive it out to 200,000 and trade it in.

This gives me the lowest per mile cost. I have done the math over and over for 3 decades.

I usually hit the 200k when it is 7.5 years old.
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Then I get on average 25% of the initial purchase price back on trade.

Example: 3 year old Lexus ES350 well maintained 40,000 miles CPO 100k warranty: $24,800

$24,800 x .75= 18,600
$18,600 / 160,000= $0.11652/mile

Same car new $34,000/200,000= $0.17/mile
 
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