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Depends on the car. We bought a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee with 140k on it last year, because my wife took a job where she'd be putting 90+ miles on the car a day with her commute. We wanted her to still have a big vehicle in case of an accident, but not put miles on our other SUV.
I have had several Jeeps over the years and can fix just about anything on them, so the mileage didn't bother me, we got a great deal and now we have a good family beater car. It just went over 160k, I figure we'll keep it til 200k, or til my wife quits.
Can you fix them from sucking down gas? be honest now
Anyhow. When we moved to the USA we found strange thing - Americans were blanket ridding off any car that was getting close to 60 000 miles. Later on, figured that at that time, early 90s, domestics were qwuite poorly made and problems started right about after that magic number.
I tried to go against the grain with what my community told me - buy only Hondas and Toyotas - and bought higher (past 100 000) mileage domestic cars, and every time it was a disaster. What I saved on original purchase I paid several fold in repairs.
So, I said - well, community knows best - and we went for Japanese makes, and then it really didn't matter. 94 Eclipse, bought at 142 000 miles, driven into 260 000 or so with only minor repairs. 94 Mitsubishi Expo LRV, bought with about same mileage (my American co-worker rolled eyes) and driven all across the country into close to 300 000 miles.
Ever since, if I buy domestic - and I did 2 - it's either rebadged Japanese, like Ranger, or a very low mileage, like my Silverado, that one still chugging at 140 plus thousand miles, but being continuous DIY project. Water pump this weekend.
To sum up, like someone else said - it depends. For Japan built Honda (with exception of that POS Isuzu rebadged SUV sold under Honda mark) and Toyota, 120 000 miles is just broken in. For a true domestic - I'd say, yeah, pass on it.
Also, keep in mind, good cars are hard to come across and are keepers. People have tendency to retain proven reliable vehicles, and rid of trouble makers. Also, it really goes down to your mechanical skill. I gamble on older cars, as I can do almost everything myself. So say, with my Silverado, though it constantly needs some repairs, it is also very easy to work on, and power plant itself keeps going. But I bought it for half book price. And I am paid for mileage. I am basically driving a free car. But otherwise, if you are not an apt tree shade mechanic - stay away from anything that is out of warranty. Unless it's 86 diesel Mercedes, of course. Those run into millions of miles.
Can you fix them from sucking down gas? be honest now
LOL Nope.
It actually gets slightly better gas mileage than our Cayenne S, but not by much, just a mpg or two. On the bright side though, we can put 87 octane in it, while the S has to have 93.
While I would have preferred getting something smaller with good gas mileage for a commuter vehicle, here in TX, where monster trucks abound, it's just not safe if you're ever in an accident. Plus, my wife isn't the most observant driver around, so I'll pay the extra in gas costs to have her in a safer vehicle.
Some vehicles have engines that go forever, two examples are the inline 4 and inline 6 cylinder engines Chrysler put in their Jeep Wranglers (before they went to the V-6 engine in 2004, I believe) Those inline engines would regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of miles with little maintenance required. Cast iron blocks, and very easy to work on too.
Another American made winner is the Chevrolet Vortec engine, which is still in their 2013 pickups, and my 1994 4.3L V6 Vortech in my truck has 210K and runs like new (almost all city miles). I've known a few people who have racked up over 200K on the Ford Taurus with little or no problems as well.
So you don't have to always opt for a Honda or a Toyota (even though these are great cars) if you want to put on high miles, try and find a motor with a record of reliability like those I mentioned.
Some vehicles have engines that go forever, two examples are the inline 4 and inline 6 cylinder engines Chrysler put in their Jeep Wranglers (before they went to the V-6 engine in 2004, I believe) Those inline engines would regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of miles with little maintenance required. Cast iron blocks, and very easy to work on too.
Another American made winner is the Chevrolet Vortec engine, which is still in their 2013 pickups, and my 1994 4.3L V6 Vortech in my truck has 210K and runs like new (almost all city miles). I've known a few people who have racked up over 200K on the Ford Taurus with little or no problems as well.
So you don't have to always opt for a Honda or a Toyota (even though these are great cars) if you want to put on high miles, try and find a motor with a record of reliability like those I mentioned.
The Jeep 4.0 is known to be overbuilt. The GM 4.3 is pretty good, but mine just went with 212K over ten years. Oil was changed every 3000 or so, somehow lost compression, not sure how.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ukrkoz
That's because your Escort is a Mazda, Hemlock.
The '97 body style was pretty much all Ford. The 91-96, which was largely Mazda, used the lousy Ford 1.9 engine with a Japanese automatic transaxle. The Escort GT and LXE, as well as the Tracer LTS(?) used a Mazda 16 valve engine. The 97 body style was somehow pretty reliable. My wife and her parents owned three of them, and the one bought for $2500 ten years ago still runs reasonably well. The 2.0 in the sedans and wagons was based on the old 1.9, I think. It is more or less an agricultural implement engine, judging from the idle, noise, and performance. The coupes had the Zetec 2.0, which IIRC was reliable.
All I have ever owned have been high mileage vehicles (with the exception of my wife's car which has only 70,000 miles on it - we bought it used with 35,000 miles)
My current vehicles - 98 Accord - 138K & 04 Sienna - 146K both (especially the Honda) have tons of life left.
7 of our 8 cars have over 100,000 miles. Two have over 200,000, two or three have over 150,000. We intend to continue driving most of them for several more years and there is no reason not to expect them to continue to provide good service. However there is no way to know how much life is left in a car. Many big ticket items do not give you months and months of warning, they go suddenly. Thus a perfectly good car today cold have transmission failure or engine failure, or both on the way home this evening. There is not way to predict that.
We have had lots and lots of high mileage cars. What usually kills them is an accumulation of little things that you did not keep up with rather than a big thing. If a big thing kills them, it is usually the transmission. We have several Dodge Caravans go to the scrap yard when the transmissions failed, two other cars also lost their transmissions. One car went when it blew a head gasket because it had a lot of other problems too. Others- we replaced head gaskets. One F-150 the engine seized up when the oil pump went out. It was not worth replacing the engine because it needed brakes, suspension work, new tires, some work on the 4 wd mechanism, plus it was full of dents and scratches and it was dirty. Given the combination it was not worth putting $2000 into replacing the engine.
BTW most of our cars have been US based manufacturers. We had some Japanse cars, but not of them made it much over 100,000 miles. However we have not had a Japanese car since the 1990s. Anyway the point is, brands are irrelevant. Some US brands will go forever, others won't. The same is true for every other brand out there. A lot depends on how far you will go with repairs. As an example most Subaru owners are big time fans of the brand. Thus, when the blow a head gasket, they will spend $1800 on a car worth $2500. Whereas the owner of say, an Impala would probably just scrap the car and buy a different car. Our Volvo station wagon has 240,000 miles. However before we got it they rebuilt the engine, awd gearbox, turbo charger, brakes. . . Who would do that for a car worth about $2000? So is it a high mileage car because it has 240,000 miles, or was it a short lived car because the repair costs exceeded its value?>
It's true that many modern automatic transmissions can fail with little warning, but if a guy wants to he can keep track of compression or better leakdown tests when he changes the plugs.
Its not that total milage you need to worry about, its the average miles per year. Anything over 12-15k a year would be "high miles" I would be more intersted in a 2001 with 125,000, rather then a 2009 with 75,000 miles
Why?
High mileage per year is probably mostly freeway, less wear and tear on the car than city miles.
My "work car" is a 1995 Lincoln Town Car. It has nearly 213,000 miles and still ticking right along. It is my highest mileage car. My new car is 4 months old with 475 miles.
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