Our “new” car is a 2008.
My Ford E 150 is an 05 with 255,000 miles. So far it has had 1 tuneup, a set of shocks, gone through 2 alternators and more tires then I care to count. My next work van will be another Ford E 150. I am very serious about changing the Mobil 1 oil every 5000 miles
You better hurry. Ford discontinued the E-150 in 2014. I heard about it and bought one last year. There should still be a few left on dealers lots.
My daily driver is 15 years old, and has 247,000 miles on it. Other than a few weird noises here and there (operator error, I’m ashamed to admit), it’s been a champ.
Although, Lord willing, I might be acquiring something a bit older before too long.
They are still in production as of this year (2014), But yes I heard they are going to discontinue them :mad:
You are not alone. Daily driver is going on 23 years, other two were built in 1961-62 (one is running).
My vehicles are a 1999 and a 2003 respectively. Both run just fine and the occasional repair still works out WAY cheaper than car payments and full-coverage insurance on a financed vehicle. The 2003 is also a Ford E-150 cargo van.
Several months ago I got rid of my old Nissan 5-speed truck which ran great with over 300K, but living in the Rust Belt was killing it and the frame was rotting out so I didn’t feel it was safe any more. Plus it was starting to look like shit. I really miss my little red Wonder-Truck, and I really miss a manual trans too. I still keep raising my left foot and reaching for the shifter to hit the clutch at times.
Used to be 100K was the beginning of the end for just about any vehicle, but that really isn’t the case any more.
I got 130k miles on the last two cars I owned. My current car I bought new last year. My previous two were both 10+ years old. I liked not having car payments but hated the uncertainty and unreliability. It’s way better (for me) knowing the engine is going to start every time I turn the key, and that I’ll safely arrive at the office without a lot of terrifying mechanical complications (I’ve experienced both total brake systems failure and a wheel spontaneously coming off, both on the highway) in my last two ‘old’ cars. That stuff doesn’t happen with a brand new vehicle.
We’ve got a 15 year old Honda Civic with 160,000 miles and a 7 year old Honda CR/V with 108,000 miles so that puts our average car age right at the average :).
My previous car was a Dodge Caravan that started misbehaving, badly, at just over 10 years and 120,000 miles (including attempting to strand us 500 miles from home). Over 2 months they never could figure out what was going on with the damn thing; I spent more in repairs during those 2 months than a payment on a new car would have been, and I got tired of the fun “guess whether it’ll start today!” game so out it went.
I’m glad the OP’s minivan has lasted longer than its brand-mate did for us (we sunk a small fortune into ours, including replacing the whole air conditioning system).
We’re hoping for 20 years out of that Civic and it just might happen.
Anyone remember when it was a rare thing for a car to break 100K?
I remember when a 10 year old car was almost rare. I drive a 2000 Nissan Serena which is a bus type van, locally called a guagua here in the Dominican Republic. It is worth locally almost $3000.USD No air cond hand operated windows etc 1.9 liter diesel. 40 miles to the gallon.
My rides are a 1999 Ford Ranger pick up and a 2002 Toyota Echo, so 15 and 12 years old.
The only time I had something electronic go bad was when the pick up was hit by lightning - we had to replace a brakelight and both the digital clock and CD player are no longer working since then. Other than that, it’s fine. So… the electrics are reliable except when hit by a bolt from the blue.
I don’t think we give modern cars enough credit. When I was in high school, my best friend’s parents gave her an “old” car that started to fall apart after she’d had it for a couple of years. Looking back, I realize that it was six years old when she got it. My mom traded in our 1967 Plymouth in 1978, and everyone felt that we’d gotten as much use out of it as possible - the transmission was starting to slip, it was leaking oil, and our mechanic was making noises about it needing rings, since it was losing compression.
By contrast, our 2002 Sentra is just now starting to show its age, and that’s mostly in the trim, not basic mechanical parts. Hell, the clutch hasn’t even needed replaced (knock wood) and it’s got a little over 90,000 miles on it. Our 2005 Escape has 85,000 miles on it and it doesn’t even seem all that used yet.
Another thing going on is that people in low wage jobs own cars, they tend to be really old cars and they take care of them forever, which is cheaper than a newer model. I know a lot of minimum wage earners who own 40 year old cars they keep in pristine condition.
The one new car I bought I drove for nine years. I wish I had traded it in earlier for another model. I didn’t want to be saddled with more car payments, so I just kept paying for repairs, but looking back the repair costs probably equaled the cost of another car over the final four or five years!
I was wondering if Cash for Clunkers made a difference, but it accounted for something like 0.3% of passenger vehicles.
This is great news, IMHO. It used to be that 100,000 miles was quite a ‘mile’ stone. And hard to achieve without valve jobs, ring jobs carb rebuilds etc.
Now it’s nothing.
We have an 02, an 04 and an 06. We will probably replace the 02 in a few years.
The hardest part for my Wife and I is finding the right vehicle.
My understanding is this:
Before the great recession, the average car was 9 years old. Now it is 11-12. This implies pent up demand.
Also the average car lasts about 17 years before it is junked. I don’t know if that is the average or the median. If the average, that could mean some cars get junked at 10 years and some at 24, but 17 years is the lifespan of cars on average. However that stat was from about a decade ago (it was in a report on climate change and how long it would take to transition the transportation system to renewable energy, since we would have to wait for all the gasoline cars to be junked first).
I have an '08 Pontiac Vibe, which they don’t make anymore, much to my sorrow because I’d gladly buy another one when this one dies.
I buy slightly used and drive them until the cost of repairs exceeds the cost of a payment on a newer one. I got 198,000 miles on my Saab before it gave up the ghost. Lord, I loved that car.
The Pontiac just turned 100,000 miles (it had 30,000 on it when I bought it in '09 – high miles, I know, but the price was right), and I hope to get another 75,000 out of it. The first couple of years I owned it, I put on over 15,000 miles a year. Now, since moving into town, I drive less than 10,000 miles driven a year, so I could get eight more years out of it! That would be awesome!
My daily driver is a 2000 Saturn.
It’s the newest car I’ve ever owned.
I have a 2013 Hyundai, so I’m under, but I hope to keep it another 8 years. I had a 1999 Saturn, but a tree totalled it about a month ago. My previous car was just short of 20 years old when it failed to pass state inspection.