how long do cars last?

Question

lets be more specific. if i buy a brand new car for 15000.00, how many miles should it last? is it the same (mileage) for a brand new car for 30000.00? right now i believe that all cars start falling apart at an average of 170,000 miles no matter what? is this accurate?

Answer 1

Maintenance is important, but what affects a car's life more than anything else is how you drive it. If you drive too fast like a jerk, take hard turns, tailgate and have to brake all the time, or drive on rough roads a lot, all of these things will drastically reduce the live of your car. With a gently driven car you should have no trouble getting 200,000 miles -- that's about 15 years worth for the average driver.

Oh, and that thing about changing the oil every 3000 miles is BS. Most manufacturers recommend every 5000 to 7000 miles and that is plenty. Just follow what the owners manual says.

Answer 2

As long as they are cared for properly and serviced regularly they will last a very long time

Examples: 1967 Mercedes Benz 200 Diesel 867000 miles before the crank splintered and could not find a new block.

1978 Ford F250 camper special pickup 425000 miles on one engine never had the heads off. Did timing chains and freeze plugs and flexplate and waterpumps but never took the engine apart. It didn't smoke or use oil either.

1993 VW Eurovan 385000 miles and has never been apart. Usual items replaced on a specific pre-failure basis so there were no problems with the engine. Transmission was replaced once.

1957 Ford Country Squire Sedan Wagon Ford 312 Thunderbird special engine with 3 speed overdrive manual transmission. 395000 miles and just kept running. Finially the steering broke and ran it into a tree. I lived the car didn't.

It all boils down to how well you take care of a car. A very important thing to remember too is that the simpler the car The fewer things to go wrong.

If I were to go looking for a car today I would probably look for a mid '80's MercedesBenz 4 cylinder deisel One that had been well cared for. How do you find something like that? Go to the private small MB specialty shops and ask if they know anyone selling their car. You will find a lot of them out there you just have to look.

Answer 3

The brutal honesty is that how much you spend on a car does NOT predict how much mileage you will get out of a car. For example, my 1987 Mercedes Benz 300E only lasted for 108,000 miles before the transmission went bad. On the flip-side, my 1992 Plymouth Acclaim (needless to say a MUCH cheaper car) lasted 182,000 miles with no transmission problems at all...ever! It's life was cut short by a car accident. But it never gave an ounce of transmission trouble in all that mileage, which is my comparing point. I used these two specific vehicles to compare because Mercedes is such a high-end car and is such a status symbol, while Plymouth is neither. The Plymouth cost less than half the price of the Mercedes and was by far less problematic.

How long a car actually lasts totally has nothing to do with the price. How long it lasts has everything to do with the specific car model and it's design. It also depends on how well it is maintained and how it is driven.

Answer 4

regular maintenance and care will help avoiding big repairs.
A car can last forever, you just have to replace the parts as they are breaking.
There is a time when repairs become too expensive or too frequent, and that's when you need to say stop, junk it and get another one.
Japanese cars are supposed to last longer than domestic ones.
A car won't last longer because it costed more when new.
Also note that buying a used car car be cheapr. Depreciation is faster for the first few years of a car.
Say you buy a 5 year old car with 70000 miles, you are probably going to pay 5000 or 6000 for it compared to 25000 or 30000 new. if it was properly maintained, it can be very reliable and give you many years of use.

Answer 5

A car's useful life is predicated primarily on how well it is maintained. I've had several cars over the decades that gave very good service for well in excess of 250,000 miles and were still running strong when I sold them off.

A statement that "all cars start falling apart" at any mileage is far to generalized a statement. Generalized statements are seldom based upon accurate data or objective evaluation so that cannot be an accurate statement.

Answer 6

I would aggree with you they do start to fail around 170,000 miles. There are two types of people in the world, people that want a luxury car and people that want just an average car. Believe it or not someone is going to pay for a car 15,000 more and might get about 30,000 miles on it more then a person that paid 15,000 and got 170,000. I am one of those people that would not pay $15,000 for 30,000 miles.

Answer 7

Forever. Make sure you change the oil. That is the most important thing. If you change your oil regularly, (less than every 3000 miles) then you'll have your car so long you'll be tired of it. Unless you crash and wreck it.

Ford is a great car company. Little do people know, Ford has some of the best Powertrain parts (engines) of any automaker. Check the stats.

Answer 8

It really depends on the car, and how well it is maintained. Regular maintenance can make a huge difference. Some cars are better built than others, but responsible care car, and responsible driving can put the odds in your favor.

Answer 9

Theoretically, a car should last 1000000 miles. It all depends on the conditions, the driving style, amount of car maintenance that it receives and of course the manufacturer. Honda, for instance, is well known for its low occurences of factory defects.

Answer 10

It depends on how frequently your maintain it. The more maintenance, the longer it will last. Had a Toyota Camry last me until I sold it and it had 286,000 miles on it.