How does high mileage happen

[stuart313]

I know obviously its by driving a long way. In the 70s or 80s you were lucky if your 10 year old family car saw 80 or 90K before it fell to bits, and this is in the days when you had to drive somewhere just to use a phone box. Yet if you look for 4 or 5 year old normal run of the mill cars for sale they seem to have average mileages north of 150,000.

Surely with todays electronic office and the cost of fuel the way it is, what possesses someone to spend half their life in their car endlessly circling the country?

[doge]

Its funny how some guy in a 12 plate RAV-4 has doen 80k, while some grandma in a saxo has done 7,600. High mileage happens by business use, if you tend to travel a lot, take the car on holidays in other countries, rental/lease etc. Low mileage is somebody who bought the car, didn't use it a lot but kept it, and hence kept the resale up while the other cars crumbled around them.

[poing]

You can't always fix something with a phone.

[MarshPhantom]

Used to regularly do 50k a year, not anymore thankfully.

[NNH]

There's a lot of very high mileage commutes, I think. I've done a few commutes of 35-40 miles each way, and I have colleagues who do 800 miles a week.

[A900ss]

MarshPhantom said:

Used to regularly do 50k a year, not anymore thankfully.

Snap.

I'm now down to 25/30k a year. And that is spending 4 days a week in the office and only 1 day a week 'on the road' so to speak.

Modern cars can do high mileages in their sleep.

My previous 3 series did 119K in 3 years and apart from replacing brakes, tyres and servicing, nothing went wrong. Not even a bulb blew.

[Muzzer79]

I have a customer who does 50k miles a year

He commutes circa 1 hour per day, plus business miles when he's not in the office, plus his hobby takes him to Scotland regularly

[MattHall91]

Obviously you don't drive for a living OP.

I'm a sales rep and average 800 miles a week business and 100 personal. Miles rack up quickly at that rate.

[OldGermanHeaps]

I maintain specialised equipment, only a few companies do it so i cover all of scotland and some of north of england, some weeks i can do 1k miles. My insignia went back at 3 years old with 135k on it and 28 unsceduled brekdowns despite fsh.
Most reliable, and mosg comfy for me surprisingly have been the renault trafics

[MarshPhantom]

A900ss said:

MarshPhantom said:

Used to regularly do 50k a year, not anymore thankfully.

Snap.

I'm now down to 25/30k a year. And that is spending 4 days a week in the office and only 1 day a week 'on the road' so to speak.

Modern cars can do high mileages in their sleep.

My previous 3 series did 119K in 3 years and apart from replacing brakes, tyres and servicing, nothing went wrong. Not even a bulb blew.

1000 miles every week pretty much, hard to believe really.

[stuart313]

OldGermanHeaps said:

I maintain specialised equipment, only a few companies do it so i cover all of scotland and some of north of england, some weeks i can do 1k miles. My insignia went back at 3 years old with 135k on it and 28 unsceduled brekdowns despite fsh.
Most reliable, and mosg comfy for me surprisingly have been the renault trafics

1000 miles a week must equal 40 hrs driving, how do you have time to fix anything.

[A900ss]

MarshPhantom said:

A900ss said:

MarshPhantom said:

Used to regularly do 50k a year, not anymore thankfully.

Snap.

I'm now down to 25/30k a year. And that is spending 4 days a week in the office and only 1 day a week 'on the road' so to speak.

Modern cars can do high mileages in their sleep.

My previous 3 series did 119K in 3 years and apart from replacing brakes, tyres and servicing, nothing went wrong. Not even a bulb blew.

1000 miles every week pretty much, hard to believe really.

Only for people who work in offices.

I'm not going to justify it but I think you'll find there are plenty of people doing 1k a week (and more) whether you believe it or not.

PS - 'My Garage' shows a lot of rep cars if you have any doubt.




EDIT: further comment later in thread as I appear to have misunderstood the comment by MarshPhantom

Edited by A900ss on Friday 13th March 22:23

[ChevronB19]

I work in an office (meetings are done by train) - I choose to live 30 miles away, that, plus my little girl being 30 miles away in the other direction means 25K a year - easy to rack up big miles.

[Nickbrapp]

It soon adds up. Ive driven 200ish miles today and haven't been more than a hour from my house at any pont.

40 miles From my house to my office
50 miles from swansea to cardiff
30 miles from cardiff to newport
20 miles from newport to ebbw vale
Ebbw vale to cardiff 30 miles
Cardiff to home 15 miles
Home back to Cardiff after work 15 miles
Cardiff to home 15 miles

Little trips soon add up. I cover around 700 miles a week and journeys are rarely longer than a hour or so.

We have 1 fleet car that's done 150k in 3 years.

Plus some companies have employees that cover vast areas you might have a call in Cornwall and then your next is reading. That's a serious round trip just to fix a intruder alarm fault.




My friends manger drives daily from exeter to South Wales and back or South Wales to anywhere up to Swindon for a houes meeting


Wouldn't like to do that in anythig but a company car mind.

[Huff]

I had a period of driving 30K miles or more a year, and chose to change job. Down to 10k/year all purely for pleasure (takes two very different cars to provide, too.) Massive improvement in quality of life...

[MattHall91]

Huff said:

I had a period of driving 30K miles or more a year, and chose to change job. Down to 10k/year all purely for pleasure. Massive improvement in quality of life.

Agreed. My QOL is suffering due to 35-40k miles a year. What did you change to if you don't mind me asking?

[Dan_1981]

I commute sheffield to birmingham daily.

140 - 170 miles 5 days per week. Average 850 miles a weekish.

Put 70k on a 9-3 saab in the last 18 months

[OldGermanHeaps]

stuart313 said:

1000 miles a week must equal 40 hrs driving, how do you have time to fix anything.

Usualw working week was 60-80 hours, was decent money until company was bought over. Self employed now so keeping the mileage down to manage costs and reduce wasted time.

[McSam]

A900ss said:

MarshPhantom said:

A900ss said:

MarshPhantom said:

Used to regularly do 50k a year, not anymore thankfully.

Snap.

I'm now down to 25/30k a year. And that is spending 4 days a week in the office and only 1 day a week 'on the road' so to speak.

Modern cars can do high mileages in their sleep.

My previous 3 series did 119K in 3 years and apart from replacing brakes, tyres and servicing, nothing went wrong. Not even a bulb blew.

1000 miles every week pretty much, hard to believe really.

Only for people who work in offices.

I'm not going to justify it but I think you'll find there are plenty of people doing 1k a week (and more) whether you believe it or not.

If you check the posts you quoted, MarshPhantom used to do 50k a year himself, and was saying it's hard to believe it was so much - he wasn't calling you out

[eldar]

stuart313 said:

1000 miles a week must equal 40 hrs driving, how do you have time to fix anything.

A friend of mine used to do mega miles in the 1980s - specialist support countrywide. Got a leased car for 3 years or 50k miles. Had 5 cars do 50k miles in 3 years, all Rovers. 5 was enough.