High Mileage Cars - 200k Miles

[Arizonalefty59]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

[bladehunter]

Great thread so far OP. It's safe to say you guys are probably hated by the dealerships and the banks because you're not financing or buying a new car as much as others do. So here's a thought for everyone: Because everyone is extending their oil changes and other maintenance, is it a conspiracy by manufacturers to make us buy more vehicles sooner? Also I'm 6 foot about 205 pounds and I have trouble getting in and out of an S2000. It's a great car and they should bring it back but make the cabin bigger. Lol.

 

I'd like to think that no good engineer would ever agree to purposely mislead the public in order to increase sales. However, the fiasco at Volkswagen has certainly raised my eyebrows.

 

Still, I don't think it's a conspiracy. I always thought oil changes at 3K were overkill, but it was cheap insurance. Engines run much cleaner these days, so there's less junk getting into the oil. Many vehicles now have oil monitors, so the change interval is based on the actual condition of the oil. Lots of factors can affect the life of the lubrication, so there really was no one best number.

 

Very true it isn't a one size fit all answer. I'm over kill and I know it. But just be advised all engine oil monitors that im aware of simply use vehicle mileage and or " run time " to calculate oil life. Not sampling oil at all.

[ProgMetaller]

My 1991 Chevy K2500 will be hitting 310,000 miles here in the next week or so. As the kid that I got it from told me, she isn't much to look at, but she's a tank.

[Golf Symantics22]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

 

Fast? Economy? Balls Fast? Luxury? Car or Truck, also I suppose I should include the bastardized half-wit child the SUV.

[Argonne69]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

 

Are you looking to buy new or used? If you don't drive a ton of miles, a high quality used car can save you money, or buy you more vehicle.

 

In general, I don't think you can go wrong with a Honda Civic. Hondas generally run forever, and have great resale value. The downside is that the interior styling is basically "meh".

[Argonne69]

Great thread so far OP. It's safe to say you guys are probably hated by the dealerships and the banks because you're not financing or buying a new car as much as others do. So here's a thought for everyone: Because everyone is extending their oil changes and other maintenance, is it a conspiracy by manufacturers to make us buy more vehicles sooner? Also I'm 6 foot about 205 pounds and I have trouble getting in and out of an S2000. It's a great car and they should bring it back but make the cabin bigger. Lol.

 

I'd like to think that no good engineer would ever agree to purposely mislead the public in order to increase sales. However, the fiasco at Volkswagen has certainly raised my eyebrows.

 

Still, I don't think it's a conspiracy. I always thought oil changes at 3K were overkill, but it was cheap insurance. Engines run much cleaner these days, so there's less junk getting into the oil. Many vehicles now have oil monitors, so the change interval is based on the actual condition of the oil. Lots of factors can affect the life of the lubrication, so there really was no one best number.

 

Very true it isn't a one size fit all answer. I'm over kill and I know it. But just be advised all engine oil monitors that im aware of simply use vehicle mileage and or " run time " to calculate oil life. Not sampling oil at all.

 

My understanding is that engine revs and temperature, in addition to mileage and/or time, are fed into the algorithm, which attempts to calculate when the oil will begin to degrade. Yeah, I guess "sampling" is a term that should be avoided, since it's not actually analyzing the actual oil.

 

I believe the algorithm is fairly conservative, so you'll very likely be changing the oil before it's actual end of life. I assume the manufacturers would like to avoid lawsuits involving damaged engines caused by bad oil.

[bladehunter]

Great thread so far OP. It's safe to say you guys are probably hated by the dealerships and the banks because you're not financing or buying a new car as much as others do. So here's a thought for everyone: Because everyone is extending their oil changes and other maintenance, is it a conspiracy by manufacturers to make us buy more vehicles sooner? Also I'm 6 foot about 205 pounds and I have trouble getting in and out of an S2000. It's a great car and they should bring it back but make the cabin bigger. Lol.

 

I'd like to think that no good engineer would ever agree to purposely mislead the public in order to increase sales. However, the fiasco at Volkswagen has certainly raised my eyebrows.

 

Still, I don't think it's a conspiracy. I always thought oil changes at 3K were overkill, but it was cheap insurance. Engines run much cleaner these days, so there's less junk getting into the oil. Many vehicles now have oil monitors, so the change interval is based on the actual condition of the oil. Lots of factors can affect the life of the lubrication, so there really was no one best number.

 

Very true it isn't a one size fit all answer. I'm over kill and I know it. But just be advised all engine oil monitors that im aware of simply use vehicle mileage and or " run time " to calculate oil life. Not sampling oil at all.

 

My understanding is that engine revs and temperature, in addition to mileage and/or time, are fed into the algorithm, which attempts to calculate when the oil will begin to degrade. Yeah, I guess "sampling" is a term that should be avoided, since it's not actually analyzing the actual oil.

 

I believe the algorithm is fairly conservative, so you'll very likely be changing the oil before it's actual end of life. I assume the manufacturers would like to avoid lawsuits involving damaged engines caused by bad oil.

 

 

Yes I agree. But it's not because of lawsuits. Most warrantys that are from the factory ( not add ons etc that are Sold and run by subsidiaries or third parties ) are 3 years 36000 miles. Past that good luck suing any oem. And any quality new engine would run longer than 36000 miles if you didn't change it once. Unless the filter stopped up , but even then good oil filters have a internal bypass ( another reason not to have oil changed at quicky places as they usually use cheap filters and a lot don't have the bypass) . Past that you own it or the extended warranty company owns it. 36000 miles is literally what they have promised on the window sticker. Now mind you I'm not saying you would not do damage just that it would continue to run past that if oil level remained full.

 

Think of an oil change like ink in a printer for important things. You don't wait until the ink completely goes away to change it. You change it while it's low but still printing properly. Same for oil. You want it to look semi clean and translucent when it comes out. Not black and burnt. If it's black everytime you change it your driving it hard on less than full lubrication for a number of miles. It also is leavin broken down deposits inside. And every 3000 miles with an quality oil there is virtually zero deposits left. I had a 92 5.0 mustang I had since 1996. Put 1780000 on it and It burnt one day due to an electrical fire. Bought the carcass back from the insurance co for parts. Pulled engine and Trans and rear end out and scrapped the rest. Engine sat in my shop for 8 years. And I got another car to put it in. Decided I would rebuild it while it was out. Pulled valve covers and it was as clean as a pin inside. Customer walked in and saw it and without knowing said " just finishing up with that one " as if I had rebuilt it. I said " nope. That's after 170000 miles " ..,, pulled it apart anyway and new rings and inserts and it's still running today. Take an engine that has run low grade oil in and change infrequently and open it up. It will be black caked with hard goo. I see that more often than I do a clean engine. It's pay now or pay later. I choose to break my payments up and pay some now.

[Pstar1978]

Damn Bladehunter are you sure we're not related because we're cut from the same cloth when it comes to taking care of our vehicles. I used to change my oil every 3k miles when I worked in the quick lube industry. When I left that industry to work construction vehicle maintenance, I seen how they treated their engines and the hours they had on their motors we're ridiculous. So now I do it every 5k with a filter and tire rotation because it's more convenient for me. I run a full synthetic with a Fram Ultra oil filter. It costs me around 35 to 40 bucks to do both and even though we get two free oil changes on our new GM's, I don't let anyone work on our vehicles unless it's a NYS inspection, warranty work/recall or a service I can't do at home(tranny, intake, etc.). I just changed the wife's oil in her 16 Equinox and I used Quaker State Ultimate Durability and a Fram Ultra. She was at 30% on the oil life monitor and 5k on the last tire rotation. To me its penny smart and dollar dumb to not maintain a vehicle. As far Arizonalefty59 is concerned, there's a lot of cars to buy used in that range. Do your homework, test drive every car you're able to afford and don't fall in love with it. Kinda like buying new golf clubs, you wouldn't buy them without a complete fitting. My suggestion would be to buy something that's safe and can transport your sticks. Look at this site for some homework but take some of their complaints with a grain of salt because some of them are naïve.

 

www.carcomplaints.com

[edub72]

2006 Corolla - odometer went out at 299,999 3 years ago, still a daily driver

 

1991 Lexus LS 400 - odometer went out at 257k 2 years ago

 

1999 expedition 218k as of today

 

 

2004 Saab convertible - 160k

 

Recently sold while still running

 

1999 landcruiser 357k

2004 Camry 275k

[Argonne69]

Lol. It says a lot about a car's durability when it outlives its odometer.

[Scottyguy68]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

Ford Fusion Titanium. Can get a 2015 one fully loaded with low miles for around or less than 20k. Good gas milage and doesn't drive like a 4 cylinder.

[tuckman]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

 

A used, low mileage car. Bank the rest of the money. Avoid European cars unless you can afford the service or repair as needed.

[deadsolid...shank]

Great thread so far OP. It's safe to say you guys are probably hated by the dealerships and the banks because you're not financing or buying a new car as much as others do. So here's a thought for everyone: Because everyone is extending their oil changes and other maintenance, is it a conspiracy by manufacturers to make us buy more vehicles sooner? Also I'm 6 foot about 205 pounds and I have trouble getting in and out of an S2000. It's a great car and they should bring it back but make the cabin bigger. Lol.

 

I'd like to think that no good engineer would ever agree to purposely mislead the public in order to increase sales. However, the fiasco at Volkswagen has certainly raised my eyebrows.

 

Still, I don't think it's a conspiracy. I always thought oil changes at 3K were overkill, but it was cheap insurance. Engines run much cleaner these days, so there's less junk getting into the oil. Many vehicles now have oil monitors, so the change interval is based on the actual condition of the oil. Lots of factors can affect the life of the lubrication, so there really was no one best number.

 

Very true it isn't a one size fit all answer. I'm over kill and I know it. But just be advised all engine oil monitors that im aware of simply use vehicle mileage and or " run time " to calculate oil life. Not sampling oil at all.

 

My understanding is that engine revs and temperature, in addition to mileage and/or time, are fed into the algorithm, which attempts to calculate when the oil will begin to degrade. Yeah, I guess "sampling" is a term that should be avoided, since it's not actually analyzing the actual oil.

 

I believe the algorithm is fairly conservative, so you'll very likely be changing the oil before it's actual end of life. I assume the manufacturers would like to avoid lawsuits involving damaged engines caused by bad oil.

 

 

Yes I agree. But it's not because of lawsuits. Most warrantys that are from the factory ( not add ons etc that are Sold and run by subsidiaries or third parties ) are 3 years 36000 miles. Past that good luck suing any oem. And any quality new engine would run longer than 36000 miles if you didn't change it once. Unless the filter stopped up , but even then good oil filters have a internal bypass ( another reason not to have oil changed at quicky places as they usually use cheap filters and a lot don't have the bypass) . Past that you own it or the extended warranty company owns it. 36000 miles is literally what they have promised on the window sticker. Now mind you I'm not saying you would not do damage just that it would continue to run past that if oil level remained full.

 

Think of an oil change like ink in a printer for important things. You don't wait until the ink completely goes away to change it. You change it while it's low but still printing properly. Same for oil. You want it to look semi clean and translucent when it comes out. Not black and burnt. If it's black everytime you change it your driving it hard on less than full lubrication for a number of miles. It also is leavin broken down deposits inside. And every 3000 miles with an quality oil there is virtually zero deposits left. I had a 92 5.0 mustang I had since 1996. Put 1780000 on it and It burnt one day due to an electrical fire. Bought the carcass back from the insurance co for parts. Pulled engine and Trans and rear end out and scrapped the rest. Engine sat in my shop for 8 years. And I got another car to put it in. Decided I would rebuild it while it was out. Pulled valve covers and it was as clean as a pin inside. Customer walked in and saw it and without knowing said " just finishing up with that one " as if I had rebuilt it. I said " nope. That's after 170000 miles " ..,, pulled it apart anyway and new rings and inserts and it's still running today. Take an engine that has run low grade oil in and change infrequently and open it up. It will be black caked with hard goo. I see that more often than I do a clean engine. It's pay now or pay later. I choose to break my payments up and pay some now.

 

Most of the 3/36,000 warranties are bumper to bumper though (outside of routine maintenance stuff, tires, wiper blades, etc). The engines are being warrantied quite a bit longer. I believe GM is 7 year, 100,000 mile and most of the majors are at least in the 5 year/60,000 mile power train range.

[GHIN n Juice]

I have a Jag with 850 miles on it without any problems. I understand that's a win right there.

[PZero]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

 

A Honda.

[bladehunter]

I have a Jag with 850 miles on it without any problems. I understand that's a win right there.

 

 

lol yep you know what they say if buying a Jag ....buy two...one to drive while the other is being worked on..... I think that is a reputation they got during the 80s.... I doubt its the same anymore..

[Arizonalefty59]

Thanks fellas. I was thinking another Honda too.

[touch]

Sorry to post something a little off topic, but what would everyone suggest buying as my first car. Budget is $20,000.

 

A Honda.

 

yes Honda, but do not rule out a used Camry or Corolla.

 

I have a Jag with 850 miles on it without any problems. I understand that's a win right there.

 

damn funny sir

[ode1]

Just cracked 100k with my 08 Vibe, bought new and have changed the oil with full syn every 4-5k. Had the trans and radiator flushed at 90k, along with new plugs.....car runs great, and I plan on getting 200k+.....for me it's a great point a to point b type of car that adds functionality with the hatch. Gas mileage is solid, I still avg 30 combined. Not sure how I have not needed new breaks, the original pads were built to last.

[kg92lefty]

Have a 2009 sentra se-r modified with 165,000 on it now. 90% of driving is at 75-80mph on highway with cruise control. Change full synthetic 10-40 oil every 7500 miles. Flushed radiator and transmission fluid once, about to again. Spark plugs at 90. Belts and hoses at 100. New k&n filter every year. I drive hard and the only non regular maintenance I've done is replace the right front axle to replace cv joint sinxe the cv boot was broke for <7000 miles. Still does 140+ mph biweekly ;)

[GHIN n Juice]

I have a Jag with 850 miles on it without any problems. I understand that's a win right there.

 

 

lol yep you know what they say if buying a Jag ....buy two...one to drive while the other is being worked on..... I think that is a reputation they got during the 80s.... I doubt its the same anymore..

 

Yeah, I think the influx of cash from Tata has really helped plus they've outsourced some of there trouble spots. The transmission is German as is the electrical. That reputation is gonna stick for a long time though.

[Argonne69]

Have a 2009 sentra se-r modified with 165,000 on it now. Still does 140+ mph biweekly ;)

 

Downhill both ways, huh? :taunt:

[Argonne69]

At this point I'd also consider a Kia or Hyundai. They're not the sh*tbox cars that they were in the 80's. I'd say the Korean manufacturers have gotten to the level that the Japanese were in the late 90's.

[Imp]

198+k on my '00 Honda S2000.

 

--kC

 

WHat's it like driving that badboy? I always read it could be frustrating because you have to get it to like 7000rpm to get any power.

 

Always wanted to drive that car

It's fun. The best part about it is that it was MADE to rev high. If you're lower than 6Krpm, it's a convertible civic that handles really well. If you're above? It's a rocket that still handles really well. :)

 

It's a blast. It's been off the road the last year redoing all the rubber bits and other stuff that needed freshening (that a 17 year old car needs). Should be finishing up this winter to be back on the road in the spring.

 

--kC

[Pstar1978]

As stated above the Kia/Hyundai have come a long way. They we're horrible to say the least in the late 90's early 2000's. I do have two questions/theories to make about the auto industry in general:

 

If your first car was manufacturer A and that car got over 200k miles, would that make you a "loyal" customer? Case in point. My father in law has a 1966 Pontiac GTO with the 389 and a 4 speed with matching numbers. He bought this car in 1969 from a local dealership at 18 and he still has it. This car will be mine once the time comes and I'll have to teach my wife to drive the other stick shift :taunt: . He only buys GM's because they're American and so on even though he's had some major problems with them.

 

The second theory is that if you bought a car in the 80's, there was a saying that if you bought a car/truck on a Monday or a Friday, it wasn't built right. Do you guys believe this is still true with todays manufacturing procedures?

[Argonne69]

Four of my family members have worked on an automotive assembly line for a combined 60+ years. I've heard plenty of horror stories. If QA is doing their job, then it shouldn't matter what day the car is built. However, QA folks are human, too.

 

A big reason the Japanese were successful is that they adopted the "Toyota Way" of manufacturing. Employees were empowered to stop the line anytime there was a defect. This allowed them to a) fix the defect immediately, and b) identify the breakdown in the process that allowed the defect to occur in the first place. The U.S. manufacturers used the old school Tayloristic approach that treated the line workers as low skill no-nothings, and simply pushed the defect down the line. Managers had incentives to keep the line moving, even if it meant having an inventory of defective product at the end of the line. It's rather complicated to pull out a dash at the end of the line to fix a simple problem, but that was the mindset.

 

As the Japanese expanded into U.S. manufacturing, I believe that they couldn't hire enough managers properly trained in the "Toyota Way", so they wound up with a number of ex-Detroit managers with the same "keep it moving" mindset. I believe this was a big contributor to Toyota's drop in quality.

 

In a nutshell, the quality of the vehicle is dependent on the manufacturing model, which will vary by plant. It's shocking to hear stories about incentives based on maximizing output, rather than quality.

[Sun Devil]

Thanks fellas. I was thinking another Honda too.

 

Well the Honda would suffice if you just want a car to go from point A to B.

 

You can get a slightly used Toyota 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ for 20K. These are rear wheel 200hp FUN cars. They have a great chassis and believe me .... these cars will slide around with ease. FUN FUN. btw: only with a manual.

[Argonne69]

Thanks fellas. I was thinking another Honda too.

 

Well the Honda would suffice if you just want a car to go from point A to B.

 

You can get a slightly used Toyota 86/Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ for 20K. These are rear wheel 200hp FUN cars. They have a great chassis and believe me .... these cars will slide around with ease. FUN FUN. btw: only with a manual.

 

No doubt, but will they last 200K miles?

 

A: Probably (w/ correct preventative maintenance).

[Txwedge]

199,000 miles on my 07 Toyota 4runner. Just about the perfect ride for me. Do the maintenance & rotate tires, replace shocks & brakes & delete monthly dealership internet sales pitches on '17 models!

[driverwedge]

198+k on my '00 Honda S2000.

 

--kC

 

WHat's it like driving that badboy? I always read it could be frustrating because you have to get it to like 7000rpm to get any power.

 

Always wanted to drive that car

It's fun. The best part about it is that it was MADE to rev high. If you're lower than 6Krpm, it's a convertible civic that handles really well. If you're above? It's a rocket that still handles really well. :)

 

It's a blast. It's been off the road the last year redoing all the rubber bits and other stuff that needed freshening (that a 17 year old car needs). Should be finishing up this winter to be back on the road in the spring.

 

--kC

 

Those things were a lot of fun. I used to be a performance driving instructor as a hobby and one of my students had one. Awesome times. The only true street car that I found that handled better was the Lotus Elise. The 2k was faster though.

 

I use to be a Saab guy for years. My first one, and '84 900 Turbo went for over 400k. Just kept changing the oil. Bomb-proof. I had about 4 of them (900 Turbos, 9-3 Viggens). Every one went at least 250k. Then I got an '06 9-5 (when GM had firm hold) and that thing was a total lemon. Moved on from there.