How long (miles) do you expect a car to last?

[Guest]

Well if I say that my lowest milage vehicle is a 150,000+ mile 15 yr old mini van, that should tell you something, lol. We refuse to buy new because we don't want a car payment. When dh's car died a few years ago, we bought a car for $400. Yes, $400, lol. We figured it would last us a couple of months till we could get something else...we just really needed something to get us by. It lasted us 2 years, and was still running when I drove it to the salvage yard and got $375 in scrap for it. :laugh:

 

Dh has a 1996 mini van that has over 200,000 miles and doesn't show signs of slowing down. The car he sold to pay for that was a 2000 LeSabre with almost 225,000 miles, and it was running perfectly. He only sold it because we were moving cross country and he wanted something he could haul/pull with. He sold it to a young mom whose dad looked it over completely and approved of her buying it. (He was a mechanic)

 

My car is a 1993 with 186,000 miles and runs awesome. We paid $501 for it, lol. But to be fair, dh works in the car business, so they sold it to him for $1 over trade in because the boss knew my van was needing more work than it was worth. It helps that I have all brothers and a dh that are all very good with cars. Most things can be fixed by one of them, so the costs are kept way down on maintenence. Like one of the posters above, if we had a car that got any less than about 150,000, dh would be highly disppointed.

[4ofus]

We have a '99 entry-level Mercedes w/150K on it. We bought it used in '02 or '03. We still love this car! We keep it maintained & dh has done minor non-drivability-type repairs on it for cheap. Google & Youtube are our friends ;). The kids & we are hoping this is the car the boys learn to drive in & use in their teens. We have a few more years to go yet, but we have an idea that it's as likely as not. This is the car dh mostly drives.

 

We also have an '06 Volvo that is our family car. It has probably 120K on it & we're still trucking along. We also bought this one used, I'm going to guess in about '08 or '09.

 

We tend to buy youngish cars with slightly-high-mileage. We specifically like turned in leases. We don't put high miles on our cars so the mileage ends up evening out pretty soon. This age of car also usually comes with some type of "certified" warranty from the dealer that covers most things. We also usually put a short extended warranty on any car that we're going to have to make payments on. We don't want costly payments AND costly repairs. The brands of cars that I picked, while reliable, DO cost a lot to repair :(.

 

Good luck in your search!

 

 

[Tsuga]

400,000 with regular repairs. I buy Toyotas or Hondas. I have a Nissan now and I can tell the difference.

 

My Corolla was over 250k and ran like a gem. Only had to get it aligned every so often, and of course do the replacements stated in the owner's manual.

 

The Toyota Corolla has got to be the world's best car for reliability for price. I loved my 1999 Corolla. I am so pissed that a texting driver hit it. I cried. I'd buy a Corolla again in a heartbeat. Best value for money, IMO.

 

I've seen Corollas with 300k miles on them running just fine. They can drive you along a riverbed, drive in the snow... I love those cars. Plus they are cheap to repair!

[Happy]

there are some makes - you couldn't pay me to take.  even if it was new.

 

highway driving has fewer starts and stops - and is easier on the engine as it will be running at more consistent rpms.  hilly terrain is also harder on the engine.  even then, high per year mileage will turn me away.  (I've seen cars with 25K miles or more on in a year.  how does someone do that?)

Bolding mine.

 

 

That would be me....real estate agent in a large metro area AND I deal with a lot of clients who want country property. I put 20-25K miles on a car every year.

[MiMi 4under3]

(I've seen cars with 25K miles or more on in a year.  how does someone do that?)

 

Dh's 1.5 commute each way will do that, unfortunately. 

[Katy]

For Subaru or older Volvo's, probably 300,000.  The exception being there's one sort of Subaru engine that tends to go early.  Sometimes with imported cars you must use premium gas or fuel additives periodically to protect the engine.

 

For Honda, Toyota, Lexus, or newer Volvos, 225,000.

 

Other imports and domestic vehicles, maybe 150,000, maybe more, depending on how they're maintained, the type of miles, etc.  The factor there is that you can probably make them last to more than 200,000, but it may not be worth it when the transmission and suspension and other "routine" maintenence issues all start going out at once.

 

If you buy a used car for cash, I'd hope you can afford something a little closer to $6k if you want something more reliable.  And in that case, you should research the model - typically car models are renewed every 3-6 years.  When they redesign something you get something newer, but at the cost of reliability.  Especially when it comes to mechanics- avoid the first year of redesigned engines or transmissions at all costs.  Also avoid cheaper cars that seem unusually fast for their engines- My first car was a Chevy Cavalier that I LOVED but the engine blew around 80,000 miles even though it was well maintained.  It turned out those engines had a huge design flaw - speed was at the cost of really poor reliability.

 

Fords are generally very bad in terms of reliability in my book.

[MomtoCandJ]

Hmmmmy my Ford hasn't had many issues until recently (200,000 miles will do that). It still has the original radiator, transmission and engine. We bought the car here in Michigan in 2005, moved with everything we owned packed into that car in 2007 to Georgia, and then moved back to Michigan in 2011 (I drove the car and dh drove a u-haul that towed his truck).

Since I have had such good luck with my Taurus, we are seriously considering another Ford (I really want the all wheel drive Taurus :D)

[LisaKinVA]

My brother is still driving my '94 Ford Escort...around 300,000 miles later. Some teens we know are still driving the 2000 Mercury Cougar we left them (over 200,000 miles), my 2001 Villager is still running strong, no engine or transmission issues with any of them. My brother, however dumped his 2006 Honda, because it was always in the shop. Sometimes, things go wrong. There is more to a reliable car than the brand name. Certain engines are known to be great or have issues, and you can find those engines in different brands of cars.

[whitestavern]

I would expect at least 200K but hopefully more.  When we purchase cars they usually have about 40,000 to 60,000 miles on them.  We try to purchase cars that have a reputation for high mileage.  We currently have a 2002 Volvo wagon and a 2003 BMW.  We purchased the Volvo fairly new, maybe 2 years old, and paid around $20K; not cheap, but it's served me well for over 10 years.  I'll drive it til it's dead because I love it :)  We just recently purchased the BMW, which was in like new condition, had close to 70,000 miles on it, and was $7000.  We got over 300,000 miles on our last one.  Dh does almost all the repairs on our cars so maintenance costs are low.

[gardenmom5]

Laura Corin, on 08 Mar 2015 - 03:43 AM, said:

I just looked at a map of emissions/safety checks required in different states, and it seems to vary a great deal.  In the UK, passing the annual safety/emissions check is a consideration, so I don't know how long a car is capable of doing that without major repairs.  I've only lived in the UK for six and a half years as a car owner, so my car is at 6 and a half years and 70,000 miles.

and then the list of mechanics to go to for repairing a car that won't pass it's emissions check . . . dd's car failed, and the mechanics were all happy to perform that $150 worth of repairs to "guarantee" passage.  yeah - fortunately, her fiancé works on cars and they spent about $30 for parts.  (spark plugs and something else that was pretty minor.)

[shawthorne44]

I'd expect 300K based on mileage.  But, my cars tend to be retired when their bodies are too disreputable.  I always tell people I retire cars when they make fun of me when I bring it in for repairs.  Like my CRX.  It was a great car, but many of the body parts were glued on.  So the front bumper and fenders would fall off.  One of the parts had just fallen off, and was in the trunk when I had a mechanical problem.  The mechanic looked at the car and said, "Where is the other half?"   

I have observed that while my driving stays the same, I get pulled over a LOT more often if my car looks icky.  

But, our 'new' car is a 2002 and about 150K.  My husband's is a '97, I think.  

[vonfirmath]

My personal experience? Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Chrysler: 80,000. Buick: 200,000. Toyota, Kia, Honda: haven't been able to kill yet, all at around 170,000. (The Honda did die, but it wasn't a natural death. It was about 150000 at the time it was slain.) Volvo: 150000-just not worth the repairs needed at this point to us. The toyotas and kias have needed nothing.

 

I can increase this number for our "recent" Chevrolets and Dodges.  150,000-180,000 is when we've gotten rid of them and they have not been dead on a doorstep but others are driving.

 

One was replaced because of a security gremlin we didn't want to pay to track down. A second because of the number of miles combined with air conditioning issues we didn't want to pay to fix. A third because we were moving and didn't want to pay to move (Then promptly bought another car <3 months later. NOT the best decision)

 

Our current Dodge Grand Caravan is at 130,000 miles and going great. We've got a light problem in the overhead that is more than replacing a bulb that will need some looking into.  We are NOT planning on getting rid of it anytime soon.  The Chevrolet Malibu is nearling 70,000 and is our new car.