How many RELIABLE Miles in TODAYS cars?

I drive about 100 miles round trip to work each day, its a ten mile drive to the grocery store. I have a '91 Ranger, bought it in 2000 from an old man who no longer could drive, it had 18,000 actual miles on it. It now has about 220,000 and I am backing off on its daily use. Its had its share of maintenance but nothing exceptional, in part I've learned to throw certain parts at it before it needs them.

I have a '99 plymouth breeze, it has 115K on it now, had 45K when I bought it from a neighbor. His father had passed away and he had no need for the car. Its been very reliable, but I'm preparing to throw parts at it too.

This is all in contrast to a '67 falcon that has 308K on it and the first 200K of that was city mileage. Its had everything done to it many times over, valve jobs, alternators, brakes, clutches, you name it. Cars are much more reliable today, even if they seem more cheaply built.

At the moment, I consider 200K mi the point at which reliability seems to start to wane. It will run, but leaves you wondering what next?

Charles

I live a mile from work, drive a 50 mile round trip to town maybe twice a month, and a 130 mile round trip to The Big City maybe two or three times a year. I've got an 89 Chevy truck I bought new that now has less than 65,000 miles on it.

My point is, if you live in circumstances where you put 30 or 40 K-miles a year on a vehicle, you're probably going to get more total miles out of it than I am at less than 10 K-miles a year.

I bet if you checked, you'd find that describes the folks that put 200K+ on their vehicles.

In 1969 I needed another car. I went to a local dealer with a good reputation, told them what I wanted, and what I was willing to spend. They said they had nothing that fit my needs at that price, but they'd call me when they did. Since I wasn't in a big hurry, that was fine with me.

About 3 weeks later, they called me to come in. They had a beautiful red '65 Pontiac Bonneville that was a stunner. It drove as good as it looked. I asked what they wanted, they told me, and said it was non-negotiable. I asked if they'd done anything to it since it came in the day before, and they said "We didn't even wash it. What you see is the way it came in." They gave me the name of the former owner, and told me to contact him if I had questions. I did, and he (Larry) said the car was fine. Larry ran a body shop.

I asked if the mileage (51,000) was actual, and the salesman said, "I won't lie to you. This is the fifth time we've sold that car. We sold it new to a salesman, when he traded it in, we took 30,000 miles off of it. The third time we sold it, we took off 20,000 or so. That guy rolled it, and put the roof down next to the seats. We got it as a wreck, and sold it to Larry; he fixed it as good as new for his wife to drive. The only reason he traded it was because she wanted one with air conditioning."

I swallowed hard, and bought the car. I put another 75,000 or so miles on it, and it was one of the best cars I ever owned. I traded it to a friend in a deal for his Cutlass. His wife drove it for at least three years. They sold it to someone else. In about 1980 I spotted it again for the last time. By then in probably had well over 225,000 miles on it.

Rust is what kills them.

I'm driving a '96 Chevy Lumana with 177000 miles that I will not get rid of until something breaks that costs too much to consider fixing.

A neighbor of mine traded in a Toyota pickup truck last summer that had 350000 miles on it, and was running fine.