Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
That's very subjective. To me, 10 years or 200K miles would be considered old, but there is old and then there is old. Sometimes you'll come across a car that's old, but is in better shape than many of the newer cars out there, so who cares.
If it's running and you enjoy driving it, that's all that matters.
My 530i is now 12 years old...
I agree that old and high mileage can be interpreted in different ways and are relative.
For instance in the 60's 100000 miles was pretty much the end of the road and the engine was ready for rebuild,if they made it that far.
In the 80s 200000 miles was considered high mileage and the high tension rings will have widened the bore enough that oil was being burned via the rings.
The 90s brought up low tension piston rings. Common sense tells me that these lower tension rings should cause oil burning quicker however that hasn't been the case in practice.
Now that the rings aren't eating away at the bores compression is maintained for much longer so if a car is still running well an owner will usually spend some money on it as far as suspension and so on rather than just junk the car when a big bill is coming.
I'm my mind anything older than the 90s is old,and 200k miles is high miles depending on model year.
Now I'm not saying that today's engines are worn out at 200k miles,in fact I'd even go as far as to say a properly maintained modern engine is only halfway through its usable,reliable lifespan at that mileage.
So old and high miles are relative to the vehicle being referred to,in my mind anyway
