How Many Miles Can a Car Last - article

[Johhny04]

How Many Miles Can a Car Last? - iSeeCars.com

Safe to say the author or website have never visited tdiclub.com

 

[JDSwan87]

I think you will see mileage averages increase in the coming decades. People will want to make their large purchases last longer and will be more willing to make large repairs.

 

[oilhammer]

Cars can last as long as you make them last. The things that can be difficult to overcome are things like environmental concerns (road salt being the biggest one), with tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, etc. being in there. Then crashing them.

If you can keep them clean, nice, and not crash them, so long as service parts remain available, just about anything can be made to last indefinitely.

 

[1854sailor]

Here's an extreme case with a Volvo P1800.

 

[Lightflyer1]

As long as parts are around and you are willing to put money into it.

1935 Ford still like brand new as it rolled off the line. Still NOS parts around for this car. I drive it most every weekend.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I have three TDIs with over 250K on them, one has 462K as of this AM. Those numbers are child's play. And oilhammer is right, if you're willing to spend the time and money, most cars will last as long as you want them to. However, some are easier to keep going than others.

 

[ticaf]

It would be interesting to know how many miles our TDIs have before they go to the junk yard.
Of course numbers we get from members of tdiclub are a little bit biased, since we are mostly car people who take good care of them.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Accidents probably take the vast number off the road way before their time.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I think recalling and crushing a percentage of newer TDIs would skew the averages as well.

 

[oilhammer]

We have perfectly repairable vehicles (of all kinds) towed out of here all the time. Just yesterday a ~2012 GMC Acadia with a chucked chain (common issue). The rest of the vehicle was reasonably decent shape, maybe a little dirty and it certainly needed tires and probably a handful of other normal wear items.

We are just a wasteful society. And not very bright. And banks exploit this. Why spend $2500 to fix a car you already own outright, when some bank will happily loan you $25k to buy another slightly used car you cannot afford to maintain. Because sadly, many people cannot afford a $2500 repair bill, but can afford (barely) a $500/mo car payment. Which makes no sense to me, different kind of math I suppose.

This is changing, though, as several factors as of late have shaken things around a bit. Scarcity of new cars, the ever-bloating price of them, which translates to the not very old used cars either being kept longer as well as holding their value better than they normally would, which means the even older used cars also get kept longer as well as holding their value better, and then finally people faced with a big repair that CAN afford it just deciding to go ahead and do it because it will be less expensive than trying to get something else.

We are also seeing some really, REAAAALLLY, crappy newly purchased used cars coming in here that need a bunch of stuff that we've not normally seen before. These are often graced with the now commonplace expired temp tags, because these cars were bought as-is and would not pass inspection for registration.

I've got a real turd of a CC here that needs its DSG replaced, because the guy bought the car from some can lot, it had just had a bunch of engine work done (CCTA, the skidmark on the VAG engine family underpants, a member of the EA888 Failitron DoublePlus Supreme batch, so no surprise there). This included what looks to have been a rear main seal, because the transmission was clearly (and poorly) R&R'd. They didn't properly tighten down the CV bolts, and the left axle came loose and ground through the transmission case. But this guy is balls-deep in this thing. He paid too much, and has no recourse because it was sold as-is, and if he'd have immediately brought it to a reputable shop *maybe* this particular catastrophe could have been avoided.

 

[1854sailor]

...This is changing, though, as several factors as of late have shaken things around a bit. Scarcity of new cars, the ever-bloating price of them, which translates to the not very old used cars either being kept longer as well as holding their value better than they normally would, which means the even older used cars also get kept longer as well as holding their value better...

About a year ago, I got a call from the dealer where we bought the '15 GSW asking if we were interested in trading "up" to a new VW. They offered a trade-in that was $2K less than we paid for the car in August of 2017. There was a moment of silence when I asked what new TDI models they had...

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

When Carvana was going crazy buying cars (not so much now), I put the VIN for my '15 GSW into their "buy my car" system. It came back with a $23K offer. I paid less than $17K for it in 2017. Of course I haven't driven it much, and there isn't anything out there I'd replace it with, but it was a fun exercise.

 

[kjclow]

I remember seeing an article a few months back that the average owner was now hanging onto their new cars for at least 12 years. Don't think they looked at life of used cars. I know we have conversations about replacing the JSW but it's only 13 years old and just 165k miles on it. With my wife being retired and me joining her soon, we're having to do annual oil changes instead of mileage. So at only 5-6000 miles a year, that car should be in our drive way for many more years.

 

[TheDRog]

Does not account for what it took for those cars to get to that mileage. The world is full of Honda Civics that have zero dollars in maintenance that make it to 200k miles and croak. Not a single VW on the list either?

 

[kjclow]

Here's an extreme case with a Volvo P1800.

Wasn't that the car that Volvo replaced the engine a few times before it reached that mileage? IIRC, as the miles started to plie up, Volvo took over the maintenance to make sure it got that high of mileage.

 

[kjclow]

Does not account for what it took for those cars to get to that mileage. The world is full of Honda Civics that have zero dollars in maintenance that make it to 200k miles and croak. Not a single VW on the list either?

We recently got rid of our 05 corolla (bought new in 05) with about 220,000 miles. My daughter sold it to a coworkers grandpa so he had something to run around his small town and not ahve to worry about it. I know we replaced the AC once but think that was the biggest expense.

 

[1854sailor]

Wasn't that the car that Volvo replaced the engine a few times before it reached that mileage? IIRC, as the miles started to plie up, Volvo took over the maintenance to make sure it got that high of mileage.

The engine was rebuilt a couple of times, but it still has the original block, at least according to a 2018 article.

 

[Warthog]

I have 3 TDI's , 2 over 300K miles. It is not the engine that is the problem...it is the fiddly electronic gee-gaws that eventually kill the car.
My 1978 E-150 Van (with a stick shift) is on 317K+ and doing fine. Gotta take care of the rust spots tho and have the upholstery replaced when it is tattered. I attribute the long life to the manual tranny and the engine ( 300 ci-6) NOT having any weird EPA plumbing as I ordered it with the heavy-duty GVW package which put it off the list for that stuff. On the highway, it does nicely at 65mph and makes an honest 21mpg.
NO. It's not for sale.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I've had to replace a couple of door lock modules in my Wagon, and the comfort module failed about 8 years ago. Otherwise I've had zero problems with anything electrical. It is a no sunroof crank window manual mirror car, which I'm sure helps.

Replaced a wheel bearing two days ago. I think the previous one was in there for at least 150K miles.

 

[03TDICommuter]

FWIW, and yeah folks joke these cars it all the time, but I retired a 92' Geo Metro with 538K. Original trans (but I did put new synchros in), Original bottom end of engine (had to do the head gasket at 440K and bought a rebuilt head just in case - decided I'd be foolish not to put it on once the original came off). The only thing I really had to do was put in clutches, 3 in total. That engine vibrated so much that it was wearing springs through the side plates. One time the diaphragm in the PP cracked. Otherwise it was reliable, zippy (1700 lb car), 48MPG doing 75-80 on the freeway, but with zero creature comforts other than AC. Retired it when I got the Jetta TDI and realized I should have gotten a TDI sooner.

 

[kjclow]

Neighbor kid used to rebuild Metros in their driveway. Not unusual for them to have a half dozen. His mom used to drive one and had the sticker that said it's paid for and I'm still ahead of you.

 

[Tdijarhead]

We are entering a time when almost every new car is like a new iphone, it has so many electronics and gizmos that after two or three years some people feel the need to update just for the new "safety features". I'm ok with airbags and abs but lane departure, forward emergency braking , even some now have self driving. Just learn to drive and stop playing with your phone, leave it home if you can't leave it alone.

I am hoping oilhammer is right and folks are beginning to keep their cars longer and not spend $500-$1000 a month on a car or truck they can't afford to fix or even put tires on. I recently read, maybe it was an article someone on here linked, that the number of people with $1000 per month car payments has increased dramatically.

 

[DivineChaos]

Cars can last as long as you make them last. The things that can be difficult to overcome are things like environmental concerns (road salt being the biggest one), with tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, etc. being in there. Then crashing them.

If you can keep them clean, nice, and not crash them, so long as service parts remain available, just about anything can be made to last indefinitely.

Or fix them after it's crashed and totaled. More than once.

 

[DivineChaos]

I have 3 TDI's , 2 over 300K miles. It is not the engine that is the problem...it is the fiddly electronic gee-gaws that eventually kill the car.
My 1978 E-150 Van (with a stick shift) is on 317K+ and doing fine. Gotta take care of the rust spots tho and have the upholstery replaced when it is tattered. I attribute the long life to the manual tranny and the engine ( 300 ci-6) NOT having any weird EPA plumbing as I ordered it with the heavy-duty GVW package which put it off the list for that stuff. On the highway, it does nicely at 65mph and makes an honest 21mpg.
NO. It's not for sale.

Impressive. My 5spd Subaru wagon barely achieves that. Granted the motor was rebuilt, forged pistons and rods, dropping the compression for 20psi of bost soon to some..

 

[DivineChaos]

We are entering a time when almost every new car is like a new iphone, it has so many electronics and gizmos that after two or three years some people feel the need to update just for the new "safety features". I'm ok with airbags and abs but lane departure, forward emergency braking , even some now have self driving. Just learn to drive and stop playing with your phone, leave it home if you can't leave it alone.

I am hoping oilhammer is right and folks are beginning to keep their cars longer and not spend $500-$1000 a month on a car or truck they can't afford to fix or even put tires on. I recently read, maybe it was an article someone on here linked, that the number of people with $1000 per month car payments has increased dramatically.

1k a month? My god man. I thought a 200 a month payment was too much.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

From Edmunds: More than 15% of consumers who financed a car in Q4 2022 committed to auto loan payments of more than $1,000 a month.

And I've read that currently the average car loan term is 72 months. 84 and 96 month loans are available, and some lenders have just started offering 10 year loans.

I've also heard that the rule of thumb is that most lenders will write loans for between 120-140% of the MSRP of a vehicle. So if you buy a $50K vehicle, and put no money down, you may be able to get a loan for $60 or $70K. I can't imagine.

 

[oilhammer]

A lot of people are really bad at math.

 

[turbobrick240]

I'm very glad I bought my '10 Golf 5 zylinder several years ago, before the used car market went crazy. 40k miles later and I could probably sell it for more than I paid. Runs like a top. I did replace the brake pads, rotors, springs, shocks & struts, and a wheel hub this summer, but mostly using parts I had on hand for my '11 Golf TDI. 160k miles on the 2.5L and I have no doubt whatsoever that it could easily go another 160k.

 

[atc98002]

I'm ok with airbags and abs but lane departure, forward emergency braking ,

I have to say that the automatic rear braking saved me from backing into someone that pulled out of a driveway on the opposite side of the street. Neither of us saw the other start backing out, and my Outback slammed on the brakes with less than a foot between us. I would have nailed his driver's door and maybe the rear door as well. Neither of us were moving fast, but it still would have been a bad crunch.

 

[[486]]

A lot of people are really bad at math.

A lot of people that are good at marketing have found a way to enslave those that are bad at math.

ETA: not absolving of responsibility those that agreed to their terms, mind