How old is too old for a vehicle to be reliable?

[TheLawnRanger]

I've had several cars that required basic maintenance only until around the ten year mark. Maybe just as important is all of them had around 200,000 mile at that point. I also had a Cutlass Supreme that only lasted about seven years but I had already put over 190,000 miles on it.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

Miles driven, roads, who is driving it and how hard, maintenance, region its in, garaged or not, so many variables that its impossible to say.

But 10 to 30 years, depending upon the above.

 

[FishFry]

As always - it depends.
My 2002 Explorer has over 300.000 km on the clock, and though I had to to some rust repair and there is some annoying electrical stuff going on (like it always thinks my rear door is open at a certain temperature and humidity) the rest is still okay (considering age and mileage).

At that age, most of the "extended consumables" (like all sorts of bearings, seals, timing chain, rings etc) are changed at least once, so only the core of the car is actually old.

I think the worst point to buy a car is just before all that stuff that typically lasts 5-10 years fails.
If you buy - let's say a 15 year old car - pretty much everything was already changed or repaired.

Also - my 41 Chevy is still doing fine on long trips - so even an 80 year old car can be reliable, when treated right.

 

[weaponoffreedom]

My daily driver is a 1986 Dodge Daytona. I'd drive it anywhere (while enjoying its ice-cold A/C). Just brought it down to our new home in TX from St Louis; made the 1,000-mile trip without a hiccup and got over 26 MPG in the process.

Iacocca's K-cars and their derivatives are amazingly simple and durable machines. Up-to-date? No. Reliable? You bet.

BarryH hit the nail on the head in post #42: "When something is simple and soundly engineered then age is almost immaterial."

View attachment 166660

very cool, whats the wagon in the garage?

 

[Allaneddie]

It isn't the age so much as how the car was treated during those years along with what platform/model it is.

I have a 23 year old grand cherokee with a 4.7. Not known for reliability in nearly any metric. But, it has 250k miles on it everything still works bc the previous owner was constantly babying it and fixing it. He even rebuilt the motor. I only bought it bc it was cheap and this guy is well known in my area as an old racer/wrench.

I have a 2007 Grand Cherokee with the 4.7. It had been a leased vehicle for 3 years in Florida and I bought it in 2010 with 35,000 miles on odometer. We did get stranded in about 2014 in West Virginia on I-79 when an alternator went out. That's a story in itself. Happened on a Saturday evening and no part available until Monday morning. A family took us under their wing and got us to the motel and then back to the shop the next Monday. Otherwise it has been reliable and I am a stickler about maintenance. It has everything available at that time for Laredo version: moon roof, power mirrors, powered and heated leather seats and tow package.

 

[D60]

suppose the XJ was junk......

The 4.0 is a lumbering dinosaur that will lumber forever.

The XJ's absolutely are junk. Now I agree you can't argue with results and there's still a ton on the road here. But they're still junk. I'm constantly amazed at how they hold together at all. A visual inspection of the underside on a lift is always a non-stop lesson in how welds should NOT look with beads trailing off the joint, porosity that would embarrass a 2nd-day welding student, and sheetmetal joined together in ways that makes you wonder "Who ever thought THAT was a good idea?"

And yet, in the spirit of God-watches-over-children-and-fools, they lumber on endlessly. So there's that....

I have no use for an SUV but I'd rock an MJ if I could find one affordably. I'd call it junk the whole time I owned it. Physical objects that I possess don't define me and I have no problem calling a spade a spade

 

[Allaneddie]

The 4.0 is a lumbering dinosaur that will lumber forever.

The XJ's absolutely are junk. Now I agree you can't argue with results and there's still a ton on the road here. But they're still junk. I'm constantly amazed at how they hold together at all. A visual inspection of the underside on a lift is always a non-stop lesson in how welds should NOT look with beads trailing off the joint, porosity that would embarrass a 2nd-day welding student, and sheetmetal joined together in ways that makes you wonder "Who ever thought THAT was a good idea?"

And yet, in the spirit of God-watches-over-children-and-fools, they lumber on endlessly. So there's that....

I have no use for an SUV but I'd rock an MJ if I could find one affordably. I'd call it junk the whole time I owned it. Physical objects that I possess don't define me and I have no problem calling a spade a spade

LOL, so true. But every time I see one on the road or parked I have to take a look. Our family went through 3 of those XJ junk things with the 4.0. Good memories.

 

[Allaneddie]

My daily driver is a 1986 Dodge Daytona. I'd drive it anywhere (while enjoying its ice-cold A/C). Just brought it down to our new home in TX from St Louis; made the 1,000-mile trip without a hiccup and got over 26 MPG in the process.

Iacocca's K-cars and their derivatives are amazingly simple and durable machines. Up-to-date? No. Reliable? You bet.

BarryH hit the nail on the head in post #42: "When something is simple and soundly engineered then age is almost immaterial."

Nice K car derivative Daytona. For what it's worth, I had a 1982 Plymouth Reliant K car as family car. 100% dependable. Slow to accelerate due to NA 2.2 4 banger but a good cruiser and lots of space. Had to go to a van when more kids arrived.

 

[Aredeeem]

If you're in your 20's, that's just an inconvenience. In you're 80 and live in Minnesota or Phoenix, possibly deadly. All about choices.

So true. My 2012 Versa I would take anywhere. As long as it was to the corner for a paper. Take it across Death Valley not so much. I wonder if it would make it, but not curious enough to try.

 

[John105]

The only thing I could say from my personal experience, is, that even a Volvo 200 series does not perform in 2023, by today's standards. There's nothing wrong with them, as a matter of fact I'd love to drive one. My buddy likes 80's Mercedes, and again, a mint 1984 300D turbo simply doesn't perform up to 2023 standards, but it's a very beautiful car. So I guess it depends on the purpose. For a daily driver, I think better to have a 2000+ car, but for collecting, nostalgia, etc., there is no limit to how old is ok....older the better

What is funny is the notion for someone to think, that's not what I had in mind, I was thinking is 2019 too old, 2017,

My bro has a woman reporting to her 22 out of college, 2016 535i. She told my brother I hope this pos breaks down so my parents get me a Tesla (can't make it up)

 

[350Rocket]

I trust my 40 year old Oldsmobile or 18 year old Silverado on our long trips more than our 10 year old Hyundai Sonata.

 

[John105]

I trust my 40 year old Oldsmobile or 18 year old Silverado on our long trips more than our 10 year old Hyundai Sonata.

this is my kind of Olds. A friend had one with the 455 in college, handed down from his folks

 

[D60]

This reminds me when I was younger and dumber I took my '80 Audi 5000 cross country. In typical Audi fashion the mechanical odo had broken long ago, so mileage was anyone's guess.

The I5 engine will go forever, and with CIS and a manual transmission there really wasn't that much that could go wrong. The inoperable a/c kinda sucked but we often traveled at night with the sunroof open to help air flow.

Even today, an older VW with CIS and a manual trans could probably make for a VERY reliable (albeit slow) vehicle if basics like wheel bearings and CV shafts are in good condition.

 

[Astro14]

Was going to say at 91 years old, perhaps unreliable…but then it hasn’t ever broken down on me, so…

 

[Quantico]

2010 or 12 is my oldest ideA

 

[IndyIan]

If its a simpler car then it has less things to fail, so running it longer presents less risk IMO. The 90's is as old as I would DD I think, probably a 4 cyl, manual, japanese... I've had the most luck with those anyways.

 

[IndyIan]

Was going to say at 91 years old, perhaps unreliable…but then it hasn’t ever broken down on me, so…

You could make a decent youtube series on daily driving something like that.
If you pretended that it was your only car, I wonder how many days/weeks/months you could go before the maintenance time over driving time got too high to deal with...

 

[Opelman]

Rookies. Before my current daily 70 Opel Kadett it was a 77 Vega Wagon. Vega had the aluminum engine in stock form as it had to pass CA smog biannual. Automatic trans too, it wasn't a bad driving car, just a little slow. In the late 80's and early 90s dailies included a 66 Studebaker Commander, 60 Studebaker Lark, 74 Opel Manta, 60 GMC half ton, and a 64 Chev half ton. Both Studes went on multi state trips with no issues. Lark was purchased for $350.00. Manta was a freebie. All were original non restored vehicles and none came home on the hook. The Lark was a 259 V8, no oil filter whatsoever and running Mystik straight 30.

 

[weaponoffreedom]

The 4.0 is a lumbering dinosaur that will lumber forever.

The XJ's absolutely are junk. Now I agree you can't argue with results and there's still a ton on the road here. But they're still junk. I'm constantly amazed at how they hold together at all. A visual inspection of the underside on a lift is always a non-stop lesson in how welds should NOT look with beads trailing off the joint, porosity that would embarrass a 2nd-day welding student, and sheetmetal joined together in ways that makes you wonder "Who ever thought THAT was a good idea?"

And yet, in the spirit of God-watches-over-children-and-fools, they lumber on endlessly. So there's that....

s-over-children-and-fools, they lumber on endlessly. So there's that....

I have no use for an SUV but I'd rock an MJ if I could find one affordably. I'd call it junk the whole time I owned it. Physical objects that I possess don't define me and I have no problem calling a spade a spade

So your definition of junk is a vehicle that holds together, still is on the road today after 30+ years of abuse? Good on you. Agrreed however on K car era. The most cheesy cheapest looking abominations in American history.

 

[andrew_j]

After a certain age/mileage, there are too many variables outside of your control.

Example: neighbor was recently stranded out of town when his 12 year old Toyota experienced at alternator failure at 149K.

If you drive an older vehicle being stranded is not what it was before advent of cell service and now smartphones. Where you sat on side of road hoping someone not sketchy would stop and help you.

It’s an inconvenience for sure however not the end of world.