Is 150,000 miles a lot for a car?

[Fort Jefferson]

Jimmy Recard said:

. A 320d is designed to spend all day every day on the motorway

Not a drivers car at all then?

[InitialDave]

It's hard to know how a car has clocked up its miles, but given the choice, I'd probably rather have something that's done 200k cruising along motorways all day every day, than a 50k car used for short city journeys.

[Barchettaman]

Fort Jefferson said:

Jimmy Recard said:

. A 320d is designed to spend all day every day on the motorway

Not a drivers car at all then?

Nope, not at all. It is a bit of an Autobahn weapon though, you can get a sense of what it was really designed to do there i.e. be absolutely rock solid and refined at high cruising speeds.

The majority of my city -> city driving over here is fairly sedate but if I need to get somewhere quickly it's good to have confidence in the car to be able to do silly speeds if required.

[Jonmx]

I bought my 2007 XC70 with 187k in Oct 2015 and sold it 12 months later with 197k on the clock. It drove like a car with 20k on the clock, no squeaks or rattles, smooth and powerful engine and nothing went wrong with it in the time I had it, other than the DPF which I got the supplying dealer to change within a week of purchase. I wish I'd kept it, absolutely brilliant car.
Conversely I bought an 1999 E46 318i, 2 owner car with 80k on the clock in October last year and it was a bag of poo. Utterly horrible, put me off ever having an E46 again.
Those two cars have taught me that low mileage means nothing if the car's not been looked after, and high mileage isn't an issue if it has. I now have a 16 year old Mondeo with 66k on the clock that has been looked after, so best of both worlds.

[Yipper]

The average UK car today goes to the scrapper at ~110k miles and ~14 years of age.

So, the OP's car is above-average mileage and below-average age (for the scrapheap).

If the OP's car can make it to average age of scrappage (another 4 years), then it could theoretically be good for 200-250k miles.

[Yipper]

And a good article on which cars last best for more than 200k miles in the US. Not a single German brand or model on the top list...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2565392/Ne...

[caelite]

Yipper said:

And a good article on which cars last best for more than 200k miles in the US. Not a single German brand or model on the top list...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2565392/Ne...

German cars are substantially more expensive to maintain in the US than they are here due to the lack of cheap parts support that we have, and the wealth of knowledge held by most mechanics here, a lot of German brands in the US require servicing at specialist garages because your average back street affair just doesn't have the experience as the cars are less common. This increases costs and dramatically increases the rate at which 'bangernomics' come into play. I'm not saying German motors are as reliable as anything on this list (their not) but the servicing over there does play a part.

Although the larger US trucks are genuinely VERY well built, they are essentially putting lorry engines in the diesels which are more than capable of a million miles between major rebuilds, one of the advantages of only revving to ~3k . Hell the big dually rigs over there are using commercial grade tyres too which can go for 200k miles between changes. If I lived in the US one of those would be the first thing I would buy, a Nissan Titan/Dodge 2500 with a cummins and a gooseneck toy hauler.

EDIT: The petrol pickups tend to be big lazy V8s as well, not far behind the diesels.

Edited by caelite on Sunday 23 April 03:55

[Sa Calobra]

mybrainhurts said:

2008 V70, just passed 401,000 and driving as though it's just left the showroom.

More details please!

[coolchris]

I have a fabia vrs tdi bought at 119k now on 151k drives as sweet as a nut had zero issues with the engine starts on the button.Got a Noble M12 just clocked up 100k and that drives fine still on original clutch as well.Lots of scaremonogary .A guy can be 40 but smoke 40 a day drink a bottle of wine a night and be in terrible condition another can be 60 live a clean life and be in better health/condition than that 40 year old so mileage is a small part of the bigger picture.

[CYMR0]

Yipper said:

And a good article on which cars last best for more than 200k miles in the US. Not a single German brand or model on the top list...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2565392/Ne...

Take out the pickup trucks and SUVs and you immediately lose 17 of the 20. The Germans don't compete in that market.

In addition, it's based on the % for sale, not the % on the road: so it reflects vehicles that tend to be bought and kept for a long time and then sold (or re-sold) at a high mileage.

There's a decent market for a 200k, $3k 90s truck or SUV ($40k new?) to tow a boat once a week and do maybe a couple of thousand miles in a year; if people want a daily driver to do 15k miles a year, it makes more sense to buy or lease something newer ($20k new and cheap to lease).

Secondly, something like the Toyota Camry might be as reliable as an Accord but it still wouldn't be in the top 20 of that list: the Legacy and Accord are both popular new cars with private buyers but not common on rental fleets. There are loads of nearly-new Camrys for sale; relatively few nearly-new Accords. BMWs, Audis, etc. tend to be leased and then sold on at two to four years old. In both cases, there could be similar numbers of 10+ year old cars but the % of older, higher mileage cars will be higher.

[Sa Calobra]

So VW/Audi don't do a pickup or SUV's?

[ZX10R NIN]

It's not a lot but your suspension will need a refresh it may feel okay but it would feel a lot better with a freshen up.

[robinessex]

In the good old days, you could watch your car rust away in front of you. Now, the common car killer seems to be unfixable electric gremlins. Un fixable in the sense that it could potentially cost more than the car is worth to find and fix it the fault. That’s why my last car to go went ‘spares or repairs’. If the body stays fine, you can fix and change mechanical bits ad finitum. In the good old days, you could watch your car rust away in front of you. Now, the common car killer seems to be unfixable electric gremlins. Un fixable in the sense that it could potentially cost more than the car is worth to find and fix it the fault. That’s why my last car to go went ‘spares or repairs’. If the body stays fine, you can fix and change mechanical bits ad finitum. I would add that lots of salty motorway miles during the winter can make the engine compartment very worn looking.

Edited by robinessex on Sunday 23 April 12:06

[mmm-five]

caelite said:

German cars are substantially more expensive to maintain in the US than they are here due to the lack of cheap parts support that we have, and the wealth of knowledge held by most mechanics here, a lot of German brands in the US require servicing at specialist garages because your average back street affair just doesn't have the experience as the cars are less common. This increases costs and dramatically increases the rate at which 'bangernomics' come into play. I'm not saying German motors are as reliable as anything on this list (their not) but the servicing over there does play a part.

Have you checked out the servicing & parts prices in the US vs the UK - we're the ones getting ripped off. For example an M 'value' oil service at BMW is £170 in the UK vs $150 in the US; a set of front Z4M/CSL discs in the UK are £500 vs $450.

However, that may be because the UK customer expects main dealers to be 2x/3x the price of an indy, and there's 1 dealer per city, vs the US model where the dealers compete for your business within the same area.

Even within Europe the UK network is a rip off. At one point (pre-Brexit referendum) I considered taking my car to Germany a week before a track day, just to get it serviced at a dealer for half the cost of the UK dealer.

[Fozziebear]

165,000 on my 54 plate fugly multipla, just did the bearings on the trailing arms yesterday so I'm hoping for at least 200,000 out of it

[aka_kerrly]

K12beano said:

Age kills cars, not mileage.

Neglect.

[FiF]

aka_kerrly said:

K12beano said:

Age kills cars, not mileage.

Neglect.

Neglect kills cars quicker, but the rea problem is age coupled with design issues.

Effectively gave away our 15 year old Fabia, serviced properly every year, totally to schedule, any faults repaired promptly, not even any advisories on the last ministry test. Just so many intermittent electrical faults that it became tiresome tracing through the front and engine looms, legacy of known design fault.

Yes it could probably have been saved by replacing the front and engine looms and possibly replacing the instrument cluster. Just parts would have cost several times the total worth of a vehicle with 12 months test. Yes one could go to a scrappy and buy second hand parts, but the reality is that these would have the same problems as it's a known issue with the model.

[greenarrow]

ZX10R NIN said:

It's not a lot but your suspension will need a refresh it may feel okay but it would feel a lot better with a freshen up.

I agree, this is where you notice a car's age more than anything. I had a Mazda 6 until recently that had 130K on it. Mechanically, sweet as a nut, to use the old cliché and it was petrol not diesel. Used hardly any oil and felt as strong the day I sold it as when I bought it.

However, during the time I had it, I noticed a deterioration in road handling....everything just felt slack. I even had front lower arm bushes and shocks changed...but I think you would have to spend tons changing every bush and link to really refresh things. Cars like the mazda 6 have complex double wishbone suspension and I just don't think they take the miles very well....

[lbc]

150,000 miles or more is not an issue as long as the car is used and serviced regularly.

I have never had a car reach 200,000 miles though, as intermittent faults with the engines made them too expensive in time and money to diagnose, let alone resolve the faults.

This is when it's time to sell.

Edited by lbc on Sunday 23 April 15:36

[Alex_225]

My daily car is 2003 E320 CDI which has just over 110k on the clock. Had an MOT last week and passed with the advisories that the front ball joints had a bit of play in them. Normal wear and tear and something I'll get done in the coming months.

Everything inside the car works, it drivers brilliantly and the engine pulls as well I would imagine. It feels very far from the end of it's life so I'd expect 150k to be quite easy,

My other half is looking at replacing her car and it's hard not to be drawn towards cars nearer the 100k mark. You can get an awful lot of good car for not much cash and no real reason why it won't be reliable, provided it's been looked after.