Estimating lifetime driving mileage

Factual Questions
1

Hi everyone. I’m trying to estimate my lifetime accumulated mileage driving on our nations highways. How would I go about calculating/estimating this? There’s obviously a lot of assumptions, averages, and estimations at play, so I’m wondering how best to go about it. Your thoughts?

2

How many miles a year do you drive now and how many years have you been driving? How did your driving habits differ during different parts of your life?

I actually know mine to a fairly close certainty. I have had 4 vehicles in total since I was 16 and I have put a little over 100,000 miles on each of them (other people don’t typically drive my vehicles). I have also driven other people’s vehicles, rental cars, etc. for a total of about 60,000 miles. That makes my total so far at age 40 about 475,000 miles driven.

3

So you’ve driven to the moon and back, pretty much.

4

Here are a couple of ways to do this:

  1. Add up the total miles accumulated on vehicles you’ve owned. Deduct an estimate of the miles on these vehicles driven by others. Add in an estimate of miles driven on non-owned vehicles. (Shagnasty method).

  2. Add up annual estimates of miles driven for all years you’ve been driving.

5

As of this moment I have driven exactly 678,492.18 miles.

6

I have never kept track beyond making mental notes but I seem to average about 10,000 miles per year. Always lived and worked in the same city. I had a business for about 8 years where I probably doubled that mileage. I will likley die before I hit the 1 million mile mark.

7

I agree with the total miles you’ve accumulated on your car. Now, if you regularly drive someone else’s car, but NO ONE drives your car, then you can add some (or have no idea). I’ve had people drive my car, but I drive my wife’s car more often than she drives mine, so I’m probably short here.

I’ve owned 4 cars. The first one I got at 28,000 miles and sold it at 155,000. The second I bought new and sold it at 110,000 miles, the third I bought new and sold at 48,000 miles, and my current car I bought new, and it has 119,000 miles. So, I’ve driven at least 404,000 miles, and probably several thousand more, but not any serious amount more. Maybe 425,000 lifetime. I’ve been driving for 19.7 years. Which means, I’ve driven an average speed of 2.46 MPH for 19.7 years. Wait a minute… :wink:

Now, if you don’t remember how much you put on previous cars, well, then it becomes much harder.

8

Thanks for the feedback. To add some fodder for thought, some of my variables and concerns.

I’ve been driving for 32 years.
Have had 8 cars/trucks
Have had 3 motorcycles
Have only had 1 car that I bought new with 0 miles on the clock.
Have driven friends’ vehicles more than 500 miles in a weekend many times
Have driven work vehicles long distances (longest from N. Platt to Raleigh)
Have driven rental cars for 1000’s of miles, too.
Have driven farm tractors down the highway (but that mileage is probably negligible).
(I’ll admit that I love internal combustion engines, btw.)

An example problem: I’ve had my Subaru for 10 years and it has 160,000 miles on it. So, I could say 16,000 miles/year (for the last 10 years), but I’ve also driven my bike, my van, friend’s cars, etc.

Exactly :smiley:

Perhaps this is an exercise in futility. But it’s something I’ve been pondering a while and thought I’d share w/ you guys to see how others would approach this problem. Thanks for participating!

9

If you can’t approach the problem from the odometer readings, how about measuring and counting individual journeys?

For example you drove to/from work 5 times a week for x years;
you drove a rental to/from a specific city/friend/relation once every 3 months;
when out for a ride on your bike you’d normally stay out x hours, averaging y speed*
etc.

It mightn’t be all that accurate but it could provide a nice trip down memory lane. :slight_smile:

*apologies in advance to the mathematicians out there