# how long cars last?



## ck34tr (Jan 27, 2018)

japanese, european, american? 200.000 miles? before serious repair costs. when should get rid of the car?


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## Fauxknight (Aug 12, 2014)

Somewhere past 100k miles it starts to become a toss up, there simply isn't a standard. Usually though you own the car at that point though and the occasional major repair isn't a big deal.

Generally Japanese, Honda and Toyota, are more likely to keep going further with fewer issues. Toyota in particular is ahead in lowest expected costs to keep the car running. Nissan and Subaru are both generally decent as well, though Nissan had a lot of CVT issues for a bit. Most of the Korean stuff is very reliable nowadays, Hyundai always has been and Kia, which wasn't, has apparently made quite a turn around. American and European are more by manufacturer (and sometimes even more by vehicle model), some good, some bad, and some right down the middle.

Remember that your driving and usage of the car have a large effect on what repairs it will need. Someone with a lead foot is likely to need engine/transmission work a lot sooner than other drivers. Someone overloading their car with a lot of pax is going to need suspension work sooner (also transmission again).

I had a PriusC that had two unusually early issues. At 130k suspension, for the aforementioned overloading reason. At 140k traction battery (yeah the big one) because I always left it running while waiting (all those thousands of hours). Both issues were directly my fault in how I used the vehicle. Under normal vehicle use I wouldn't be surprised if it would have had no issues until 200k or even 300k miles.


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## Toyota Guy (May 18, 2016)

I sold cars in dealerships for over 20 years. The first fifteen were with Volvo and the last five with Toyota.


Over the last 30 years, the vehicles from the Big Three (GM, Chrysler, and Ford) have improved the most, but they have had the farthest to come. With few exceptions, the design and build quality of these cars is still poor compared European and Japanese makes. They drive poorly and don’t last. The worst vehicle I have ever driven was the Chevrolet Captiva. There is no class of vehicle that Chrysler makes that can’t be purchased elsewhere for less money or greater quality.


If the only thing to having a car were driving it, I would still be driving European cars. The handle better and the seats are better. Volvo seats are the best in world and no others are even in second or third place. However, European cars are very expensive to maintain, their reliability is poor, and the resale value is low. The reason many European makes only offer 50,000 miles of maintenance is because the 60,000 mile services cost $800-$1200 compared with $300-$500 for the Japanese makes. Try pricing brake pads and rotors on a Volvo or Audi.


The Korean cars have come a long way, but I never took one in trade with over 200,000 miles.


With a few exceptions, if you are looking for a particular type of vehicle and either Honda or Toyota (or Acura or Lexus) make it, why are you looking at anything else? They cost less, last longer, are more reliable, and cost less to maintain. I would consider Mazda also. Nissans are a step down and Subarus don’t seem to me to be as good as their reputation.


In my career, I took in trade 30-40 vehicles with over 300,000 miles. More than half of them were the the Toyota Avalon or its Lexus equivalent, the ES350. Most of the others in this group were either Toyota or Honda models.


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## ShinyAndChrome (Aug 18, 2017)

To be frank these days a car can last, and almost all do, until you are simply sick of driving it. Maybe not if you are driving 50k/year for a living.


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## Adieu (Feb 21, 2016)

Hyundai's and Priuses last longest without major maintenance

Full size trucks last longest with maintenance


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## Rakos (Sep 2, 2014)

Hyundai Santa Fe...

219,000 and purring...

Oil and tires...8>)

Rakos


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

ck34tr said:


> japanese, european, american? 200.000 miles? before serious repair costs. when should get rid of the car?


Well that's the million dollar question,

I have an 02 dodge neon that is STILL eligible for uberX, yet it has less than 90,000 miles on the frame and under half that on the engine/transmission. the way i baby her i'll have my race car on the road for another decade or more.

I HAD a 2010 toyota Sienna, 230,000 miles and 3.5 years later it wasn't worth fixing.

Drive some Toyota Camry taxis i rent, they are just fine and many are over 300,000 miles. But they are fleet vehicles maintained by taxi mechanics who can canibalize other cars of the same make/model/year and have a massive pile of spares of everything stripped off wrecks.

These days 100,000 miles is nothing.

200,000?

That's where you start to evaluate how your car is doing.

If i was at the mechanic and they said everything was fine except i needed new struts, and i was at 200,000 miles i would be fine spending the money to replace them.

If I was going to the mechanic more than every 3-4 months... then i would consider trading it in.

I know once every 3-4 months sounds like really often but when your clearing $200+ a day it's not too bad.

But with uber?

You want to buy a car for less than $2,000 and drive it until the wheels fall off, rinse lather and repeat.


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## Okphillip (Feb 6, 2017)

The kind of driving we do on Uber is NOT the same as a normal person. 200,000 on the average guy's car is probably like 100,000 Uber miles. Non-Ubering cars with high mileage are usually commuters with highway miles not people who run their cars 8 hours straight with sometimes 4 passengers and lots of idling (bad on engine).

They last but how many thousands are you putting into it every year?


ShinyAndChrome said:


> To be frank these days a car can last, and almost all do, until you are simply sick of driving it. Maybe not if you are driving 50k/year for a living.


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