"Richard Smith" <mrpchatesspam@texas.net> wrote in message
news:t7ednaf8xL6jm6Dd4p2dnA@giganews.com...
This is all very encouraging.

Not that I really care (hence why I didn't ask), but so, do you think the
average lifespan of American cars even hits 6 digits?

With Toyota, 20 years or 400,000 kilometers is normal, unless the body is
allowed to rust out. I checked out an -81 Tercel with 800,000 miles, the
original engine worked fine. In my estimation, by the time a Toyota is old
enough that its depreciation curve is flat, the repairs are not expensive
enough to justify buying a different car. Then again, I don't spend much on
repairs because I do them myself. I'm more motivated by non-economic
factors, they simply don't make any cars that I like better than the one
that I already have. The way the used car marked is going these days, I'd
say a used car for $5000 is the best way to spend money. It's undergone
most of its depreciation at that point, yet for that amount you can get a
car that has been well maintained and has no rust.

"Crunchy Cookie" <LSC400@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:YhO_b.391899$xy6.2203355@attbi_s02...

Crunchy Cookie wrote:

100K is typical for even the worst budget cars.

150-200K is typical for domestics.

200-250K is typical for imports.

300K+ for a few like Volvo 240s and a few other specific vehicles.

Btw - the highet mileage car to date is a Volvo P1800. Over
1 million miles on the original engine.

Jon Dalton wrote:

Wow. Buy that car. You could get a ton of money from the factory
or a mention or something if it hits 1 million miles. IIRC, only
a dozen or so cars have ever hit 1 million miles, and 800K is very
close.

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 22:59:00 -0800, "Jon Dalton"
<groovin4god@hotmail.com> wrote:

I agree. My '92 Corolla Wagon suits my needs just fine. They don't
make wagons anymore that are to my liking.

My needs are a small 'office on the road' that will haul my kayak
anywhere I want to explore.

Works great.

I like it.

I'm gonna keep it...<g>.

btw it 'only' has 160,000 miles on the clock...


Scott in Florida

"Crunchy Cookie" <LSC400@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:9Sd%b.413137$na.800850@attbi_s04...
I would concur with Joseph's reply- I had a '92 Plymouth Grand Caravan that
I sold last year with 152,000 mi on it- 3.3l with the infamous 4spd auto.
The engine and tranny were fine but...

waterpump at 75Kmi, AC system at 80Kmi-total replacement, the friggin rack
blew it's seals at 100Kmi (that's just plain bad QA from the
supplier)...interior headliner was coming unglued from the windshield back,
the auto lock in the side doors was wiggy and would lock/unlock whenever you
hit a bump, and any hard turns resulted in the doors locking and the little
warning chime going off.

Turn on the lights and the toilet flushes....

However it did a nice job negotiating Colorado logging roads such at one
point it looked like a Range Rover commercial with all the wheels canted in
different directions and at one low point scraped the front air dam and the
rear bumper at the same time.

"Netsock" <netsock@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:c1j1hq$t4g$1@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu...
Damn betcha!!

Ooops, shoulda been 1993.

That car would get better than 40mpg at 60 mph. Sigh.

Now I only get 35mpg @ 70mph with my Protege. Darn.
(Ya'll keep driving the SUVs to sponsor oil exploration, thank you! :-) ).

"Crunchy Cookie" <LSC400@Yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<9Sd%b.413137$na.800850@attbi_s04>...

Of course! You see lots of domestics with 100,000 or more. I can
think of *many* vehicles owned by myself and my brother and parents
that had over 100K before it was sold. I'm done buying domestics for
the time being, however.

Apropro to this discussion:

Do manual transmissions last longer than auto transmissions?

Does anyone know of a Japanese car with an auto transmission that went over 250k
on the original engine and original auto transmission?

"Crunchy Cookie" <LSC400@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:YhO_b.391899$xy6.2203355@attbi_s02...

A car's time is up at the point at which the cost of maintaining/repairing
the old car approaches (or exceeds) the cost of owning a new car OR the
point at which the effort of maintaining the old car (lack of reliability
etc.) exceed the value of my time.

What mileage/age is that? Depends! I've got a bike that's 25yrs old, whose
value is now increasing, easy to maintain, fun to ride (moreso than a new
one - in a retro kind of way...). But I've also got a 10 year old car that
lacks the safety/reliability factors of a newer car which I am in the
process of replacing it with. Plus the older car is starting to need
substantial work (clutch, etc.). There's no magic number, or as Indiana
Jones said "it's not the year it's the mileage". Some folks kill a car in 5
years, some never do.

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:45:40 -0500, "AMG" <martinez@nojunkrica.net>
wrote:

It's you.

On cars with FWD by the time a clutch needs replacing, the high cost
due to the need the split the front suspensions and remove drive
shafts can easily exceed the value of the car. eg plate £50 labour
£350, you have to know enough to search around for someone working
from a lockup or railway arch who will do it for £200 all in and not a
franchise chain or a main dealer (VW golf £800). DIY it's a pig of a
job.

A cam belt change on some FWD V6 engines like Fiat and Vauxhall can
also be very expensive. £1000 is quoted on one Fiat unless you can
find someone who can do it without taking the engine out. If they
don't have a receipt it hasn't been done.

--
Peter Hill
Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header
Can of worms - what every fisherman wants.
Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 10:26:03 GMT, Joseph Oberlander
<josephoberlander@earthlink.net> wrote:

It's only got to carry on going for the whole life of most other cars.

--
Peter Hill
Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header
Can of worms - what every fisherman wants.
Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 18:41:10 -0500, Horseman <me@privacy.net> wrote:

That's the difference between Japanese and the rest. Japanese
electrical systems keep going on and on, the rest don't. Every Ford
in the breakers yards round here has no steering column controls, they
all die at about 6-8 years old, one breaker has taken to stocking
pattern ones as he can't get good second hand ones. Cheap Bosch
electrics made down to a price for French cars die regularly - it's so
common there are firms making pattern ignition modules. I have heard
of a 7 series BMW that was up for sale for peanuts, the electrically
adjusted drivers seat had failed, cost £3000 and due to production
demand back order at factory was over 1 year, the owner wasn't going
to wait. If you didn't fit it how it was set it would be useless.

--
Peter Hill
Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header
Can of worms - what every fisherman wants.
Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:31:57 -0600, "Richard Smith"
<mrpchatesspam@texas.net> wrote:

You are supposed to take them out once a year and look at them.

--
Peter Hill
Spamtrap reply domain as per NNTP-Posting-Host in header
Can of worms - what every fisherman wants.
Can of worms - what every PC owner gets!

In rec.autos.makers.honda Peter Hill <peter.usenet1@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
My 88 Dodge Dakota has 288,000 miles on it. Tough miles as an oveloaded
ranch truck carrying a cabover camper and pulling a horse trailer. I've
had to replace the A/C compressor, and I replaced the starter when it
probably only needed brushes, but I was in a hurry. Lots of trips for this
truck never left the yard at the ranch, so I might have had 20 engine
starts in a 10 mile span.

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

Caroline wrote:

Manuals can last longer because you have control over how you
abuse it. They also cost less to replace/repair, let you
drive the car instead of it driving you, get better mileage,
and can technically be used with a completely dead clutch
to limp to a garage.

Automatics are the exact opposite. Money pits that just
save you a tiny bit of effort. A manual transmission
mated to a non-turbo inline 4 engine is probably the most
reliable combination you can buy. Something like a Corolla
or Camry with a manual transmission.

I personally wouldn't buy a car with 80-120K on it and the
original automatic transmission. But a clutch? Simple to
fix if it need to - or I can be easy on it and get a year
or two out of it. My record is 2 years on a nearly dead
clutch before I finally decided to replace it.

My automatic in my old beater Buick? Gave me 1/2 mile warning
before it stopped working and had to be towed.

Peter Hill wrote:

At $35 for plugs and new wires for my V-6 engine, I swap plugs($12
for a full set) every year and wires every two years.

Plus, it's actually fun and simple to swap plugs if your engine isn't
crammed in there like the Audi A4(worst design I've seen so far).

If it's something like a typical inline-4 or inline-6, 5 minutes
tops.

dold@AtXwhatXpo.usenet.us.com wrote:

Heh. I see a pattern here. Old versus newer. The older designs were
built to last as they didn't have computer models to determine longevity
and so they overbuilt a bit.

A new Dakota - plastic and flim-flam everywhere. Horrendous amounts
of things that break by comparison.

In rec.autos.makers.honda Joseph Oberlander <josephoberlander@earthlink.net> wrote:

The same will be said of the newer car when it gets older.

My 96 Mustang had 125,000 miles on it. One bad A/C bearing and a cracked
intake manifold at 105,000. I sold it before the parts fell off, I guess.

My 2000 Durango has 80,000 miles on it. No problems. When is the plastic
supposed to fall off of that one?

If it is old enough to establish longevity, it's too old to count?

--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5

Vehicles will last as long as you want them to. Take care of your vehicle,
and it will last indefinitely. Abuse it, and it will not last much past
it's warranty. I have a 75 Dodge truck , that is worth more now, than when
it was new. It's been well maintained and parked out of the weather,
original auto tranie, engine, diff etc (98 % original from factory). I have
a 77 Merc XR7 (bought it in 82) that is in excellent running condition,
256,000Km, body was neglected. Now it's toast. All because I didn't take
care of the body (only the running gear) we need to replace it. Replaced
with a 03 Eclipse, lets see if it'll last 25 plus years.
All the vehicles that my wife and I have owned, over our combined 55 years
of driving, cost less than half, what we bought the Eclipse for.
Maintenance cost for that time would be less than $5,000. That comes from
buying good used cars, and being a self maintainer.
My only lemon was my first car (English) all the rest have been Detroit
iron, (well, except the new Eclipse) and even that one was assembled in the
US of A.

Life is, what you make of it.

Nirodac



"Peter Hill" <peter.usenet1@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:j5fs30lggtktpjtt6mm7q8a0oqqm7t8u9k@4ax.com...