What Do You Consider High Mileage?

[Silver_civic]

275,000 miles to me. I bought a 1991 Pontiac Grand Am 4dr LE with the 2.5 4cyl "iron duke" engine. Replaced timing chain and water pump, pulled valve cover gasket, everything looked ok. Put new valve cover gasket on it. When I bought it it had 105k on it. I drove that car for another 150k till it needed a heater core and thermostat! I sold it at 279,094.1 miles to a kid I still talk to and he still drives it. No problems other than a new exhaust and muffler and rear drum brakes. I did the rear drums and shoes as both wheel cylinders were leaking shortly after I bought it. I used valvoline 5w30 with a wix filter in it every 5,000 miles.



adam

 

[Nick R]

130,000 miles or so imo.

 

[dishdude]

For an average car, with average maintenance and an average driver I would say 150k.

A lot of cars are abused through hard driving, poor maintenance, accidents, etc... and can make 75k high mileage!

 

[tig1]

200K. Lots of vehicles in my life or friends that have well over that. My last Merc had 218K and still ran great. My sons Ranger has 354K. A good friend has a 2000 Taurus with 330K. A guy I worked with has 99 Silverado with 280K. My old 85 Escort diesel went 300K. Rusted apart then.

 

[PandaBear]

to me, it would be about 150k miles.

 

[SteveSRT8]

used to be anything over 100k miles was near dead.

Nowadays with good care 100k doesn't mean much.

Don't forget, I said "good care"!

 

[R2d2]

To me 100k on an engine is one thing, most modern vehicles shrug at that. However 100k on an automatic transmission is another thing. There are people who are fairly regular about oil changes and have receipts to back it up, but would never consider a transmission fluid change. That's what would concern me about buying a used car over a 100k, not so much the engine.

 

[Spazdog]

It depends on the care of the vehicle.

My old boss would come in from the auction very pleased with himself for purchasing a car with low mileage for what he thought was a good price. I remember one Lexus ES300 in particular. It only had about 80,000 miles but the transmission fluid was dark and smelled burnt, if you looked into the engine fill hole it was all black and gelatinous, there were three bald oe tires and one mismatched tire on the rear with about a pound of weights opposite the bend in the wheel, and there was obvious impact damage to the front passenger side suspension.

It was as if the original owner picked it up at Lexus and never returned for any service. Just put gas in it and ran it through the gas station slap and scratch carwash. When he struck a curb at high speed he replaced the blown tire and tried to get the used tire shop to balance the bent wheel.

The carpets were once tan but stained black with some mystery fluid and the leather on the seat and steering wheel was covered in some waxy film.

There were little trees everywhere. All different varieties. Black Ice, Pine, Vanilla...you name it. A noxious combination of smells from ther mirror, turn signal ,wiper stalk around the shifter.... Took them all out and found out why. He had apparently been storing dead bodies in the car. Thats what it smelled like anyway

80,000 miles and the car was done as far as I'm concerned. And I've bought lots of 100K cars

 

[bustednutz]

I wouldnt hesitate to buy a car with well over 150k. Last car was a 2000 civic with 165k on it. Car was in gorgeous shape. It had a few lil dings here and there, but the car was taken care of. Plus it depends on the manufacturer of the vehicle. Japanese cars have an incredible tolerance for high miles and being reliable. Its been that way for 30 years. Depending on your region of the country matters, salty roads, freezing temps, extreme heat, etc...
You know a well maintained car when you see it. Simple as that.
Below is a 2000 Civic from the Virginia Beach area. Mild climate and no salt.

 

[AuthorEditor]

That same Honda around here would have rust holes around the rear wheel wells and along the rockerboard. Underneath would be very rusty. More recent Japanese cars seem much better in the rustproofing department, but not so hot 10 years ago.

 

[MNgopher]

I love people who think that vehicles are over the hill when they hit 100,000 miles. I presently have 4 behicles, the lowest mileage is the "new" one, a 2004 F150 with 107,000 on the odometer. For me, around 150,000 miles is when you definitely can tell if a car was cared for or not in its previous life. My 192,000 mile '99 F150 runs like a top, even if the body shows the miles. Already have two people ready to buy it for the right price (which isn't too bad!)

 

[CROWNVIC4LIFE]

For the 4.6 Panthers anything under 200K miles is low miles providing the car was serviced every 5K miles [or 6 months] on Synthetic Blend and fluids were replaced on time....For the most part they generally need very little [if anything] till after 200K miles.

 

[bustednutz]

Originally Posted By: AuthorEditor
That same Honda around here would have rust holes around the rear wheel wells and along the rockerboard. Underneath would be very rusty. More recent Japanese cars seem much better in the rustproofing department, but not so hot 10 years ago.


I know all about rust. I grew up in upstate NY for 36 years of my life. On a quiet night you can hear your car rust.
Whoever mentioned rust on the bolts underneath wasn't lying. Working on these cars is a nightmare when they are rusted up. Everything rust's together and becomes one complete unit. Its horrible what salt does to a car.

 

[fdcg27]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
I am probably going to get a lot of fire for this, but anything over five years or 75k, is considered high mileage to me. Once you reach that point, you will start seeing wear items needing replacement, and there's definitely a greater likelihood of repairs being needed.

Who told you this?
Virtually any car of the last twenty five years or so will go 150K without any major repairs.
Routine maintenance (oil, trans, coolant), a set of brakes, a battery and a couple of sets of tires will get you there.
After 150K, you will need to start actually fixing things.
You may need a starter, an alternator, or even a radiator.
We have had a number of cars past 150K, from various makers, and I don't keep running projects as daily drivers.

 

[dishdude]

That Civic is NOT at all an average condition car. Very few people keep their vehicles that maintained and in that nice of condition. I am sure there are lots on this board that do, but I think we are the exception!

If all used cars looked like that, I would never buy new!

Originally Posted By: bustednutz
I wouldnt hesitate to buy a car with well over 150k. Last car was a 2000 civic with 165k on it. Car was in gorgeous shape. It had a few lil dings here and there, but the car was taken care of. Plus it depends on the manufacturer of the vehicle. Japanese cars have an incredible tolerance for high miles and being reliable. Its been that way for 30 years. Depending on your region of the country matters, salty roads, freezing temps, extreme heat, etc...
You know a well maintained car when you see it. Simple as that.
Below is a 2000 Civic from the Virginia Beach area. Mild climate and no salt.

 

[bustednutz]

Originally Posted By: dishdude
That Civic is NOT at all an average condition car. Very few people keep their vehicles that maintained and in that nice of condition. I am sure there are lots on this board that do, but I think we are the exception!

If all used cars looked like that, I would never buy new!

Originally Posted By: bustednutz
I wouldnt hesitate to buy a car with well over 150k. Last car was a 2000 civic with 165k on it. Car was in gorgeous shape. It had a few lil dings here and there, but the car was taken care of. Plus it depends on the manufacturer of the vehicle. Japanese cars have an incredible tolerance for high miles and being reliable. Its been that way for 30 years. Depending on your region of the country matters, salty roads, freezing temps, extreme heat, etc...
You know a well maintained car when you see it. Simple as that.
Below is a 2000 Civic from the Virginia Beach area. Mild climate and no salt.

Like I said before, it all depends on where you live. The climate and such. For this area this is an average car. What you can't see in the pics is that the paint has some peeling spots on the trunk, and there are some dings all around it. The carpet has some wear as well. Yes it had a folder full of service records as well.(that was rare to find)So in that respect it was a rare find.

 

[sciphi]

Over 150k miles with routine maintenance. Although a lot of cars with 150k miles will need an additional $500-1000 in maintenance for me to consider it for a viable daily driver. New fluids, new belts, inspect the brakes, maybe a set of tires. The time spent with that will reveal other problems that need to be addressed.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Who told you this?
Virtually any car of the last twenty five years or so will go 150K without any major repairs.
Routine maintenance (oil, trans, coolant), a set of brakes, a battery and a couple of sets of tires will get you there.
After 150K, you will need to start actually fixing things.
You may need a starter, an alternator, or even a radiator.
We have had a number of cars past 150K, from various makers, and I don't keep running projects as daily drivers.

I speak from personal experience with the family fleet, and friends' cars I have worked on. Most cars over 75k, some even 60k, have needed replacements of wear items, gaskets (for oil leaks) and even repair items in order to stay in top condition. Also, some people may consider their cars to be in acceptable condition, but I've found those cars to still be in need of some work-- usually in those cases it is struts or repairing small oil leaks.

 

[AuthorEditor]

This thread reminds me of all those threads where we argued about which is the cheapest way to own a car: buy new, used, lease, buy and old clunker and keep it going, etc. I wonder if anybody has done a professional and scientific study of enough people with enough different cars to make a determination of which way the average person would come out ahead? Of course who can put a price on their own time or peace of mind?

 

[FloatingBrick]

Quote:
This thread reminds me of all those threads where we argued about which is the cheapest way to own a car


Speaking of cheap ways to own a car - we will have owned the Taurus for 3 years in March and in that time have put on ~30k miles. NOT including gas and oil, but including the price of the car, 4 new tires, a transmission rebuild, and other minor repairs we have ~$6,200 tied up in the car. That works out to about $0.21/mile.

I'm not sure if that is great, but it seems at least very reasonable. It is by no means a sexy, exciting car to drive, but gets the job done and hasn't broke the bank - yet, anyway.