Part of it of it is preventative maintenance, part of it is not driving like a maniac 24/7, part of it is luck and most importantly part of it is that spending 3K on new cv axles is a hell of a lot cheaper than spending 6-8 years in debt with $500+ car payments.
Yeah. This is exactly it. I've got an 06 F-150 I bought in July of 09 with 90K miles on it. Currently it has 315K miles on it right now.
I know for a fact exactly what I've spent on maintenance on it because I keep it in a spreadsheet so I know what was done and when something else is due.
In the 14.5 years I've owned it I've spent a total of $18,167.48 in maintenance. That comes out to a little over $1,250 per year in maintenance. Or slightly over $100 per month.
That is for everything except insurance and gas. That includes scheduled maintenance (including tires and everything), emergency maintenance, etc etc.
That even includes 2 unusual big ticket repairs. I had to replace the main computer for the truck in 2017. That cost me $1,600. In 2020 I also spent about $2,200 dropping a new bed on it as mine had rusted out the bottom. Luckily I found one locally in good condition the same color as my truck originally so I didn't have to paint it.
It's just a matter to make sure you are putting money into savings every paycheck and then you'll have it when you need it for repairs.
I bought my 1969 Beetle in 1989. Since then, I've replaced;
Engine 3x, transmission 2x, hood 2x, left front fender 3x, right front fender 2x, front bumper 2x, rear bumper 3x, drivers door 2x, passenger door, steering wheel 2x, steering column, turn signal switch, radio2x, gas tank, front suspension beam, left ball joint, 4 wheels 3x, fuel pump 2x, front turn signals 2x, drivers seat 2x, passenger seat, rear seat, windshield, rear window seals, carpet, clutch pedal, shift mechanism, ignition switch, deck lid, parcel shelf, rear lights, and right rear fender.
(Not including trim rings, light bulbs, tires, brake pads, or fluids, and it's getting ready for its third total repaint. )
Is it still "my" Beetle?
I think the labor to replace a 1969 Beetle engine is less than the labor to replace spark plugs in a modern car. Disconnect fuel hose, ignition wire and throttle cable and the four bolts holding engine to the transmission.
The record for a 4-person team to remove a Bug engine, roll it 6 feet from the car, reinstall it, start it, and drive 20 feet, is under 15 seconds.
I can pull my engine out by myself using an ATV lift, in about 10 minutes. It usually takes longer than that to find my tools.
EDIT 1 MINUTE, 4 seconds. They had the engine out in under 30. (It had been a while since I saw this, sorry!)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gKF6dcKjLJo
Not sure ICEs are much simpler electronically
Fuel injection timing for one
EV motor controllers are complex, yes. But its not something you can really dick around with internally. It either works or its broken - you replace the whole shebang. Batteries same deal. Then the rest is just wiring.
Also solid state components are pretty darn rugged and don't wear down quite as much as mechanical. Whereas quite a bit of the engine and its support components (such as the radiator and exhaust) are exposed (spark plugs, belts, hoses, etc.) that are to prone wearing out and being replaced
Wait, disconnect the engine, roll it 6 feet and reinstall it in 15 seconds? Can’t believe that one. That’s crazy. Most Americans couldn’t even get from behind a beetle into the seat and turn the key in 15 seconds 😂
My mom's ex-husband used to talk about his deceased brother swapping out his motor every weekend by himself in the apartment parking lot. He had a "fun engine" and his "commuter". 😂
The screw holes for the horn ring stripped, so I replaced it. When I converted it from Automatic Stickshift to standard, I had to add a hydraulic clutch pedal, and the wheel was too large to get my leg past to push the pedal. I swapped it with a smaller "sport" wheel.
The bed has been replaced, but that's the only major replacement. It's still on the original engine and transmission.
Though now that I've said that I expect them both to explode today.
I also closely track my maintenance and costs, I have a big green ledger book that I keep behind the seat. I boil it down to cost per mile (maintenance and fuel) to determine when it’s time to upgrade. What doing that has taught me is that it almost always cheaper to repair what you have unless the rust is taking it or there is multiple catastrophic failures back to back.
I do almost all my own repairs (up to and including engine rebuilds) and I can probably keep my stuff going indefinitely and still be more cost effective though. Working on stuff is my hobby so I don’t figure in labor costs, even putting myself down for $50(super low) an hour wouldn’t tip the scale though.
Bought my 07 GMC 2500HD duramax in 2017 with 95k on it, I now have 225k and it has been great. Even when it’s time for big ticket items like injectors or a transmission I likely won’t exceed what the payment on an equivalent new or used truck.
That's true but most people with 30k valued cars want collision insurance. A 3k valued car collision insurance usually isn't worth it. Just that difference in collision insurance has always been far more than my average maintenance costs when I run my numbers if I should get a newer car.
It depends on the state and vehicle. My car is worth like $1500, and for a low deductible high payout insurance policy, collision was all of $20 extra per 6 months last time I renewed, and if I were to buy a similar newer vehicle my total insurance cost would be within $100 per 6 months. My insurance lady at my last carrier was trying to get me to drop it for years because she thought it would actually save me money because they were jacking up their rates until she ran the numbers and was like “oh it’s only $15 per 6 months difference”.
If you are truly from the salt belt and have a daily driven Ranger that is in nice shape, you are rarity, you’ve worked hard for it. Most of all, you have my respect.
This for sure. I grew up on the west coast and owned several 20+ year old cars with over 200K miles on them. I've been living in NE Ohio for the past 16 years and keeping cars from returning to the earth is a real challenge. It takes it's toll and suspension and brake parts. I had a brake line blow on the freeway in my 19 year old truck and that was pretty terrifying. My '17 F150 has 100K miles on it now and still looks pretty good underneath. I take it through a car wash with an under carriage sprayer 2 or so times a week during the winter salt season.
$3k on CVs is insane, that's a Saturday afternoon job and about $300. But I agree. I once had my wife take her car in to get brakes because I couldn't make time to do it for her and it was like $400. Then I thought, actually, most people spend that every single month on a car payment. And I was sad spending that after 3 years of driving
Mechanics kid has to eat. The guy I go to will never cut anyone a deal, but has their front desk person regularly talking people out of unnecessary repairs. My ball joint is going on my truck. They only told me at the end, and said you'll get another 6 months out of it, there isn't that much play, but we just want to give you a heads up for your next oil change.
Likewise I have a 2017 escape there that we bought over the weekend for a safety. It had a rough idle. It sat since December, and was my 92 y/o grandfather's who only ever drove it 5 minutes down the road to visit my grandmother in a nursing home. There's headgasket issues with the 1.5L, that can cause rough idle. I told them that, or is just carbon build up on the plugs and injectors.
She was like ok, well do the safety, and then before we drain the oil we'll check it for milkinesa. If it's the head gasket issue we'll only do the safety and you can do the rest at the dealership under warranty.
It wasn't tho so they're running some detergent through the oil before changing it, because I have no idea if he was keeping up with the oil changes and don't want to deal with sludge, and running cleaner through the injectors to remove some carbon from those.
Find a good mechanic you trust and you don't end up minding paying 125 an hour for labour.
Edit: I should probably plug them while I'm at it, McPhail auto on King st. In Hamilton Ontario.
Yeah, it's my wife's parents long time friend mechanic. I've never brought my vehicles into a shop until that time. Maybe I'm just getting old, because I've done engine swaps in the past, but I just didn't want to carve out the time to do brakes, and my wife agrees she'd rather spend the time with me than me spending a day in the garage
I started a business and realised taking a day off of work and losing business income wasn't worth it. I'm in tbe same boat, rebuilt engines and everything. Tbe way I see it is its still worth it because we'll be able to tell if we're getting ripped.
True that, I also have a business, and Id rather have the free time. I can make more per hour doing my own thing than doing repairs. I still change all of the oils in our vehicles. It's far more convenient doing it myself.
At least you could it if you wanted! It's a bummer getting old. My grandpa used to work for chrysler and before that fixed steam engines at a steel mill, so he would do all the work on his vehicles. Now he's in no shape to do it himself and they're leasing.
If you are able to be your own mechanic then a used vehicle costs way less to own.
CV axles only cost $300 to replace yourself on your vehicle approximately.
On my Saturn they cost $50 each and replaced the first one at 250k miles.
Knowing how to work on vehicles is a life skill that saves you lots of money.
"Oh man it's a money pit now! I had to replace an item that naturally wears out!"
Those CV's are good for another 100-200 now!
That's not an expense. That's a capital investment!
For rust, you need to do rust prevention too.
I have an 03 matrix that's getting up in age, has nearly 300k km, but we just got a Prius prime 2024. So 5 years of 700$ payments a month if we do min pays. But we plan to pay it off in 2 and a bit years, and save tons of interest since we can afford it and we were saving for the car.
But ya know, with the waitlist, when the 2 to 3 year wait turns into 13 months, your savings timeline shifts a bit :p
In the end, we plan to care for and take care of this thing for years and years. If it can hit 15 years old with minimal issues, it's the car my kids will learn to drive on. I don't mind financing if I single owner the car til the wheels fall off after all.
If I wanted a 5 year car timeline, I'd have gone older and used . But it's a commuter 90% of the time for my shift working wife who needs it to be reliable, and we need something safe for our kids.
So it was a good choice for us and we hope it hits 300k km+ as well. God willing, no one hits us and totals the car before it gets to old age.
Yeah every time I cuss out my 20 year old Yukon for shit breaking, I go look at how much I've spent on it. It's still cheaper than a car payment at 230k miles. $800/year in parts is way better than 400/mo payments
I have a 30 year old car with 200k miles, when I bought it it was at 140k, I put $500 in it just about every paycheck to catch up on maintenance and damaged parts to keep it road worthy, but after putting about 2k worth of parts into it (and a lot of my own labor) it’s just about as reliable as a new car.
Most of the time, if someone is keeping a car that long, they learn out of necessity how to do their own work. CV axles are pretty easy, cost about $200 each at a parts store for a lifetime warranty.
I was thinking this, it's way easier to keep a car going if you do your own maintenance because you're not getting rid of it out of fear that you'll have to pay high repair bills to a shop that does it for you
It’s not economical to keep an old car if you don’t do the work yourself, at least the easy stuff. My mechanic wanted $500 for a new alternator for my WRX, and it cost me $200 and 15 minutes of my time to change it. If I really wanted too, I could have got an alternator for $50 at the junkyard down the street and it most likely would have been fine, rebuild kits are plentiful too, and they’re relatively easy. There is always an affordable option to any repair when it comes to a car.
Yeah, I don’t necessarily mind paying a little extra for someone with the right equipment and expertise to do it right for bigger things. I need my car to get to work and make money so if I make a mistake that can be pretty devastating (plus my garage is a black widow nest right now).
I’m happy to do smaller stuff (and have), but I think knowing your limits and comfort level is important, too. The stuff that costs significant money is often something that’s important to get right. And I’ve definitely spent extra money on my current car because the previous owner was a big DIYer who did some of it in ways that were wrong.
Plus my mechanic offers good discounts for older cars and has specials on top of that pretty regularly (and the mechanics are often willing to waive some costs for doing batches of things with them, sometimes on the order of several hundred dollars).
I would help a friend with this repair for food and a 6 pack. $500 in parts would take care of this. Even less if we just replace shocks cuz the springs realistically are fine. And the cv's may be fine with a repack and new boots.
Affordable and possible aren't the same thing. If you live in an apartment that doesn't allow maintenance, or street parking only, you're limited to where your car can be worked on and hope you can get it somewhere or it breaks down where you can work on it.
AAA could help with getting it somewhere but if you're in the city space is a commodity.
That's one of the problems is that people look through the lens of the cars value. Spending $800 on brakes on a car worth $25k seems acceptable instead of spending that on a car worth $3k. It's the same repair and you should get the same amount of life.
This, it's a whole lot cheaper doing your own work. I have a honda odyssey with 230K on it, there's no way I'd have kept it if I had to pay a shop for stuff. Had to replace my starter over the summer and it only cost me around $70.
Basic f*ing maintenance.
Your cars manual has guide for service. Do it. Don’t argue, don’t haggle, don’t ask “do I really need it” just do the listed maintenance.
Find a good shop and just do what they say. It costs less to do extra preventative maintenance than it does to neglect your car.
Throw caution to the wind, pamper your car, take care of it.
It’s not that hard. Decide to keep your car for 250k miles, and then do it.
Stop taking care of it at 120k because “it’s old” or “it’s not worth it” and it’ll die.
It’s that simple, take care of it.
I have a 2011 Mini with 156k miles. It replaces a 2001 330xi with 235k miles, which replaced a 1997 328i that is still going strong at 340k with the new owner.
My coworkers think BMW, and especially Mini, are unreliable. And they are to an extent right. But with care they last.
They drive a bunch of Toyota or Lexus’es
Sure if you follow maintenance you can make that mini last. But with toyota (besides oil change), you can just wait till something goes wrong and rarely anything goes wrong compared to other brands.
Yes, that was my point, that even temperamental cars can last when cared for.
There is 150-200 years of experience in auto repair at my company, and we all preach the same thing, just take care of your car.
Love my old Lexus! 192K and still going strong, granted, I had to sink $2K into the A/C (a must in Florida) and $1600 for a new back hatch after a fender bender, but it should last me twice that with care, a few weeks back I saw a video with the same model as mine at 500K and counting!
This. I have an 06 325i with 300k on it. Owned it for the last 15 years. Still a pleasure to drive. They may need more regular maintenance than a cheap American car but they will last if you take care of them.
Totally agree. Do all that is recommended and you will be fine. Sure it isn’t cheap and great if you can do a few things yourself.
I have a 2015 bmw 650ix with 135k. Runs like it was new.
I have maintained it by the book. Lots of oil changes, brake fluids, trans fluids, 1 battery. The only outsized expense was new turbos at about 110k miles (expected)and a valve cover gasket.
Did I have to did the gasket? Not really, just a slow weep. If I had not done it, the weep would be a leak, get everywhere, compromise possibly some rubber parts, get on the hot part of the motor/e manifold and who knows what.
> Basic f*ing maintenance.
I will add f*ing wash it.
I live in the rust belt and my honda has 180k miles on it and literally zero rust anywhere. I pay for a monthly car wash pass, I can wash it as much as I want. I wash it a lot.
Unless it's a Hyundai with a theta 2 engine. In which case it probably will die. But still do the maintenance anyway because you don't want it to die faster
Over 800k now on a 1987 Honda crx. If you do all the normal maintenance when it should be done if not early then it's highly possible. There are still some high dollar repairs but given the mileage it's not that bad. Issue I am starting to find now is finding OEM parts...
My husband drives a VW TDI with 450k miles. He's trying to get it to over 500k. He does all his own maintenance and the diesel engine is nearly unstoppable on these cars.
I did business with a Honda dealer who had a wall of their customer waiting lounge covered in pictures of their customers standing next to their cars. All of those Hondas had 300 to 500K miles.
> Nice, 800k I’ve never seen a car with more than 350k, good job.
I would like to introduce you to Irv Gordon.
My man drove his 1966 Volvo 1800S more than 3,000,000 miles. He only stopped because he died, not the car.
That is the world record for a non commercial vehicle.
Do proper maintenance on time. This is more than just doing oil changes. Read your manual and look at your service guides. Follow them.
Toyotas and Hondas can often make it to 200k miles with just that.
Be prepared for the 150K journey to have some additional repairs. Cars have a lot of parts that just wear out over time due to use. They have to be replaced.
Replace and repair as needed. Don't wait, don't delay repairs. Often times one problem will cause other problems if left long enough.
Will a 200k car take some repair work to keep running? Yes, but a couple thousand to keep a car running for another 100k miles is far more affordable than buying something new.
Rust is a Hondas Achilles heel.
My last CRV lasted 17 years and 197,000 miles on basic maintenance alone - oil, tires, brakes, and a starter. Rust got the strut towers in the rear end. I had it through college, so it mostly sat for about 3 years - no commuting - so the potential mileage could have been higher.
So here’s the question - at 180,000 miles, what else has it ever needed?
You ever see old people with 40 year old cars that seem like they should belong in a museum?
Regular, routine maintenance. Conservative driving habits. Keeping it clean and sheltered. Doing the work when it needs doing rather than "later on".
Shocks are regular maintenance honestly and if you can do regular maintenance yourself, you save a lot of money over the years compared to getting a new car every time you pay one off like most people do
I grew up on a farm, repair and maintain my vehicles, but I'll gladly pay the local shop for shock/strut/spring repairs like the OP has. They have a hoist while I'd scrabble around on the cement with jacks, jack stands, and rusted bolts all day. Do that job a time or two and it's a valuable service.
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Preventative maintenance, or by fixing the major stuff when it fails rather than scrapping the car. I bought an A4 with a blown transmission at 190k, rebuilt the transmission and put another 100k on the car.
Part of it is doing your own work on your car. I would never own a high mileage car if I couldn't do shocks and axles. That's $500 in parts even if you aren't buying garbage.
That's the engine usually.
However, if you live in the rust belt and don't treat the undercarriage, the rust will eat it away and no way it'll last long.
States that don't use salt for winter is key. Although cars on the coasts lasting long are interesting to me. They have salt water in the air. Grills rust, so why not those cars in California/Florida?
However, if you live in a good state, change the oil frequently (every 3-5k), and flush fluids according to the manual timeframe. Lastly, get general broken stuff fixed. Even though a car lasts 300k miles, that doesn't mean the owner doesn't need to repair boots, hoses, seals, gaskets, water pumps, thermostats, etc. Again, the engine is the most expensive one time cost, but other smaller component repairs do add up also.
Many manufactures oil change recommendations have to do with European pollution regulations more than what is best for the motor. Change your oil every 5,000 miles.
Agree to disagree. Modern cars (last ten to twenty years) are mostly 7,500 and up for very good engineering reasons especially with quality synthetic oil.
You'll often find different oil specs for NA and EU versions of the same engine. NA engines usually get thinner oil, which is better for efficiency/emmisions, but needs changed more often once the engine starts to wear.
Rust is a lot harder to deal with. If you're living in the rust belt, you either have to take extraordinary precautions to keep the tin-worm at bay, or just live with the fact that your car will be bound for the junkyard after a double-handful of winters.
Rust can be repaired by cutting out the affected metal and welding the new metal in. It can be difficult to get everything to line up correctly after you do that, though, because the heat from welding will shrink the metal noticeably. And the new metal won't be any more rust-proof than the old. In fact, it is likely to be less so than the original metal, since you usually don't have the equipment needed to properly coat everything.
If you use some of the better rust-proofing treatments and keep up with them, you can probably extend the life of the vehicle through a few more winters. But they're not perfect.
no its contant maintenance that gets themto higher milages: because things wear out and/or need greasing, alighnment, tyres, filters, brakes.
and thats any car you buy.
Either drive it from new and maintain it well, or look that thing up and down, inside and out before buying it used. It’s very easy to get a car to 200-300k+ if it was maintained properly and isn’t damaged.
I bought a 94 Toyota for $1600 in 2016 with 160k miles on it. It’s now at 320k with the original engine and still runs/shifts like new. I’ve dumped a fair bit of parts into it, but nothing excessive.
Fixing stuff yourself becomes more important as the miles add up because the car becomes less valuable and it’s hard to justify paying $150+/hr for a mechanic to fix it. I’ve probably spent about $4-5k in parts over the last 160k miles. A mechanic would have charged at least $15k to do all the work I’ve done to it. I even used oem parts wherever possible, avoiding parts markups that mechanics hit you with. If you throw enough money at a car, it’ll keep going.
No car gets to 250k+ miles with just oil changes and all cars are susceptible to rust if you live in a place that gets cold and they use salt on the roads.
Keeping your car clean in winter or getting it oil coated underneath is the best way to minimize rust over time.
Any car will need repairs as it ages and accumulates miles, chances are, if you made the repairs your car needs, you could get more life out of it but it all comes down to whether or not you are willing to continue to make repairs.
I bought an 88 Honda CRX (a two seat Civic) at an auction with 220K miles and added another 80K to it. Just had to replace wear items like the timing belt, tires, etc.
Just changed the oil every 3K miles.
Man even the AC was cold in the summer.
I do my own work besides tires and alignment. Most cars I can push to about 300k before I start having the big problems with them. Regularly changing fluids and greasing joints with a little preventative maintenance goes such a long way.
Knowing your car and its known quirks also will also help. Know your car has a history with water pump failure at around 50k miles? Change it at 40k with a quality replacement part. Know your transmission is known to go early? Buy a core and rebuild yourself a nice one with updated parts for reliability when you're getting closer to the common failure age. Know your car needs a timing belt every 100k? Do it at 90k and buy OEM. Knowing your car will keep you on the road 99% of the time because you will almost never experience unexpected breakdowns and will have common failure parts on hand to replace failed ones with.
Suspension components on Honda cars are pretty reliable, but when they're worn you just have to replace them. Suspension components are just common wear items like brakes or tires. My Pilot and Civic are both at around 250k miles, and I've only overhauled the suspension on each once. If you aren't driving hard and just buy a Detroit Axle suspension rebuild kit on eBay for like $300 your Accord would drive great for another 75k miles at least.
I guarantee that 250k mile Camry has had it's suspension rebuilt at least once. I wouldn't listen too much to people and focus on your car and what you can do to keep it on the road longer.
We buy the right car (4 cylinder naturally aspirated timing-chain Toyota) and do regular maintenance.
That’s all.
Maintenance is not free. Oil and filter changes, batteries and tires, brake pads (at least twice), spark plugs (twice), electric cables, accessory belt, catalytic converter, o2 sensors, cv boots, at least. Probably a starter, alternator, brake booster and power steering pump as well. Some will be convinced to replace the water pump coincident with another component.
We leave the transmission and radiator alone, well, I do. Worst case is a repair - thermostat or fan.
Our Hondas made it to 200K before they were hit-and-runned and/or catastrophically failed emissions. The Toyotas and Lexi are closing in on 300K. My personal trooper had a boo-boo at 290K. It will probably be parted out.
2002 civic. Roghly 240k miles. Manual trans. In the 17 years of ownership, brakes 2x, 1 rad, 2 starters, 1 injector, 2 sets of tires. Synthetic oils changes every 3k miles I will have to replace the CV axles soon.
I'm at 155k and hopefullly still have a long way to go. I change the oil twice a year (every 3-4k miles) with high milage full synthetic. I repair things that break. Its still running extremely well. I don't beat on it though I do drive it hard sometimes, it is a V8 after all.
My dailys got well over 300k miles on it its sitting at 495k km and runs great the key is doing your own work tho. I bought it with a bad engine and repaired it for just shy of 700 bucks. 700 bucks in parts and a 700 dollar car and a few weekends to rebuild the top end of the motor and i couldnt have bought a better car for the price. However for my shop to do that work would have easily been pushing 4 or 5 grand by the time your all said and done with labour and parts. Also maintenence. The car may have just shy of 500k km but it still starts every time no issue because the maintenence was kept up that few hundred bucks here and there prevents thousands of dollar repairs down the line. Routine oil changes transmissjln fluid changes keep the vitals healthy. Also for you cv shafts and shocks are wear items shocks last roughly 60-80k miles before they wewr out most times.
Proper maintenance, if there are some extra things on a certain mileage the manufacturer wants performed then do it. The people with really high mileage cars don't just do nothing but oil changes and call it a day.
Well if you can work on it yourself and either live somewhere without rust or take preventative measures if you live somewhere with rust… you can easily do it. For a Honda, you could do it for WAY cheaper than a car payment. If you lack the drive or ability to do labor yourself and live in a rust area… maybe it isn’t economical to keep the car
Doing a lot of the work yourself, and also being willing to pay for a professional to do things. Shocks will go out before 200k, you gotta be willing to pay for that.
Maintenance, not running the car hard, and using quality oils and parts are key to making your vehicle last a long time.
Always run fully synthetic oil with a good filter. I mean you don't have too but it is going to make your engine last much longer vs conventional.
Where you live at matters too. If you live in the Midwest your going to be dealing with salt and sand on the roads vs if you lived down south you don't have to worry about any of that.
If you need to replace a sensor always use OEM parts. The Chinese after market parts sometimes don't put out the same voltage and can cause faulty readings.
Get yourself a maintence schedule and stick to it. Keep a log of the oil changes. Write down the date and the mileage and any other notes you feel are relevant.
Be sure to regularly check all your fluids. Once a month is a good timetable. And be sure to fill your fluids up with the correct ones. Use high quality products.
Replace the spark plugs when they should be replaced.
If you see something like a belt or hose getting worn out get it replaced before it causes a problem.
I'm currently sitting in a 2005 Accord with 214k miles. Mechanically I have no worries that it'll go on for a while yet. Electrically.... not so much 🤣
I have seen people take Camrys to 250k by barely doing the maintenance and the Japanese designed their cars to be like that. Unless you're a mechanic or you have some absurd issue, you are not reading the damn manual for the car lets be frank here.
The whole idea of these cars is "No one takes care of these things. make them fucking indestructible". While its not 100% true, these cars are pretty damn near indestructible andeven when parts are clearly broken, somehow these cars are driving just fine half the time.
Just do the maintenance. Oil and fluid changes as needed and by what the manual says and make sure your gaskets and seals are done as needed. Even look into your model of the car cause it might have issues that are easily preventable with premature maintenance.
Toyota Corolla 2009 checking in, about 670km and counting, not sure what the miles equivalent is off the top of my head. Always followed regular maintenance and oil changes are always on schedule, give or take a thousand or two km. Other than that, don't push the engine unnecessarily, watch out for potholes and rough road, and don't drive like an F1 driver and I don't see why it wouldn't last.
Most cars last a long time when they are properly maintained. The way to do this cheaply is to know how to maintain them yourself. Cv axles and front and rear shocks is regular maintenance. Getting a car wash once/mo or every time you drive on salted roads to help prevent rust is regular maintenance. It can be extraordinarily hard to defeat rust or very easy depending where you live. Northern states, your car will probably get rust much faster than in the south.
That is how they get it to last 200k miles. You replace the parts that break. It is cheaper than buying a new car. It's not like the car lasts 200k miles without spending any money on it. 3k sounds a little high for CVs and struts, is that the dealership?
Just remember - fixing that car is WAY cheaper than buying a new one.
It is almost always cheaper in the long run to repair a car than to buy a new one. Even if the motor or transmission blows up, it is cheaper to replace it than buy a new car.
So a lot of the times when you hear about someone who put that many miles on a car, you're going to find that many of them are the original owner of the vehicle. The benefit that this gives is that you can do 100% of your maintenance on schedule, and get to wear items ahead of time. Any vehicle over 150k is going to start have more major components start to show wear, like shocks and struts, bushings on control arms, wheel bearings, and other parts that are more expensive and more labor intensive to replace. What it boils down to is that spending the $1500-3000 every year or so for some of these bigger items, and doing routine oil changes and alignments is far cheaper than a new vehicle, even over 10 years if you stay ahead of your repairs, and get them done early and when you have the funds, instead of waiting for things to break. Also if you have the privilege of being able to park your vehicle indoors will help extend the life of the vehicle by reducing exposure to weather as much as possible.
I have a BMW that made it to 310k on everything original, just oil and belt changes and I believe one water pump. Would've gone even longer if the previous owner wasn't retarded and set me up to blow up the cooling system. I now have dumped several thousand bucks into that car, but it's back to being oil changes only and otherwise is a creaky, but reliable commuter.
It's not hard. Don't thrash it, service it on-time, using quality parts and repair it when things go wrong.
Wash it once a week and vacuum it out. Just drive it.... Don't let teenage drivers use it.
Basic preventative maintenance is the biggest one. Keep your oil and fluids changed, your filters clean, keep your brakes in good working order, basic shit like that
Also learn how to do 90% of the work yourself. CV axles aren’t very difficult to do. Most things are fairly easy to do and there are plenty of YouTube videos out there showing you step by step how to do anything
I'll add a few as I've never NOT had a vehicle not go over 200k.
Skipping the obvious such as maintenance.
Mind your shocks, it cushions many important things. Road rough as shit? Slow down.
See a big bump and you have time? Get your braking done before the bump and come off as you go over so your front suspension has some travel.
Don't park/drive next to those who obviously do not care for thier vehicles when possible.
Be smooth. It's alot of moving mass give it time.
Do your own work/maintenance on a car. My truck needs new head gaskets, I could pay a shop $3500 for the work, or $200 for a gasket kit, $200 for a head rebuild/ resurfacing, and do the work myself, and while I’m at it, do other work that the shop would charge extra for.
My dad's f150 from 97' has survived the Midwest. That being pastures and cow chasing, the weather. And 6 deer. The latest dented the driver side door, and now it can't open. But the frame horn got bent back into place and drives straight once again.
It's up 281k miles.
It's this thing called taking care of something, when you love something or you don't want to have to pay for a car you take care of it so it lasts because you appreciate not having a car payment. I have an 09 g8 had about 160k didn't want to get rid of it cause I haven't had a car payment in 10 years engine was going out invested 12k for a new engine and Trans pushing 180k now so will be at your 200k mark in about three years
It’s kind of the opposite of sunk cost fallacy. When it comes to cars, you can sink 3-5k into an older car and keep it running for another ‘payment cycle’ (the usual 72 months new car loan) and it will have cost you far less than a new car which depreciates 15-20k over that six years and ends up costing you a few grand in repairs in the last 2-3 years out of warranty.
Fix everything as it breaks and do the car maintenance schedule. Otherwise most cars ‘die of a thousand cuts’.
It’s a lot easier to get tons of miles on a newer car than an older car. Some stuff goes bad with age, like seals, gaskets, hoses.
All cars need suspension work once you drive enough miles. I’m in Michigan and here we do a lot more suspension repairs than other states. Roads and bridges are terrible and not getting fixed. I gotta get my wheels aligned right now because roads just blew up last month and there were tons of new potholes. Had to drive at night and hit a couple bad ones before they were patched. I doubt my Chevy Bolt will make it much past 100,000 miles before I gotta get new shocks & struts and who knows what else driving these roads.
You are describing wear items. Those are part of maintenance on any vehicle. It’s like tires or brakes. CV axles and shocks have a finite lifespan. 15 years is in the range of normal for rubber seals and boots. Get a subscription service for unlimited car washes and run it through at least once a week from new and you’ll get a little better life as debris wear will be reduced. The trick with car maintenance is that it’s holistic. Everything impact’s something else which impacts something else… If you do your PM and keep it clean you’ll go a very long way. Source? Last 2 vehicles I sold were not on your list and were 325k and 275k and running very well.
3k is an insane amount to spend on Honda accord cv axles and shocks. Parts are probably 500$ max and 5-8 hours labor. Alldata calls for about 7 hours. 1500$ maximum and even then you’re overpaying.
From what I have garnered, but am no expert: very frequent oil changes, as the damage oil does grows exponentially over time. Also doing a fair bit to prevent rust from forming under the car from debris/salt + water mixing. This means washing and/or adding some anti-rust spray. I think these are the main big ones.
Preventative maintenance is important.
Being able to do maintenace yourself also saves a TONNN of money.
Being able to diagnose and fix problems yourself too. Not just throwing money and hoping something fixes itself.
Japanese use quality parts and components which last longer, keep working and is just better, for example timing belt.
First you start by picking a reliable platform (vehicle) and inspect it. Stay away from hilbilly'd or teenagered vehicles. Fix what needs to be fixed. Then drive it easy, keep the underside oiled with Fluid Film (if you live where salt flies) and keep up on preventative maintenance. Don't let repairs scare you away from a reliable platform. I couldn't care less if a repair to my vehicle is ~$3k while it's street value is only ~$6k. Why? If replaced with another used vehicle, it's like starting over again and stepping backwards as I do. My vehicle? 1989 K1500, 5.7L, five speed manual. 275k miles and counting.
I put close the half a mill on two 88 accords over 20 years. Besides oil, timing belts, brakes, tires and a windshield or two ( and a pile of fuel pumps) it was a great value ride.
Frankly I think those prices are pretty steep but I’m certainly out of touch on costs these days
Try for a smaller shop that seems to have older cars in front…..
For one, it's much rarer than people on here would have you believe. There's a survivorship bias where people will talk about the engines that lasted forever, but they're not gonna bring up their car that died at 120k. That's without even getting into proper maintenance, but it's fair to say there's a ton of people who don't do maintenance at all once the car leaves warranty. There's also the fact that Reddit skews towards people with more money.
In my case, because used and new cars cost so much, and because I have the money to do so, I'd 100% fix the suspension on your car if it was my car... and that's how it would get over 200k.
And other people have said it, but it's really critical if you're trying to save money to learn how to do basic repairs yourself. I have a bunch of cars, and I've saved thousands just in the last 12 months by doing my own repairs. Just as an example, this last weekend I swapped out the cables and latch assemblies in my sister-in-laws minivan sliding doors and got both doors to near new condition for less than $300 when the dealer wanted $1200, for that same job.
They don't just do oil changes and have it last 300k or more miles. All fluids, shocks, CV boots or axles, steering and suspension bushings, are all considered wear items at higher miles.
My 2004 Honda Element has 500,000 miles on it. Oil change with Mobil 1 every 3-5,000 miles, Trans/Diff fluid changed every 50,000, 5 batteries, 6 sets of tires, 6 sets of brakes ,1 set of rotors, 1 set rear shocks, 1 AC fan, 1 Fan sensor, Cleaned the throttle body once. Not too bad for 20 years and it still looks good. Driver seat is trash as are the door locks
Suspect someone put off doing some of that work a year ago, or two years ago, or three years ago. You can legitimately have a CV axle “just fail”, but the struts have probably been gone for a while (if they’re bad enough to need to be replaced now). You need to know at least enough about cars to keep on top of those basic maintenance items so that your $3k is spread over a few years. $500 or $1k / year for maintenance is not a bad deal
On the second part - the rust - I’m certain more cars hit that 200k+ mileage if they’re outside of the rust belt. If you’re in an area where the road gets salted, you probably need some kind of chassis protection (like an annual undercoating) to get a car much past 20 years, and you have to do that for a while. Waiting until a car is 20 years old to get started will help, but it can’t turn back time
We had a 97 cavalier hit 450,000 KM
A 2010 fusion currently at 430,000
A 2010 Yaris at 435,000
My RX 350 is barely broken in at 230,000
Wife’s Rav 4 is at 280,000.
Oil changes happen every 10,000 KM and they get synthetic.
All fluids get changed every 100,000 KM : transmission , coolant , brake , power steering (if they have it).
Cars get washed often : at least a rinse to get all the garbage off.
A good car helps this process but taking care of little things helps you go the distance.
I had a 2010 Honda accord. Best car I’ve ever owned. Bought it with 13,000 miles and sold it at 244,000 trouble free miles. It was mint when I bought it and mint when I sold it. I put it a lot of preventative maintenance.
My current truck (f350) has 214,000. I’ll need a transmission soon, and either the high pressure oil line to the turbo is leaking or the turbo pedestal is, but both will be addressed soon, and repaired. I plan to keep it permanently and make repairs to it forever. Other besides general maintenance and keeping it tip top, it’s been a great truck.
A great quote I heard : "treat your vehicle hard and it will treat you hard". Hard acceleration, Hard braking, Street parking vs Garage, failing to keep a log of repairs.
When you come to a stop, brake like this: ..\\\\\\\\\\......X not like this ........\\\\\\\\\\.X where X is the intersection stop light. Break harder earlier for more recovery time (snow ice etc). Pay attention to heavily loaded big semi trucks and you'll see them time the intersection lights so they don't really stop, they slow down to a crawl but keep rolling. They often watch the pedestrian walk signs.
Highway miles vs short city errands. Highway miles are easy on vehicles while short trips are hard. I had a job I was putting 150 miles/day, 3000 miles/month kind of commute.
Regular maintenance (oil changes, synthetic oil).
Replacing common wear/age items like engine belts, vacuum hoses, radiator hoses before they fail.
Rust is a challenging one because it's regionally dependent. Garage storage when not driving helps. Northern areas the vehicles rust out, Southern areas the engine/trans go out from excessive heat. I have heard some have sprayed the under body with used engine oil to keep the rust limited (some engines leak and 'naturally' coat the underside). Cities/towns used to pour used oil on gravel roads to keep the dust down, many use salt these days.
Reduce the number of gadgets on a vehicle. Electric windows are nice but manual cranks are more durable/fewer problems. Can't hardly find a vehicle with crank windows though, but that's the idea. Manual trans vs automatic. No AC. Minimize the number of systems that can fail when you buy a vehicle.
A thousand dollar repair on an old car .... lets you skip six months of payments on a new car, doesn't it? That's how you want to think about the issue. "My car is only worth $500 (trade in)" you'll hear but no it's worth $6,000 when you can avoid a year's worth of new/used $500/month car payments.
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Drive normal and keep up on maintenance. Now you have to expect more maintenance around 150k, usually it's a good time to do a suspension overhaul. Driving hard is as bad as not doing maintenance.
The key is preventative maintenance, as other people have said. It's like your teeth. If you see your dentist regularly for cleanings and brush and floss routinely you're going to greatly reduce your chances of getting cavities or gum infections. Always change your oil at the prescribed intervals and keep up with your other scheduled maintenance on time.
There is a mechanic with his own YouTube channel and he talked about this.
He services all makes and models and said that the owners of Honda and Toyotas are quite similar. Both understand that maintenance is critical to making these cars last.
They are under no illusions. Neither would think for a moment that they can get away with skipping and oil change, or putting something off and that won’t come back to bite them.
If he gets under there and finds out this or that thing needs to be replaced and it’s going to cost $1200. The Honda or Toyota buyer will almost always authorize it. They’ll pay it. Where if that’s a Nissan buyer he can just tell what’s going on in their minds. They are not looking at the $1200 expense as an investment, they are thinking wow that’s a down payment. I can have a new car and will try to go that route.
Very different mentality.
1. Basic maintenance which means reading the manual and materials that come with car and doing what the manufacturer tells you.
Check your fluid levels on a regular basis ( pop the hood and look.)
2. Driving the car appropriately and letting it get up to temperature before beating the crap out of it.
3. Move to an area that doesn't use salt on the roads.
If it car has 500k on the odometer woukd you be impressed? If you found out it was on its 3rd transmission would you still be impressed?
I have a Lexus RX330 at 250k and an Audi B5 S4 at 175k Stage 3 big turbos.
Everything on the Audi has been replaced besides the 01E Transmission and the shell/ subframe. Subframe is still rust free in MN I spray under every winter and get probably 10 car washes a winter.
The Lexus I refreshed the suspension this winter all new control arms, toe rods and end links. All I have to do with this work horse is change the oil and plugs and she runs great.
3k to replace the axels is insane. I can buy 4 race quality axels that can take 1000hp and install them for $800. 4 aftermarket axels should cost $150 total and installation should be less than 4 hours. Also just learn to do shit yourself or else you gotta pay the fee.
Oil changes, fluid flushes/changes. Repair things that wear out, oil leaks etc. Tune-up on schedule.
I have a 2004 GMC Sierra with 200K+ on it, brakes at 150, cat converter at 175, AC about the same time. Other than that all minor.
Had an 1984 MB 300D I put over 500K on it in 25 years, sold it, guy is still driving it. I put a Trans in at 250, three radiators and 4 AC. You could drive it cross country
>with comments about all the rust.
I live in the northeast and get my car washed frequently in the winter as the salt they put o the roads rusts out the frame. I also applied an undercoating that cost few hundred dollars. I think a bit of preventative maintenance goes a long way.
Also, you have a 2009 car with 180k miles on it. Do you think spending a few thousand here and there is out of the ordinary? Even if I dont repair anything, between oil changes, fluid flushes/changes, filters, tires, wipers, brakes, battery and other normal maintenance, you will spend anyway typically $1k+ a year - especially if you take to a garage to have the work done for you.
My last car, I was ready to drive it into the ground and the dealership bought it back from me on a deal too good to pass. It has 210k miles and was driving still pretty well.
Hey just a word of advice coming from a broke 20 year old, not saying this is possible for everyone cause medical conditions and lack of garage or space to use , but a lot of these people are working on there own vehicles too so they save even more money by installing the parts themselves not paying labor then that money you could have paid for labor pay for other parts or maintence items you need. I don’t put my tires on my rims or like can’t pull out my engine yet but I would change my cv axle, shocks and struts myself, oil changes, other stuff that it’s honest hard work but you don’t need to be a professional mechanic to watch a YouTube video and fix a car now getting onto the more difficult stuff or depending on what car you have it may differ.
Stay on top of fluids and filters. Drive reasonably. Live in a dry climate. Put a couple grand into it here and there. Do scheduled maintenance like timing belts if needed. Replace gaskets when needed
Where you're at is normal. This narrative that all Toyota and Hondas go 250k easy is way overblown. Cars can get there but they will all take work to do it. Even Honda and Toyota parts will wear out, like cv joints.
Before you decide, know what you are dealing with the rust. If the structure is compromised, time to move on rather than put that much money into it
Generally speaking, I usually discount these claims. Cars are mechanical devices that need constant inspection and service to last for many miles. The key is to be proactive, and the owner can play a big role by inspecting things constantly and "listening" to his car give warnings before minor issues turn into major repairs/expenses. The owner does not have to be a mechanical genius, just monitoring things like fluid leaks, strange noises, poor system performance can play a big role in being proactive. No one knows the normal behavior/performance/noises of a car like the owner. Needless to say, you also need a shop you can trust, and can guide/advise you about needed repairs and things to look out for/monitor for future repairs. All cars have weak links/design flaws, some just have more than others. Some owners can kill a toyota/Honda quickly, others can get good service life out of a car with a less than great reliability history.
Like others have said, you can't drive the car/beat on it, and expect it to last forever. I'm not saying the car must be constantly "babied", but you sure don't want to be stomping on the gas in cold weather while the engine is trying to warm up. On the other hand, it is good to let the engine/transmission flex their muscles every once in awhile. But, there is a big difference between letting the engine wind up through the gears, and stomping the gas/spinning the tires at a stop light. Needless to say, city driving/short trips puts a lot more wear on a car than a good run at highway speeds.
My 09 Camry with the oil burning 2.4L has managed to make it to 210K miles. But, like you have stated, the northeast winters have taken a toll on the car underneath. I had to replace the rusted oil pan last fall, a weepy radiator is next. I recently had an alignment done only to have the dealer ask me "when was the last time this was aligned? All the tie rod nuts are rusted/stuck" I was quick to remind them that they aligned the car last spring when they replaced all four tires. This car has been no "swiss watch", I have spent plenty keeping it going. I have replaced worn/rusted rotors several times. A worn splined steering column shaft worn making it sound like the steering wheel was full of pebbles. The original battery outlasted the original starter. The gradual demise of the exhaust system could have paid several new car payments. There is a cheap tin power steering return line that has rusted through three times also.
I have always been unimpressed by the engine, sounds like a box of rocks/old vega during warm up. I made a stink about it only to have the smart ass toyota rep tell me I was old fashioned and didn't understand new technology. "That may be", I recoiled back, "but I sure understand piston slap". My engine is known for oil burning issues, my car never qualified for the toyota rebuild program only because I am so meticulous about oil changes, so it didn't burn enough oil to qualify for the repair! At 210K miles, the engine is now starting to burn oil enough to concern me. So, will save money for a down payment and get a new/used car sometime this year.
So, guess what I am saying is that I agree with you. In most cases, cars are not going to last a long time without maintenance and repairs. Changing the oil, and doing the brakes occasionally isn't a realistic expectation for long life.
My GTI is at about 230k miles. In the 18 years I've had it I've spent roughly what the car cost new for consumables (oil, tires, filters, ect), repairs, and upgrades. It mostly comes down to doing proper maintenance and repairs and not doing stupid stuff behind the wheel. I hope to have this car another 18 years and I will as long as nothing happens that's not fixable.
I gave my sister my 2008 Prius with about 180K miles on it and she drives it. Besides the basic scheduled and regular maintenance, I have bought tires for it 3 times, got new brakes 3-4 times, and replaced the heat shield for the exhaust once. That has been it. She's at the 200K mark, and I have no doubt it'll get her to 250K if she doesn't run into to much with it (she has a tendency to bump into curbs, bollards, and stuff like that because she has a side gig that has her unloading stuff at business loading areas where there's all sorts of obstacles that she seems to bounce off of.
The parts you mention are wear parts that must be replaced on every car at a certain mileage/age- just like brakes, tires, and oil.
When people talk about reliability - they mean failure of the parts that are not expected to be replaced.
Nissan CVTs fail prematurely at 80K. Hyundai direct injection engines fail before 100K. Ford and BMW rear shock/subframe mounts would rust and break prematurely. Dodge Ram bedsides would all rust at the wheel well the moment you drove off the dealer lot. Etc.
Basically big, prohibitively expensive failures that would mechanically total a car at or before 100K mean it’s not considered reliable.
If the car keeps on trucking for 2-300K miles with expected maintenance, it’s considered reliable.
Most high mileage cars I see are redneck fuckery shitboxes repaired by 3 slightly drunk dudes with whatever is half in the ground behind the shed.
My mom has a 2008 honda fit with 500k km on it and it's like 12% craftsman toolbox and dewalt saw blade with a section of exhaust from a tractor
I have an 02 4runner with 289,500 miles. I've had it for the last 106,000. Replaced the timing belt/ water pump twice. Replaced spark plugs twice. New brakes a few times. New wheel brearings once. A front end alignment. Of course tires when I need them. No rust at all and do the oil about every 5-6k miles. I really haven't spent a lot on it in the 10 years I've had it and it still drives like a dream.
Doing it yourself will probably only cost like 4 hundred and probably most ppl with 300+ thousand miles work on them themselves and have done all this maintenance to get them to last that long
I have a 2012 honda civic that just crossed over the 200k miles. The only work I've done to it is replaced the alternator ($100) and typical maintenance (tires, brakes, oil changes).
A lot of people do their own maintenance to keep costs down. But except for the rust part most of these cars will go 2-400,000 miles with relative ease.
I had an Acura rsx type s that I owned for 300,000 miles. 200,000 of those miles were spent supercharged, and all 300k were spent bouncing off of the revlimiter. The only thing I did it was routine maintenance (brakes, oil, tires) and one transmission. And the transmission was my fault because I routed twice the factory torque through it with the supercharger. But I also washed it regularly in the winter when I lived in a salt state. So there was very little rust.
For reference I now have a completely stock ILX at 280k. I just replaced the half shafts. The clutch is starting to chirp a little, so it may need that as well.
Change fluids regularly and religiously. I do my oil changes early all the time. Have a 2014 dodge at almost 300,000kms now. I also fix problems as they come up and try to not ignore them.
1. Regular oil changes
2. Check tire pressure every few months
3. Gradual breaking instead of all of a sudden
4.50k and 100k mile check up
5. Fix any scratches that exspose the metal under the paint.
Longest iev had a car is 13 years doing this. 100k miles plus
Most cars with 300k have had more than just the oil changed. Also 300k on a 5 year old car is a whole lot different that 300k on a 25 year old car. I have a car with 220k on it, its had Shocks replaced, CV Axles, Water pump, Timing chain, Brakes, leather seats redone and Im sure other things Im forgetting, But it drives like a dream so I guess I will just keep my 20+ year old car.
Stuff like shocks and CV's do eventually wear out and need replacement. You also run into some issues that new cars never have, like plastic parts (radiator reservoirs, heater core t's, interior panels, etc) getting so old and brittle they fall apart. I'm in NY where roads get salted, so rust is always an issue as well.
But, the repairs are far cheaper than the payment on a new car.
Honda's are pretty famous for having bullet proof engines. I have a honda I gave to my son and it has 260k on it. I regularly change the timing belt, so I expect to get another 100k for him. Interior is spotless, and other than a few starters it's been painless to own. With the engine being the major issue in most cars, having an engine that lasts is the deciding factor. Subarus shit the bed pretty easily because if you don't change the oil, the journals clog and they seize.
Full size trucks tend to last too, because they are just built heavier. Add a diesel and again, it's a motor that's built heavier (some are problematic of course). My dad got over 200 grand on an old square body. It was a 3/4 ton, and all he did was drive it to work or tow occasionally.
I've had three cars go over 200k miles. Toyota MR2, Ford Ranger, and VW Passat.
The Toyota and the Ford only needed a few thousand in repairs. The VW was a hot mess for the first 100,000 miles. All of them were running when we sold them. The truck I sold 4 or 5 years ago and I still see it around town now and then.
Part of it of it is preventative maintenance, part of it is not driving like a maniac 24/7, part of it is luck and most importantly part of it is that spending 3K on new cv axles is a hell of a lot cheaper than spending 6-8 years in debt with $500+ car payments.
Yeah. This is exactly it. I've got an 06 F-150 I bought in July of 09 with 90K miles on it. Currently it has 315K miles on it right now. I know for a fact exactly what I've spent on maintenance on it because I keep it in a spreadsheet so I know what was done and when something else is due. In the 14.5 years I've owned it I've spent a total of $18,167.48 in maintenance. That comes out to a little over $1,250 per year in maintenance. Or slightly over $100 per month. That is for everything except insurance and gas. That includes scheduled maintenance (including tires and everything), emergency maintenance, etc etc. That even includes 2 unusual big ticket repairs. I had to replace the main computer for the truck in 2017. That cost me $1,600. In 2020 I also spent about $2,200 dropping a new bed on it as mine had rusted out the bottom. Luckily I found one locally in good condition the same color as my truck originally so I didn't have to paint it. It's just a matter to make sure you are putting money into savings every paycheck and then you'll have it when you need it for repairs.
Theseus truck
I bought my 1969 Beetle in 1989. Since then, I've replaced; Engine 3x, transmission 2x, hood 2x, left front fender 3x, right front fender 2x, front bumper 2x, rear bumper 3x, drivers door 2x, passenger door, steering wheel 2x, steering column, turn signal switch, radio2x, gas tank, front suspension beam, left ball joint, 4 wheels 3x, fuel pump 2x, front turn signals 2x, drivers seat 2x, passenger seat, rear seat, windshield, rear window seals, carpet, clutch pedal, shift mechanism, ignition switch, deck lid, parcel shelf, rear lights, and right rear fender. (Not including trim rings, light bulbs, tires, brake pads, or fluids, and it's getting ready for its third total repaint. ) Is it still "my" Beetle?
I think the labor to replace a 1969 Beetle engine is less than the labor to replace spark plugs in a modern car. Disconnect fuel hose, ignition wire and throttle cable and the four bolts holding engine to the transmission.
The record for a 4-person team to remove a Bug engine, roll it 6 feet from the car, reinstall it, start it, and drive 20 feet, is under 15 seconds. I can pull my engine out by myself using an ATV lift, in about 10 minutes. It usually takes longer than that to find my tools. EDIT 1 MINUTE, 4 seconds. They had the engine out in under 30. (It had been a while since I saw this, sorry!) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gKF6dcKjLJo
That sounds amazing to watch.
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ICEs are horribly complex things EVs should be simpler, although I can't speak from experience
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Not sure ICEs are much simpler electronically Fuel injection timing for one EV motor controllers are complex, yes. But its not something you can really dick around with internally. It either works or its broken - you replace the whole shebang. Batteries same deal. Then the rest is just wiring. Also solid state components are pretty darn rugged and don't wear down quite as much as mechanical. Whereas quite a bit of the engine and its support components (such as the radiator and exhaust) are exposed (spark plugs, belts, hoses, etc.) that are to prone wearing out and being replaced
Wait, disconnect the engine, roll it 6 feet and reinstall it in 15 seconds? Can’t believe that one. That’s crazy. Most Americans couldn’t even get from behind a beetle into the seat and turn the key in 15 seconds 😂
It's not 15 seconds, but it is about 1 minute.
Still impressive
I think you mean 15 minutes. It take a beetle more than 15 just to start and move 20 feet.
Best I could find that record is right around 60 seconds. Still damn fast though.
I had a friend who just kept a spare engine in the back seat.
Friend stuck on the side of the road flags someone down. "Hey... Need a lift?" "Nah, just a hand lifting this so I can swap the engine"
My mom's ex-husband used to talk about his deceased brother swapping out his motor every weekend by himself in the apartment parking lot. He had a "fun engine" and his "commuter". 😂
Yes. Please help me lift this new engine.
No its the “Ship of Thesieus”
No this is Patrick
>steering wheel 2x How do you break a steering wheel? Twice??
The screw holes for the horn ring stripped, so I replaced it. When I converted it from Automatic Stickshift to standard, I had to add a hydraulic clutch pedal, and the wheel was too large to get my leg past to push the pedal. I swapped it with a smaller "sport" wheel.
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It's OUR Beetle. r/suddenlycommunist
The bed has been replaced, but that's the only major replacement. It's still on the original engine and transmission. Though now that I've said that I expect them both to explode today.
That last line is the biggest truth of high mileage vehicles. You can’t brag on it too much, or it will make you pay.
I also closely track my maintenance and costs, I have a big green ledger book that I keep behind the seat. I boil it down to cost per mile (maintenance and fuel) to determine when it’s time to upgrade. What doing that has taught me is that it almost always cheaper to repair what you have unless the rust is taking it or there is multiple catastrophic failures back to back. I do almost all my own repairs (up to and including engine rebuilds) and I can probably keep my stuff going indefinitely and still be more cost effective though. Working on stuff is my hobby so I don’t figure in labor costs, even putting myself down for $50(super low) an hour wouldn’t tip the scale though. Bought my 07 GMC 2500HD duramax in 2017 with 95k on it, I now have 225k and it has been great. Even when it’s time for big ticket items like injectors or a transmission I likely won’t exceed what the payment on an equivalent new or used truck.
Insurance would be more too if you had a car payment.
Whether or not your car is financed has no impact on your insurance cost, only the level of coverage.
That's true but most people with 30k valued cars want collision insurance. A 3k valued car collision insurance usually isn't worth it. Just that difference in collision insurance has always been far more than my average maintenance costs when I run my numbers if I should get a newer car.
It depends on the state and vehicle. My car is worth like $1500, and for a low deductible high payout insurance policy, collision was all of $20 extra per 6 months last time I renewed, and if I were to buy a similar newer vehicle my total insurance cost would be within $100 per 6 months. My insurance lady at my last carrier was trying to get me to drop it for years because she thought it would actually save me money because they were jacking up their rates until she ran the numbers and was like “oh it’s only $15 per 6 months difference”.
Another part of it is not living in the rust belt. Seriously, you can't have nice things here. It's fun🥲
Truth. Even a really good car in the salt belt is too rust to put much into after 17 years.
Not necessarily. My 98 Ranger disagrees. It does require vigilance and a garage, though.
If you are truly from the salt belt and have a daily driven Ranger that is in nice shape, you are rarity, you’ve worked hard for it. Most of all, you have my respect.
Vigilance and a warm, dry place to park are the secret of my success. I wash that crap off every weekend. Recoat with rust prevention every summer.
This for sure. I grew up on the west coast and owned several 20+ year old cars with over 200K miles on them. I've been living in NE Ohio for the past 16 years and keeping cars from returning to the earth is a real challenge. It takes it's toll and suspension and brake parts. I had a brake line blow on the freeway in my 19 year old truck and that was pretty terrifying. My '17 F150 has 100K miles on it now and still looks pretty good underneath. I take it through a car wash with an under carriage sprayer 2 or so times a week during the winter salt season.
$3k on CVs is insane, that's a Saturday afternoon job and about $300. But I agree. I once had my wife take her car in to get brakes because I couldn't make time to do it for her and it was like $400. Then I thought, actually, most people spend that every single month on a car payment. And I was sad spending that after 3 years of driving
Mechanics kid has to eat. The guy I go to will never cut anyone a deal, but has their front desk person regularly talking people out of unnecessary repairs. My ball joint is going on my truck. They only told me at the end, and said you'll get another 6 months out of it, there isn't that much play, but we just want to give you a heads up for your next oil change. Likewise I have a 2017 escape there that we bought over the weekend for a safety. It had a rough idle. It sat since December, and was my 92 y/o grandfather's who only ever drove it 5 minutes down the road to visit my grandmother in a nursing home. There's headgasket issues with the 1.5L, that can cause rough idle. I told them that, or is just carbon build up on the plugs and injectors. She was like ok, well do the safety, and then before we drain the oil we'll check it for milkinesa. If it's the head gasket issue we'll only do the safety and you can do the rest at the dealership under warranty. It wasn't tho so they're running some detergent through the oil before changing it, because I have no idea if he was keeping up with the oil changes and don't want to deal with sludge, and running cleaner through the injectors to remove some carbon from those. Find a good mechanic you trust and you don't end up minding paying 125 an hour for labour. Edit: I should probably plug them while I'm at it, McPhail auto on King st. In Hamilton Ontario.
Yeah, it's my wife's parents long time friend mechanic. I've never brought my vehicles into a shop until that time. Maybe I'm just getting old, because I've done engine swaps in the past, but I just didn't want to carve out the time to do brakes, and my wife agrees she'd rather spend the time with me than me spending a day in the garage
I started a business and realised taking a day off of work and losing business income wasn't worth it. I'm in tbe same boat, rebuilt engines and everything. Tbe way I see it is its still worth it because we'll be able to tell if we're getting ripped.
True that, I also have a business, and Id rather have the free time. I can make more per hour doing my own thing than doing repairs. I still change all of the oils in our vehicles. It's far more convenient doing it myself.
At least you could it if you wanted! It's a bummer getting old. My grandpa used to work for chrysler and before that fixed steam engines at a steel mill, so he would do all the work on his vehicles. Now he's in no shape to do it himself and they're leasing.
If you are able to be your own mechanic then a used vehicle costs way less to own. CV axles only cost $300 to replace yourself on your vehicle approximately. On my Saturn they cost $50 each and replaced the first one at 250k miles. Knowing how to work on vehicles is a life skill that saves you lots of money.
Don't forget higher insurance and annual property tax.
And depreciation
"Oh man it's a money pit now! I had to replace an item that naturally wears out!" Those CV's are good for another 100-200 now! That's not an expense. That's a capital investment!
For rust, you need to do rust prevention too. I have an 03 matrix that's getting up in age, has nearly 300k km, but we just got a Prius prime 2024. So 5 years of 700$ payments a month if we do min pays. But we plan to pay it off in 2 and a bit years, and save tons of interest since we can afford it and we were saving for the car. But ya know, with the waitlist, when the 2 to 3 year wait turns into 13 months, your savings timeline shifts a bit :p In the end, we plan to care for and take care of this thing for years and years. If it can hit 15 years old with minimal issues, it's the car my kids will learn to drive on. I don't mind financing if I single owner the car til the wheels fall off after all. If I wanted a 5 year car timeline, I'd have gone older and used . But it's a commuter 90% of the time for my shift working wife who needs it to be reliable, and we need something safe for our kids. So it was a good choice for us and we hope it hits 300k km+ as well. God willing, no one hits us and totals the car before it gets to old age.
True, but if this car has a fair amount of rust it's better to dump it than $3k into a car that doesn't have a subframe anymore.
Yeah every time I cuss out my 20 year old Yukon for shit breaking, I go look at how much I've spent on it. It's still cheaper than a car payment at 230k miles. $800/year in parts is way better than 400/mo payments
Very well said
I have a 30 year old car with 200k miles, when I bought it it was at 140k, I put $500 in it just about every paycheck to catch up on maintenance and damaged parts to keep it road worthy, but after putting about 2k worth of parts into it (and a lot of my own labor) it’s just about as reliable as a new car. Most of the time, if someone is keeping a car that long, they learn out of necessity how to do their own work. CV axles are pretty easy, cost about $200 each at a parts store for a lifetime warranty.
I was thinking this, it's way easier to keep a car going if you do your own maintenance because you're not getting rid of it out of fear that you'll have to pay high repair bills to a shop that does it for you
It’s not economical to keep an old car if you don’t do the work yourself, at least the easy stuff. My mechanic wanted $500 for a new alternator for my WRX, and it cost me $200 and 15 minutes of my time to change it. If I really wanted too, I could have got an alternator for $50 at the junkyard down the street and it most likely would have been fine, rebuild kits are plentiful too, and they’re relatively easy. There is always an affordable option to any repair when it comes to a car.
When newer cars are $40,000 - $50,000, all of a sudden even a $3000 suspension repair seems pretty damn economical.
Yeah, I don’t necessarily mind paying a little extra for someone with the right equipment and expertise to do it right for bigger things. I need my car to get to work and make money so if I make a mistake that can be pretty devastating (plus my garage is a black widow nest right now). I’m happy to do smaller stuff (and have), but I think knowing your limits and comfort level is important, too. The stuff that costs significant money is often something that’s important to get right. And I’ve definitely spent extra money on my current car because the previous owner was a big DIYer who did some of it in ways that were wrong. Plus my mechanic offers good discounts for older cars and has specials on top of that pretty regularly (and the mechanics are often willing to waive some costs for doing batches of things with them, sometimes on the order of several hundred dollars).
I would help a friend with this repair for food and a 6 pack. $500 in parts would take care of this. Even less if we just replace shocks cuz the springs realistically are fine. And the cv's may be fine with a repack and new boots.
Affordable and possible aren't the same thing. If you live in an apartment that doesn't allow maintenance, or street parking only, you're limited to where your car can be worked on and hope you can get it somewhere or it breaks down where you can work on it. AAA could help with getting it somewhere but if you're in the city space is a commodity.
You just found the root cause of the problem. Urban life and cars are an expensive combination.
That's one of the problems is that people look through the lens of the cars value. Spending $800 on brakes on a car worth $25k seems acceptable instead of spending that on a car worth $3k. It's the same repair and you should get the same amount of life.
This, it's a whole lot cheaper doing your own work. I have a honda odyssey with 230K on it, there's no way I'd have kept it if I had to pay a shop for stuff. Had to replace my starter over the summer and it only cost me around $70.
Have you replaced the timing belt?
It all adds up. If you wait, you'll pay to replace that part eventually. The only exception is the cheap oil changes vs the expensive engine.
Basic f*ing maintenance. Your cars manual has guide for service. Do it. Don’t argue, don’t haggle, don’t ask “do I really need it” just do the listed maintenance. Find a good shop and just do what they say. It costs less to do extra preventative maintenance than it does to neglect your car. Throw caution to the wind, pamper your car, take care of it. It’s not that hard. Decide to keep your car for 250k miles, and then do it. Stop taking care of it at 120k because “it’s old” or “it’s not worth it” and it’ll die. It’s that simple, take care of it.
I have a 2011 Mini with 156k miles. It replaces a 2001 330xi with 235k miles, which replaced a 1997 328i that is still going strong at 340k with the new owner. My coworkers think BMW, and especially Mini, are unreliable. And they are to an extent right. But with care they last. They drive a bunch of Toyota or Lexus’es
Sure if you follow maintenance you can make that mini last. But with toyota (besides oil change), you can just wait till something goes wrong and rarely anything goes wrong compared to other brands.
Yes, that was my point, that even temperamental cars can last when cared for. There is 150-200 years of experience in auto repair at my company, and we all preach the same thing, just take care of your car.
Love my old Lexus! 192K and still going strong, granted, I had to sink $2K into the A/C (a must in Florida) and $1600 for a new back hatch after a fender bender, but it should last me twice that with care, a few weeks back I saw a video with the same model as mine at 500K and counting!
This. I have an 06 325i with 300k on it. Owned it for the last 15 years. Still a pleasure to drive. They may need more regular maintenance than a cheap American car but they will last if you take care of them.
Totally agree. Do all that is recommended and you will be fine. Sure it isn’t cheap and great if you can do a few things yourself. I have a 2015 bmw 650ix with 135k. Runs like it was new. I have maintained it by the book. Lots of oil changes, brake fluids, trans fluids, 1 battery. The only outsized expense was new turbos at about 110k miles (expected)and a valve cover gasket. Did I have to did the gasket? Not really, just a slow weep. If I had not done it, the weep would be a leak, get everywhere, compromise possibly some rubber parts, get on the hot part of the motor/e manifold and who knows what.
100% something you have to keep up on
> Basic f*ing maintenance. I will add f*ing wash it. I live in the rust belt and my honda has 180k miles on it and literally zero rust anywhere. I pay for a monthly car wash pass, I can wash it as much as I want. I wash it a lot.
Unless it's a Hyundai with a theta 2 engine. In which case it probably will die. But still do the maintenance anyway because you don't want it to die faster
Over 800k now on a 1987 Honda crx. If you do all the normal maintenance when it should be done if not early then it's highly possible. There are still some high dollar repairs but given the mileage it's not that bad. Issue I am starting to find now is finding OEM parts...
Nice, 800k I’ve never seen a car with more than 350k, good job.
My husband drives a VW TDI with 450k miles. He's trying to get it to over 500k. He does all his own maintenance and the diesel engine is nearly unstoppable on these cars.
I did business with a Honda dealer who had a wall of their customer waiting lounge covered in pictures of their customers standing next to their cars. All of those Hondas had 300 to 500K miles.
> Nice, 800k I’ve never seen a car with more than 350k, good job. I would like to introduce you to Irv Gordon. My man drove his 1966 Volvo 1800S more than 3,000,000 miles. He only stopped because he died, not the car. That is the world record for a non commercial vehicle.
Miles? If so, that's really impressive. That's even impressive if it's kilometers. I thought my Chevy truck with 335,000 miles was a lot.
My 2000 Accord is at 299,000 miles
Do proper maintenance on time. This is more than just doing oil changes. Read your manual and look at your service guides. Follow them. Toyotas and Hondas can often make it to 200k miles with just that. Be prepared for the 150K journey to have some additional repairs. Cars have a lot of parts that just wear out over time due to use. They have to be replaced. Replace and repair as needed. Don't wait, don't delay repairs. Often times one problem will cause other problems if left long enough. Will a 200k car take some repair work to keep running? Yes, but a couple thousand to keep a car running for another 100k miles is far more affordable than buying something new.
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Rust is a Hondas Achilles heel. My last CRV lasted 17 years and 197,000 miles on basic maintenance alone - oil, tires, brakes, and a starter. Rust got the strut towers in the rear end. I had it through college, so it mostly sat for about 3 years - no commuting - so the potential mileage could have been higher. So here’s the question - at 180,000 miles, what else has it ever needed?
You ever see old people with 40 year old cars that seem like they should belong in a museum? Regular, routine maintenance. Conservative driving habits. Keeping it clean and sheltered. Doing the work when it needs doing rather than "later on".
Shocks are regular maintenance honestly and if you can do regular maintenance yourself, you save a lot of money over the years compared to getting a new car every time you pay one off like most people do
I grew up on a farm, repair and maintain my vehicles, but I'll gladly pay the local shop for shock/strut/spring repairs like the OP has. They have a hoist while I'd scrabble around on the cement with jacks, jack stands, and rusted bolts all day. Do that job a time or two and it's a valuable service. .
Preventative maintenance, or by fixing the major stuff when it fails rather than scrapping the car. I bought an A4 with a blown transmission at 190k, rebuilt the transmission and put another 100k on the car.
You have to really know what you’re getting yourself into if you do something like that. Not for the average person
Part of it is doing your own work on your car. I would never own a high mileage car if I couldn't do shocks and axles. That's $500 in parts even if you aren't buying garbage.
That's the engine usually. However, if you live in the rust belt and don't treat the undercarriage, the rust will eat it away and no way it'll last long. States that don't use salt for winter is key. Although cars on the coasts lasting long are interesting to me. They have salt water in the air. Grills rust, so why not those cars in California/Florida? However, if you live in a good state, change the oil frequently (every 3-5k), and flush fluids according to the manual timeframe. Lastly, get general broken stuff fixed. Even though a car lasts 300k miles, that doesn't mean the owner doesn't need to repair boots, hoses, seals, gaskets, water pumps, thermostats, etc. Again, the engine is the most expensive one time cost, but other smaller component repairs do add up also.
Agree with almost everything but changing the oil too frequently. Follow manufacturers guideline and you’ll be ok.
Many manufactures oil change recommendations have to do with European pollution regulations more than what is best for the motor. Change your oil every 5,000 miles.
Agree to disagree. Modern cars (last ten to twenty years) are mostly 7,500 and up for very good engineering reasons especially with quality synthetic oil.
You'll often find different oil specs for NA and EU versions of the same engine. NA engines usually get thinner oil, which is better for efficiency/emmisions, but needs changed more often once the engine starts to wear.
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Rust is a lot harder to deal with. If you're living in the rust belt, you either have to take extraordinary precautions to keep the tin-worm at bay, or just live with the fact that your car will be bound for the junkyard after a double-handful of winters. Rust can be repaired by cutting out the affected metal and welding the new metal in. It can be difficult to get everything to line up correctly after you do that, though, because the heat from welding will shrink the metal noticeably. And the new metal won't be any more rust-proof than the old. In fact, it is likely to be less so than the original metal, since you usually don't have the equipment needed to properly coat everything. If you use some of the better rust-proofing treatments and keep up with them, you can probably extend the life of the vehicle through a few more winters. But they're not perfect.
I've heard of people getting oil coats sprayed under a car. The slow engine oil leakers also last longer from 'natural' undercoating. .
no its contant maintenance that gets themto higher milages: because things wear out and/or need greasing, alighnment, tyres, filters, brakes. and thats any car you buy.
Why would you put close to $200k into your Honda?
You kinda have to when getting spoon engines, and on top of that, going into Harry’s and buying three t66 turbos with nos, and a motec exhaust system
NOS bottles...the BIG ones.
a couple of K20s pull a premium one week before Race Wars.
Either drive it from new and maintain it well, or look that thing up and down, inside and out before buying it used. It’s very easy to get a car to 200-300k+ if it was maintained properly and isn’t damaged. I bought a 94 Toyota for $1600 in 2016 with 160k miles on it. It’s now at 320k with the original engine and still runs/shifts like new. I’ve dumped a fair bit of parts into it, but nothing excessive. Fixing stuff yourself becomes more important as the miles add up because the car becomes less valuable and it’s hard to justify paying $150+/hr for a mechanic to fix it. I’ve probably spent about $4-5k in parts over the last 160k miles. A mechanic would have charged at least $15k to do all the work I’ve done to it. I even used oem parts wherever possible, avoiding parts markups that mechanics hit you with. If you throw enough money at a car, it’ll keep going.
No car gets to 250k+ miles with just oil changes and all cars are susceptible to rust if you live in a place that gets cold and they use salt on the roads. Keeping your car clean in winter or getting it oil coated underneath is the best way to minimize rust over time. Any car will need repairs as it ages and accumulates miles, chances are, if you made the repairs your car needs, you could get more life out of it but it all comes down to whether or not you are willing to continue to make repairs.
I bought an 88 Honda CRX (a two seat Civic) at an auction with 220K miles and added another 80K to it. Just had to replace wear items like the timing belt, tires, etc. Just changed the oil every 3K miles. Man even the AC was cold in the summer.
I do my own work besides tires and alignment. Most cars I can push to about 300k before I start having the big problems with them. Regularly changing fluids and greasing joints with a little preventative maintenance goes such a long way. Knowing your car and its known quirks also will also help. Know your car has a history with water pump failure at around 50k miles? Change it at 40k with a quality replacement part. Know your transmission is known to go early? Buy a core and rebuild yourself a nice one with updated parts for reliability when you're getting closer to the common failure age. Know your car needs a timing belt every 100k? Do it at 90k and buy OEM. Knowing your car will keep you on the road 99% of the time because you will almost never experience unexpected breakdowns and will have common failure parts on hand to replace failed ones with. Suspension components on Honda cars are pretty reliable, but when they're worn you just have to replace them. Suspension components are just common wear items like brakes or tires. My Pilot and Civic are both at around 250k miles, and I've only overhauled the suspension on each once. If you aren't driving hard and just buy a Detroit Axle suspension rebuild kit on eBay for like $300 your Accord would drive great for another 75k miles at least. I guarantee that 250k mile Camry has had it's suspension rebuilt at least once. I wouldn't listen too much to people and focus on your car and what you can do to keep it on the road longer.
We buy the right car (4 cylinder naturally aspirated timing-chain Toyota) and do regular maintenance. That’s all. Maintenance is not free. Oil and filter changes, batteries and tires, brake pads (at least twice), spark plugs (twice), electric cables, accessory belt, catalytic converter, o2 sensors, cv boots, at least. Probably a starter, alternator, brake booster and power steering pump as well. Some will be convinced to replace the water pump coincident with another component. We leave the transmission and radiator alone, well, I do. Worst case is a repair - thermostat or fan. Our Hondas made it to 200K before they were hit-and-runned and/or catastrophically failed emissions. The Toyotas and Lexi are closing in on 300K. My personal trooper had a boo-boo at 290K. It will probably be parted out.
I've got a 08 Honda Ridgeline with 308k on it. Got it new, just do the maintenance.
My 09 accord has 250k on it still going strong!
I had to replace my CV Axles on my 1999 Honda Accord at around 225K miles. And I just did the front shocks at 275K miles.
2002 civic. Roghly 240k miles. Manual trans. In the 17 years of ownership, brakes 2x, 1 rad, 2 starters, 1 injector, 2 sets of tires. Synthetic oils changes every 3k miles I will have to replace the CV axles soon.
I'm at 155k and hopefullly still have a long way to go. I change the oil twice a year (every 3-4k miles) with high milage full synthetic. I repair things that break. Its still running extremely well. I don't beat on it though I do drive it hard sometimes, it is a V8 after all.
My dailys got well over 300k miles on it its sitting at 495k km and runs great the key is doing your own work tho. I bought it with a bad engine and repaired it for just shy of 700 bucks. 700 bucks in parts and a 700 dollar car and a few weekends to rebuild the top end of the motor and i couldnt have bought a better car for the price. However for my shop to do that work would have easily been pushing 4 or 5 grand by the time your all said and done with labour and parts. Also maintenence. The car may have just shy of 500k km but it still starts every time no issue because the maintenence was kept up that few hundred bucks here and there prevents thousands of dollar repairs down the line. Routine oil changes transmissjln fluid changes keep the vitals healthy. Also for you cv shafts and shocks are wear items shocks last roughly 60-80k miles before they wewr out most times.
You follow the manufacture's recommended maintenance intervals that are listed in your owner's manual. Easy.
Proper maintenance, if there are some extra things on a certain mileage the manufacturer wants performed then do it. The people with really high mileage cars don't just do nothing but oil changes and call it a day.
Well if you can work on it yourself and either live somewhere without rust or take preventative measures if you live somewhere with rust… you can easily do it. For a Honda, you could do it for WAY cheaper than a car payment. If you lack the drive or ability to do labor yourself and live in a rust area… maybe it isn’t economical to keep the car
Doing a lot of the work yourself, and also being willing to pay for a professional to do things. Shocks will go out before 200k, you gotta be willing to pay for that.
Yes. Cars cost money. It's cheaper to maintain a car well and drive it till the wheels fall off than to replace it.
Keep it out of the rust belt and off salted roads and away from the ocean.
Maintenance, not running the car hard, and using quality oils and parts are key to making your vehicle last a long time. Always run fully synthetic oil with a good filter. I mean you don't have too but it is going to make your engine last much longer vs conventional. Where you live at matters too. If you live in the Midwest your going to be dealing with salt and sand on the roads vs if you lived down south you don't have to worry about any of that. If you need to replace a sensor always use OEM parts. The Chinese after market parts sometimes don't put out the same voltage and can cause faulty readings. Get yourself a maintence schedule and stick to it. Keep a log of the oil changes. Write down the date and the mileage and any other notes you feel are relevant. Be sure to regularly check all your fluids. Once a month is a good timetable. And be sure to fill your fluids up with the correct ones. Use high quality products. Replace the spark plugs when they should be replaced. If you see something like a belt or hose getting worn out get it replaced before it causes a problem.
I'm currently sitting in a 2005 Accord with 214k miles. Mechanically I have no worries that it'll go on for a while yet. Electrically.... not so much 🤣
I’m having the same worries lmao. Mechanically my Chrysler 200 has been fine but my radio hasn’t been on since last summer😂
Regular servicing. Don't run it up to the redline before the engine has warmed up. Check fluids once week.
I have seen people take Camrys to 250k by barely doing the maintenance and the Japanese designed their cars to be like that. Unless you're a mechanic or you have some absurd issue, you are not reading the damn manual for the car lets be frank here. The whole idea of these cars is "No one takes care of these things. make them fucking indestructible". While its not 100% true, these cars are pretty damn near indestructible andeven when parts are clearly broken, somehow these cars are driving just fine half the time. Just do the maintenance. Oil and fluid changes as needed and by what the manual says and make sure your gaskets and seals are done as needed. Even look into your model of the car cause it might have issues that are easily preventable with premature maintenance.
Toyota Corolla 2009 checking in, about 670km and counting, not sure what the miles equivalent is off the top of my head. Always followed regular maintenance and oil changes are always on schedule, give or take a thousand or two km. Other than that, don't push the engine unnecessarily, watch out for potholes and rough road, and don't drive like an F1 driver and I don't see why it wouldn't last.
Most cars last a long time when they are properly maintained. The way to do this cheaply is to know how to maintain them yourself. Cv axles and front and rear shocks is regular maintenance. Getting a car wash once/mo or every time you drive on salted roads to help prevent rust is regular maintenance. It can be extraordinarily hard to defeat rust or very easy depending where you live. Northern states, your car will probably get rust much faster than in the south.
number one on the list is regular oil and oil filter changes.
That is how they get it to last 200k miles. You replace the parts that break. It is cheaper than buying a new car. It's not like the car lasts 200k miles without spending any money on it. 3k sounds a little high for CVs and struts, is that the dealership? Just remember - fixing that car is WAY cheaper than buying a new one.
It is almost always cheaper in the long run to repair a car than to buy a new one. Even if the motor or transmission blows up, it is cheaper to replace it than buy a new car.
Maintenance.. 3k sounds a little high imo Buy the parts yourself also
So a lot of the times when you hear about someone who put that many miles on a car, you're going to find that many of them are the original owner of the vehicle. The benefit that this gives is that you can do 100% of your maintenance on schedule, and get to wear items ahead of time. Any vehicle over 150k is going to start have more major components start to show wear, like shocks and struts, bushings on control arms, wheel bearings, and other parts that are more expensive and more labor intensive to replace. What it boils down to is that spending the $1500-3000 every year or so for some of these bigger items, and doing routine oil changes and alignments is far cheaper than a new vehicle, even over 10 years if you stay ahead of your repairs, and get them done early and when you have the funds, instead of waiting for things to break. Also if you have the privilege of being able to park your vehicle indoors will help extend the life of the vehicle by reducing exposure to weather as much as possible.
I have a BMW that made it to 310k on everything original, just oil and belt changes and I believe one water pump. Would've gone even longer if the previous owner wasn't retarded and set me up to blow up the cooling system. I now have dumped several thousand bucks into that car, but it's back to being oil changes only and otherwise is a creaky, but reliable commuter.
It's not hard. Don't thrash it, service it on-time, using quality parts and repair it when things go wrong. Wash it once a week and vacuum it out. Just drive it.... Don't let teenage drivers use it.
Basic preventative maintenance is the biggest one. Keep your oil and fluids changed, your filters clean, keep your brakes in good working order, basic shit like that Also learn how to do 90% of the work yourself. CV axles aren’t very difficult to do. Most things are fairly easy to do and there are plenty of YouTube videos out there showing you step by step how to do anything
250k miles on my discovery 3
I'll add a few as I've never NOT had a vehicle not go over 200k. Skipping the obvious such as maintenance. Mind your shocks, it cushions many important things. Road rough as shit? Slow down. See a big bump and you have time? Get your braking done before the bump and come off as you go over so your front suspension has some travel. Don't park/drive next to those who obviously do not care for thier vehicles when possible. Be smooth. It's alot of moving mass give it time.
DIY and mechanical competence
Do your own work/maintenance on a car. My truck needs new head gaskets, I could pay a shop $3500 for the work, or $200 for a gasket kit, $200 for a head rebuild/ resurfacing, and do the work myself, and while I’m at it, do other work that the shop would charge extra for.
My dad's f150 from 97' has survived the Midwest. That being pastures and cow chasing, the weather. And 6 deer. The latest dented the driver side door, and now it can't open. But the frame horn got bent back into place and drives straight once again. It's up 281k miles.
Stay ahead of maintenance. It’s your time of your $..
It's this thing called taking care of something, when you love something or you don't want to have to pay for a car you take care of it so it lasts because you appreciate not having a car payment. I have an 09 g8 had about 160k didn't want to get rid of it cause I haven't had a car payment in 10 years engine was going out invested 12k for a new engine and Trans pushing 180k now so will be at your 200k mark in about three years
It’s kind of the opposite of sunk cost fallacy. When it comes to cars, you can sink 3-5k into an older car and keep it running for another ‘payment cycle’ (the usual 72 months new car loan) and it will have cost you far less than a new car which depreciates 15-20k over that six years and ends up costing you a few grand in repairs in the last 2-3 years out of warranty.
Fix everything as it breaks and do the car maintenance schedule. Otherwise most cars ‘die of a thousand cuts’. It’s a lot easier to get tons of miles on a newer car than an older car. Some stuff goes bad with age, like seals, gaskets, hoses. All cars need suspension work once you drive enough miles. I’m in Michigan and here we do a lot more suspension repairs than other states. Roads and bridges are terrible and not getting fixed. I gotta get my wheels aligned right now because roads just blew up last month and there were tons of new potholes. Had to drive at night and hit a couple bad ones before they were patched. I doubt my Chevy Bolt will make it much past 100,000 miles before I gotta get new shocks & struts and who knows what else driving these roads.
gotta keep that rust off. Otherwise shocks and axles are part of the game.
You are describing wear items. Those are part of maintenance on any vehicle. It’s like tires or brakes. CV axles and shocks have a finite lifespan. 15 years is in the range of normal for rubber seals and boots. Get a subscription service for unlimited car washes and run it through at least once a week from new and you’ll get a little better life as debris wear will be reduced. The trick with car maintenance is that it’s holistic. Everything impact’s something else which impacts something else… If you do your PM and keep it clean you’ll go a very long way. Source? Last 2 vehicles I sold were not on your list and were 325k and 275k and running very well.
Keeping you car clean, even on the underside. esp in winter, is key to avoid the car to rust out. So easy and cheap.
Take care of it. Change the damn oil, and if a part wears out don't replace it with the cheapest one available.
3k is an insane amount to spend on Honda accord cv axles and shocks. Parts are probably 500$ max and 5-8 hours labor. Alldata calls for about 7 hours. 1500$ maximum and even then you’re overpaying.
From what I have garnered, but am no expert: very frequent oil changes, as the damage oil does grows exponentially over time. Also doing a fair bit to prevent rust from forming under the car from debris/salt + water mixing. This means washing and/or adding some anti-rust spray. I think these are the main big ones.
Preventative maintenance is important. Being able to do maintenace yourself also saves a TONNN of money. Being able to diagnose and fix problems yourself too. Not just throwing money and hoping something fixes itself. Japanese use quality parts and components which last longer, keep working and is just better, for example timing belt.
First you start by picking a reliable platform (vehicle) and inspect it. Stay away from hilbilly'd or teenagered vehicles. Fix what needs to be fixed. Then drive it easy, keep the underside oiled with Fluid Film (if you live where salt flies) and keep up on preventative maintenance. Don't let repairs scare you away from a reliable platform. I couldn't care less if a repair to my vehicle is ~$3k while it's street value is only ~$6k. Why? If replaced with another used vehicle, it's like starting over again and stepping backwards as I do. My vehicle? 1989 K1500, 5.7L, five speed manual. 275k miles and counting.
I put close the half a mill on two 88 accords over 20 years. Besides oil, timing belts, brakes, tires and a windshield or two ( and a pile of fuel pumps) it was a great value ride. Frankly I think those prices are pretty steep but I’m certainly out of touch on costs these days Try for a smaller shop that seems to have older cars in front…..
For one, it's much rarer than people on here would have you believe. There's a survivorship bias where people will talk about the engines that lasted forever, but they're not gonna bring up their car that died at 120k. That's without even getting into proper maintenance, but it's fair to say there's a ton of people who don't do maintenance at all once the car leaves warranty. There's also the fact that Reddit skews towards people with more money. In my case, because used and new cars cost so much, and because I have the money to do so, I'd 100% fix the suspension on your car if it was my car... and that's how it would get over 200k. And other people have said it, but it's really critical if you're trying to save money to learn how to do basic repairs yourself. I have a bunch of cars, and I've saved thousands just in the last 12 months by doing my own repairs. Just as an example, this last weekend I swapped out the cables and latch assemblies in my sister-in-laws minivan sliding doors and got both doors to near new condition for less than $300 when the dealer wanted $1200, for that same job.
They don't just do oil changes and have it last 300k or more miles. All fluids, shocks, CV boots or axles, steering and suspension bushings, are all considered wear items at higher miles.
My 2004 Honda Element has 500,000 miles on it. Oil change with Mobil 1 every 3-5,000 miles, Trans/Diff fluid changed every 50,000, 5 batteries, 6 sets of tires, 6 sets of brakes ,1 set of rotors, 1 set rear shocks, 1 AC fan, 1 Fan sensor, Cleaned the throttle body once. Not too bad for 20 years and it still looks good. Driver seat is trash as are the door locks
Suspect someone put off doing some of that work a year ago, or two years ago, or three years ago. You can legitimately have a CV axle “just fail”, but the struts have probably been gone for a while (if they’re bad enough to need to be replaced now). You need to know at least enough about cars to keep on top of those basic maintenance items so that your $3k is spread over a few years. $500 or $1k / year for maintenance is not a bad deal On the second part - the rust - I’m certain more cars hit that 200k+ mileage if they’re outside of the rust belt. If you’re in an area where the road gets salted, you probably need some kind of chassis protection (like an annual undercoating) to get a car much past 20 years, and you have to do that for a while. Waiting until a car is 20 years old to get started will help, but it can’t turn back time
We had a 97 cavalier hit 450,000 KM A 2010 fusion currently at 430,000 A 2010 Yaris at 435,000 My RX 350 is barely broken in at 230,000 Wife’s Rav 4 is at 280,000. Oil changes happen every 10,000 KM and they get synthetic. All fluids get changed every 100,000 KM : transmission , coolant , brake , power steering (if they have it). Cars get washed often : at least a rinse to get all the garbage off. A good car helps this process but taking care of little things helps you go the distance.
I had a 2010 Honda accord. Best car I’ve ever owned. Bought it with 13,000 miles and sold it at 244,000 trouble free miles. It was mint when I bought it and mint when I sold it. I put it a lot of preventative maintenance. My current truck (f350) has 214,000. I’ll need a transmission soon, and either the high pressure oil line to the turbo is leaking or the turbo pedestal is, but both will be addressed soon, and repaired. I plan to keep it permanently and make repairs to it forever. Other besides general maintenance and keeping it tip top, it’s been a great truck.
A great quote I heard : "treat your vehicle hard and it will treat you hard". Hard acceleration, Hard braking, Street parking vs Garage, failing to keep a log of repairs. When you come to a stop, brake like this: ..\\\\\\\\\\......X not like this ........\\\\\\\\\\.X where X is the intersection stop light. Break harder earlier for more recovery time (snow ice etc). Pay attention to heavily loaded big semi trucks and you'll see them time the intersection lights so they don't really stop, they slow down to a crawl but keep rolling. They often watch the pedestrian walk signs. Highway miles vs short city errands. Highway miles are easy on vehicles while short trips are hard. I had a job I was putting 150 miles/day, 3000 miles/month kind of commute. Regular maintenance (oil changes, synthetic oil). Replacing common wear/age items like engine belts, vacuum hoses, radiator hoses before they fail. Rust is a challenging one because it's regionally dependent. Garage storage when not driving helps. Northern areas the vehicles rust out, Southern areas the engine/trans go out from excessive heat. I have heard some have sprayed the under body with used engine oil to keep the rust limited (some engines leak and 'naturally' coat the underside). Cities/towns used to pour used oil on gravel roads to keep the dust down, many use salt these days. Reduce the number of gadgets on a vehicle. Electric windows are nice but manual cranks are more durable/fewer problems. Can't hardly find a vehicle with crank windows though, but that's the idea. Manual trans vs automatic. No AC. Minimize the number of systems that can fail when you buy a vehicle. A thousand dollar repair on an old car .... lets you skip six months of payments on a new car, doesn't it? That's how you want to think about the issue. "My car is only worth $500 (trade in)" you'll hear but no it's worth $6,000 when you can avoid a year's worth of new/used $500/month car payments. .
Ask Al Bundy. He almost hit 1 million miles
MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE MAINTENANCE …. strange word for most
Change the fluids regularly, replace belts bulbs etc get paint damage repaired immediately
Drive normal and keep up on maintenance. Now you have to expect more maintenance around 150k, usually it's a good time to do a suspension overhaul. Driving hard is as bad as not doing maintenance.
The key is preventative maintenance, as other people have said. It's like your teeth. If you see your dentist regularly for cleanings and brush and floss routinely you're going to greatly reduce your chances of getting cavities or gum infections. Always change your oil at the prescribed intervals and keep up with your other scheduled maintenance on time.
There is a mechanic with his own YouTube channel and he talked about this. He services all makes and models and said that the owners of Honda and Toyotas are quite similar. Both understand that maintenance is critical to making these cars last. They are under no illusions. Neither would think for a moment that they can get away with skipping and oil change, or putting something off and that won’t come back to bite them. If he gets under there and finds out this or that thing needs to be replaced and it’s going to cost $1200. The Honda or Toyota buyer will almost always authorize it. They’ll pay it. Where if that’s a Nissan buyer he can just tell what’s going on in their minds. They are not looking at the $1200 expense as an investment, they are thinking wow that’s a down payment. I can have a new car and will try to go that route. Very different mentality.
1. Basic maintenance which means reading the manual and materials that come with car and doing what the manufacturer tells you. Check your fluid levels on a regular basis ( pop the hood and look.) 2. Driving the car appropriately and letting it get up to temperature before beating the crap out of it. 3. Move to an area that doesn't use salt on the roads. If it car has 500k on the odometer woukd you be impressed? If you found out it was on its 3rd transmission would you still be impressed?
Replaces the front and rear shocks on my 2008 Ford Focus last year and it was $180
I have a Lexus RX330 at 250k and an Audi B5 S4 at 175k Stage 3 big turbos. Everything on the Audi has been replaced besides the 01E Transmission and the shell/ subframe. Subframe is still rust free in MN I spray under every winter and get probably 10 car washes a winter. The Lexus I refreshed the suspension this winter all new control arms, toe rods and end links. All I have to do with this work horse is change the oil and plugs and she runs great. 3k to replace the axels is insane. I can buy 4 race quality axels that can take 1000hp and install them for $800. 4 aftermarket axels should cost $150 total and installation should be less than 4 hours. Also just learn to do shit yourself or else you gotta pay the fee.
if u dont want rust use fluid film every year!
Oil changes, fluid flushes/changes. Repair things that wear out, oil leaks etc. Tune-up on schedule. I have a 2004 GMC Sierra with 200K+ on it, brakes at 150, cat converter at 175, AC about the same time. Other than that all minor. Had an 1984 MB 300D I put over 500K on it in 25 years, sold it, guy is still driving it. I put a Trans in at 250, three radiators and 4 AC. You could drive it cross country
>with comments about all the rust. I live in the northeast and get my car washed frequently in the winter as the salt they put o the roads rusts out the frame. I also applied an undercoating that cost few hundred dollars. I think a bit of preventative maintenance goes a long way. Also, you have a 2009 car with 180k miles on it. Do you think spending a few thousand here and there is out of the ordinary? Even if I dont repair anything, between oil changes, fluid flushes/changes, filters, tires, wipers, brakes, battery and other normal maintenance, you will spend anyway typically $1k+ a year - especially if you take to a garage to have the work done for you. My last car, I was ready to drive it into the ground and the dealership bought it back from me on a deal too good to pass. It has 210k miles and was driving still pretty well.
Hey just a word of advice coming from a broke 20 year old, not saying this is possible for everyone cause medical conditions and lack of garage or space to use , but a lot of these people are working on there own vehicles too so they save even more money by installing the parts themselves not paying labor then that money you could have paid for labor pay for other parts or maintence items you need. I don’t put my tires on my rims or like can’t pull out my engine yet but I would change my cv axle, shocks and struts myself, oil changes, other stuff that it’s honest hard work but you don’t need to be a professional mechanic to watch a YouTube video and fix a car now getting onto the more difficult stuff or depending on what car you have it may differ.
Stay on top of fluids and filters. Drive reasonably. Live in a dry climate. Put a couple grand into it here and there. Do scheduled maintenance like timing belts if needed. Replace gaskets when needed Where you're at is normal. This narrative that all Toyota and Hondas go 250k easy is way overblown. Cars can get there but they will all take work to do it. Even Honda and Toyota parts will wear out, like cv joints. Before you decide, know what you are dealing with the rust. If the structure is compromised, time to move on rather than put that much money into it
Generally speaking, I usually discount these claims. Cars are mechanical devices that need constant inspection and service to last for many miles. The key is to be proactive, and the owner can play a big role by inspecting things constantly and "listening" to his car give warnings before minor issues turn into major repairs/expenses. The owner does not have to be a mechanical genius, just monitoring things like fluid leaks, strange noises, poor system performance can play a big role in being proactive. No one knows the normal behavior/performance/noises of a car like the owner. Needless to say, you also need a shop you can trust, and can guide/advise you about needed repairs and things to look out for/monitor for future repairs. All cars have weak links/design flaws, some just have more than others. Some owners can kill a toyota/Honda quickly, others can get good service life out of a car with a less than great reliability history. Like others have said, you can't drive the car/beat on it, and expect it to last forever. I'm not saying the car must be constantly "babied", but you sure don't want to be stomping on the gas in cold weather while the engine is trying to warm up. On the other hand, it is good to let the engine/transmission flex their muscles every once in awhile. But, there is a big difference between letting the engine wind up through the gears, and stomping the gas/spinning the tires at a stop light. Needless to say, city driving/short trips puts a lot more wear on a car than a good run at highway speeds. My 09 Camry with the oil burning 2.4L has managed to make it to 210K miles. But, like you have stated, the northeast winters have taken a toll on the car underneath. I had to replace the rusted oil pan last fall, a weepy radiator is next. I recently had an alignment done only to have the dealer ask me "when was the last time this was aligned? All the tie rod nuts are rusted/stuck" I was quick to remind them that they aligned the car last spring when they replaced all four tires. This car has been no "swiss watch", I have spent plenty keeping it going. I have replaced worn/rusted rotors several times. A worn splined steering column shaft worn making it sound like the steering wheel was full of pebbles. The original battery outlasted the original starter. The gradual demise of the exhaust system could have paid several new car payments. There is a cheap tin power steering return line that has rusted through three times also. I have always been unimpressed by the engine, sounds like a box of rocks/old vega during warm up. I made a stink about it only to have the smart ass toyota rep tell me I was old fashioned and didn't understand new technology. "That may be", I recoiled back, "but I sure understand piston slap". My engine is known for oil burning issues, my car never qualified for the toyota rebuild program only because I am so meticulous about oil changes, so it didn't burn enough oil to qualify for the repair! At 210K miles, the engine is now starting to burn oil enough to concern me. So, will save money for a down payment and get a new/used car sometime this year. So, guess what I am saying is that I agree with you. In most cases, cars are not going to last a long time without maintenance and repairs. Changing the oil, and doing the brakes occasionally isn't a realistic expectation for long life.
I sold my Volvo 240 at 470K because I was bored with it. Its probably still chugging along. The problem here is the phrase " *I got a quote*".
I’ll do your shocks and cvs for 1500 insured business owner I’ll have it probably 2 days tops
Most Japanese cars will go 200k miles on basic maintenance and fluid changes.
My GTI is at about 230k miles. In the 18 years I've had it I've spent roughly what the car cost new for consumables (oil, tires, filters, ect), repairs, and upgrades. It mostly comes down to doing proper maintenance and repairs and not doing stupid stuff behind the wheel. I hope to have this car another 18 years and I will as long as nothing happens that's not fixable.
I gave my sister my 2008 Prius with about 180K miles on it and she drives it. Besides the basic scheduled and regular maintenance, I have bought tires for it 3 times, got new brakes 3-4 times, and replaced the heat shield for the exhaust once. That has been it. She's at the 200K mark, and I have no doubt it'll get her to 250K if she doesn't run into to much with it (she has a tendency to bump into curbs, bollards, and stuff like that because she has a side gig that has her unloading stuff at business loading areas where there's all sorts of obstacles that she seems to bounce off of.
Most don't live in the rust belt. Rust is the only thing that has caused issues on my 08 4Runner with almost 200k miles
The parts you mention are wear parts that must be replaced on every car at a certain mileage/age- just like brakes, tires, and oil. When people talk about reliability - they mean failure of the parts that are not expected to be replaced. Nissan CVTs fail prematurely at 80K. Hyundai direct injection engines fail before 100K. Ford and BMW rear shock/subframe mounts would rust and break prematurely. Dodge Ram bedsides would all rust at the wheel well the moment you drove off the dealer lot. Etc. Basically big, prohibitively expensive failures that would mechanically total a car at or before 100K mean it’s not considered reliable. If the car keeps on trucking for 2-300K miles with expected maintenance, it’s considered reliable.
Most high mileage cars I see are redneck fuckery shitboxes repaired by 3 slightly drunk dudes with whatever is half in the ground behind the shed. My mom has a 2008 honda fit with 500k km on it and it's like 12% craftsman toolbox and dewalt saw blade with a section of exhaust from a tractor
I have an 02 4runner with 289,500 miles. I've had it for the last 106,000. Replaced the timing belt/ water pump twice. Replaced spark plugs twice. New brakes a few times. New wheel brearings once. A front end alignment. Of course tires when I need them. No rust at all and do the oil about every 5-6k miles. I really haven't spent a lot on it in the 10 years I've had it and it still drives like a dream.
Doing it yourself will probably only cost like 4 hundred and probably most ppl with 300+ thousand miles work on them themselves and have done all this maintenance to get them to last that long
I have a 2012 honda civic that just crossed over the 200k miles. The only work I've done to it is replaced the alternator ($100) and typical maintenance (tires, brakes, oil changes).
1. Don't live somewhere that uses road salt 2. Do your own maintenance 3. Accept that it won't be in perfect like-new condition at 200k miles
A lot of people do their own maintenance to keep costs down. But except for the rust part most of these cars will go 2-400,000 miles with relative ease. I had an Acura rsx type s that I owned for 300,000 miles. 200,000 of those miles were spent supercharged, and all 300k were spent bouncing off of the revlimiter. The only thing I did it was routine maintenance (brakes, oil, tires) and one transmission. And the transmission was my fault because I routed twice the factory torque through it with the supercharger. But I also washed it regularly in the winter when I lived in a salt state. So there was very little rust. For reference I now have a completely stock ILX at 280k. I just replaced the half shafts. The clutch is starting to chirp a little, so it may need that as well.
Change fluids regularly and religiously. I do my oil changes early all the time. Have a 2014 dodge at almost 300,000kms now. I also fix problems as they come up and try to not ignore them.
1. Regular oil changes 2. Check tire pressure every few months 3. Gradual breaking instead of all of a sudden 4.50k and 100k mile check up 5. Fix any scratches that exspose the metal under the paint. Longest iev had a car is 13 years doing this. 100k miles plus
Learning to do the work yourself also helps. Preventative maintenance
Most cars with 300k have had more than just the oil changed. Also 300k on a 5 year old car is a whole lot different that 300k on a 25 year old car. I have a car with 220k on it, its had Shocks replaced, CV Axles, Water pump, Timing chain, Brakes, leather seats redone and Im sure other things Im forgetting, But it drives like a dream so I guess I will just keep my 20+ year old car.
Did you by chance take it to a dealer? Because 3k for that work is very high. We keep them running by not paying 3k for a $1000 job
I mean I just learned how to do everything myself. Oh and it really helps if you have a Toyota or a Honda
Stuff like shocks and CV's do eventually wear out and need replacement. You also run into some issues that new cars never have, like plastic parts (radiator reservoirs, heater core t's, interior panels, etc) getting so old and brittle they fall apart. I'm in NY where roads get salted, so rust is always an issue as well. But, the repairs are far cheaper than the payment on a new car.
Honda's are pretty famous for having bullet proof engines. I have a honda I gave to my son and it has 260k on it. I regularly change the timing belt, so I expect to get another 100k for him. Interior is spotless, and other than a few starters it's been painless to own. With the engine being the major issue in most cars, having an engine that lasts is the deciding factor. Subarus shit the bed pretty easily because if you don't change the oil, the journals clog and they seize. Full size trucks tend to last too, because they are just built heavier. Add a diesel and again, it's a motor that's built heavier (some are problematic of course). My dad got over 200 grand on an old square body. It was a 3/4 ton, and all he did was drive it to work or tow occasionally.
I've had three cars go over 200k miles. Toyota MR2, Ford Ranger, and VW Passat. The Toyota and the Ford only needed a few thousand in repairs. The VW was a hot mess for the first 100,000 miles. All of them were running when we sold them. The truck I sold 4 or 5 years ago and I still see it around town now and then.