Make you car last 250k miles

[Mint Q45A]

Found this article: http://articles.moneycentral.m....aspx

Simple, basic, common sense....but the part I liked the most was:

if not most, cars are traded in before their time simply because people become embarrassed about driving them. I've chosen to turn that thinking on its head by taking perverse pride in showing up with the oldest car at any restaurant, preschool party or local event I attend. My motto: "Laugh all you want. It's paid for. Is yours?"

[96Qowner]

I happen to know you can do it. I bought a brand spankin new 1990 Accord EX with 42 miles on it and ran it to 392,000 before the wife rear-ended a girl a couple weeks ago. All I did was follow the maintenance schedule and fix stuff when it broke. For the last 200,000 miles it cost me roughly 10 cents/mile to maintain. Unfortunately, there is the embarrassment issue - very difficult to explain the satisfaction in owning the same car for all those miles - knowing EXACTLY what condition it's in at all times - have every repair record.

I still want to fix it, but the wife is giving me a hard time about it. I don't care what it looks like anymore - I just want to see how much farther it'll run before the engine or transmission goes - she's getting comments from people about how much nicer the Q is.

[Mint Q45A]

Glad wife didn't get hurt
Modified by Mint Q45A at 3:39 PM 2/7/2008

[Desmoquattro]

In my humble opinion, it's down to how the owner treats the car (driving and maintenance wise) and pure luck. Even new cars still have faults, and odds are a lot will not do high mileage without problems. But occasionally you get one that was screwed together just right, and with the planets properly aligned it will do infinite mileage with minimal issues. My family has gone through a number of high mileage cars - 300 000 kms on a Audi 4000S Quattro (not known for reliability), about the same on a Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0L (also not known for reliability in the long term, we had some problems but the engine and transmission held up), and over 200 000 on a 2003 Altima 3.5SE. The problem is these are exceptions, not the norm. The Altima worked perfectly for the entire period we owned it, aside from the electronic motor mounts buggering up (that was fixed by simply disconnecting them). Meanwhile my father's current G35 is having a variety of issues with less than 150 000kms. My mother's Acura 1.7EL (tarted up 04 Civic to you Americans, it's only sold in Canada) has had a LOT of problems and parts failures before 100 000 kms. But the Acura is supposed to be a stone-axe type of car, it's a better Civic after all, so what gives? That's where the luck part comes in.

I deal with a lot of Ducati motorcycles, and they are legendarily bad for reliability, especially mine. But I've got 50 000 kms on it without any major problems (knocking the wooden desk vociferously), and I chalk that up to thorough maintenance and REGULAR USE - Ducati garage queens are the worst of a bad lot, lack of use makes them finicky and things go wrong if they don't get ridden often. I've seen some Ducs hit huge mileage (for a bike anyway) with minimal maintenance and not that much care from the owner. We call the bikes that don't stand up "grappa Monday / Friday" machines, put together when someone had a few too many drinks with their lunch.

I don't think there is anything like a formula for getting high miles out of a vehicle - it's very much dependent on what kind of day the factory workers were having, among other factors an owner can't control.

[RAP]

Not to start an International grudge here but IMO the kilometrege ? ? you quote are well within in the realm of the easily possible for most any car today.

Now if you want to operate a vehicle that will easily go 3-400000 "miles" without too much trouble then anything powered with the "Chevvy 350" will do it.

Now maybe Canuks loaded with too much Moose juice and working "on the GM line" will tend to screw things up for you but NOT HERE.

Jack

[Desmoquattro]

Not to start an International grudge here but IMO the kilometrege ? ? you quote are well within in the realm of the easily possible for most any car today.

Now if you want to operate a vehicle that will easily go 3-400000 "miles" without too much trouble then anything powered with the "Chevvy 350" will do it.

Now maybe Canuks loaded with too much Moose juice and working "on the GM line" will tend to screw things up for you but NOT HERE.

Jack

Two words: Canadian Winter.

You'd be amazed at how hard -20 C weather is on mechanicals, not to mention the salt. Most cars rust out well before they top 300K. As for the Ducatis, good luck finding one with more than 50 000 miles, a "high-mileage" Duc is usually around 30 000 miles (50 000 kms). Most I've seen is over 100 000 miles on an air-cooled Monster, which is really exceptional.

My point isn't really that 300 000 kms is a lot (well it is, but more is possible), it's that we've had some vehicles that shouldn't have gone that long that did, and some vehicles that should have lasted forever and didn't. Luck of the draw.

Sorry I keep flip flopping between miles and kms. I think in miles, and my bike is in miles, but my car is in kms and no else one understand miles up in the frigid North.
Modified by Desmoquattro at 12:17 PM 2/8/2008

[AlabamaDan]

Consumer Reports says you should ditch a car when the cost of a repair exceeds its fair market value.

We might break that rule here at NICO.

[DoinkMobb]

Consumer Reports says you should ditch a car when the cost of a repair exceeds its fair market value.

We might break that rule here at NICO.

I'm beginning to learn that this is very true. Oh well, if I have to spend a few thousand on top of the cost of the car to have a well maintained Q, so be it. It'll still be cheaper than the crazy car payment I used to make on my old car.

And I'm pretty sure that no car could hold up to the abuse my wife puts her cars through. I have to hand it to Hyundai though, her Accent (which she got new) is still alive at 95K+ miles. They even replaced a transmission under warranty! Would it make it to 250K miles though? Not with my wife driving...

[Q45tech]

The trick is to decide what CLASS of car you wish to maintain?

How much you are willing to spend ANNUALLY on repairs and mainteance, add in depreciation if any then select a vehicle that comforms.

V8 vs V6 vs I4 and how much a newer car will cost..................the $3,000 in fixup cost any used car needs [reason for being sold in first place], is the thing most chose to ignore.

It is amazing how some people sell a problematic car and buy another car that maybe worse and they do this foreveer over and over and over.You would think they would take time to LEARN about cars since they are usually the 2nd greatest monthly expense after HOUSING and children.

Buying a replacement that has payments, higher insurance because of payments, higher annual fees, AND STILL NEEDS mainteance and repairs usually doesn't COMPUTE.

Most people downsize in CLASS and engine/ FWD and weight, never again to be pampered by a high end car.