Cars

[bigmrg74]

I'm only 85 miles away from rolling over 100,000 on my 2005 Malibu. Will hit it tomorrow sometime for sure as I'm going on bit of a road trip then. Just thought I would throw that out there to kick things off on a general car thread for a while.

Who else has a good story about their rides and how many miles they've put on it??

[johnnypohlfan]

Re: Cars

I wish I put that few miles on my Malibu! I'm 500 away from 100k, and mine is a 2007.

Great car for mileage, but it still adds up when I put on 20k+ every year.

On the flipside, my old man just went past 300k on his Tahoe, and just had to put new brake pads on it for the VERY FIRST TIME.

[bigmrg74]

Re: Cars

I wish I put that few miles on my Malibu! I'm 500 away from 100k, and mine is a 2007.

Great car for mileage, but it still adds up when I put on 20k+ every year.

On the flipside, my old man just went past 300k on his Tahoe, and just had to put new brake pads on it for the VERY FIRST TIME.

Yeah, getting around 30 miles a gallon ain't that bad at all. Think mine had about 15,000 on it already because I bought it used right after thanksgiving in 2006, but its been a very good car for me and all of the crazy running to different games on it. Hell, its done trips to Duluth, MTU, NMU, Mercyhurst, and even all the way out to Springfield, MA, the home of AIC as well, and that's just some of the hockey schools its been at.

[brookyone]

Re: Cars

Never owned a vehicle with more than 55,000 miles on it. I've always been very opposed, and terrified to own a car with the warranty expired making potential expensive repairs an out of pocket expense. I have purchased service contracts on most vehicles to cover repairs after warranty expiration. I don't put heavy miles on vehicles and service contracts always expire by time before I reach their mileage limits. I'm curious if those with high mileage vehicles bother to purchase some kind of coverage for after factory warranty has expired?

[goldy_331]

Re: Cars

I liked the first movie OK, but hear the second is a stinker. Oh, wait...never mind.

[duper]

Re: Cars

Never owned a vehicle with more than 55,000 miles on it. I've always been very opposed, and terrified to own a car with the warranty expired making potential expensive repairs an out of pocket expense. I have purchased service contracts on most vehicles to cover repairs after warranty expiration. I don't put heavy miles on vehicles and service contracts always expire by time before I reach their mileage limits. I'm curious if those with high mileage vehicles bother to purchase some kind of coverage for after factory warranty has expired?

But don't you then buy a whole car instead of risking repairs? That seems a lot more expensive to me, although I guess it's at least predictable.
I should hit 100,000 miles on an '02 Mitsubishi Lancer in the next couple of months sometime. I have spent $0 on non-maintenance-type repairs, unless you count a new clutch, but I don't even though it wore out a little quicker than I would have liked.

[alfablue]

Re: Cars

Thanks to changes at work, my yearly driving has gone down.

Crossed 186k on my '99 Miata a month ago. Great snow car. Except for the rust I found recently. Hope to get it to 200k before replacing.

If the motor blows up, a replacement can be dropped in for about $2k, aka- 8-12 months of car payments. Seems like a reasonable risk since car payments ended back in 2004.

[state of hockey]

Re: Cars

I'll cross 90k in September. Cars runs absolutely awesome. Only major repair I have had is a lower control arm replacement. But that wasn't the cars fault. It is getting some rust on the rear wheel wells. That'll be fun to get rid of.

[brookyone]

Re: Cars

But don't you then buy a whole car instead of risking repairs? That seems a lot more expensive to me, although I guess it's at least predictable.
I should hit 100,000 miles on an '02 Mitsubishi Lancer in the next couple of months sometime. I have spent $0 on non-maintenance-type repairs, unless you count a new clutch, but I don't even though it wore out a little quicker than I would have liked.

I definitely prefer the reasonable monthly payment you're prepared for and can tailor to your budget than a repair to a high mileage vehicle...possibly in the thousands of $$$ and more than the vehicles worth. Spending money on repairs, even larger amounts can make sense if you get years of trouble / expense free usage afterwards. Start having to make expensive repairs on a regular / semi regular basis to low value vehicles is not smart IMO. Even frequent less expensive repairs will nickle and dime you to death and either way, before you know it you've spent as much or more in a couple years than you would have spent on new car payments...and you're still driving an old car. Cheaper insurance on the older car is a consideration too.

Replacing a clutch once over 100,000 miles is pretty good service out of that clutch. They're definitely a wear item that will always wear out eventually.

[MattS]

Re: Cars

Lets see...I have about 160k on my '97 Dodge Dakota. That has been almost maintenance free except routine stuff. I did have to replace brake lines and fuel lines. And I replaced the front wheel bearing assemblies maybe 20k ago. **** those were expensive! I quit driving it on a regular basis back in '05 so now it is purely a winter vehicle. It still runs awesome, but it becoming very rusty.

I have about 105k on my '04 Pontiac Grand Prix. This car seems to go through brakes and tires more regularly than I think it should. I cannot seem to figure out why and I don't believe it is my driving style as it doesn't happen with other vehicles. Oh and the sun roof doesn't open or close like it should anymore, but meh, I could care less. Besides that it has run very well for me.

My other two cars are not regular road vehicles, so they don't get hardly any miles put on them. Nor do I know exactly how many are on them.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Cars

35K on my '08 Ram 2500. Never been to the shop.
285k on my '89 Jeep. (only about 12k were miles I put on) Only 1 problem, have had to replace 2 starters, because occasionally the key sticks, so after it starts you have to give it a bump to go back it it's correct position. Then my stupid *** family drives it and and don't realize that they are burning the **** out of my starter.

[MUhawks628]

Re: Cars

Picked up a '58 Ford Nucleon a couple years back - I'm afarid of what's going to happen when I get to 400k.

[UncleRay]

Re: Cars

The first car I bought was an '89 VW Golf. I paid it off in three years, just before turning 100,000 miles. Shortly thereafter I found a great local mechanic and told him his job was to get it to 200,000. When he did, 4 years later, I brought a case of beer as a thank-you down to the shop and asked if he wanted to try for 300,000. I sold it at 217,000 and bought a stereo for my next ride.

Mrs. UR drives a ten year old Passat with about 165,000 on it. She's always been a dealership gal, and in the five years that we've been married I've been trying to get her to go to an independent mechanic. Recently the dealer quoted about $2500 for some work to be done, and the repair-or-replace debate began. I finally convinced her to see the guy down the street. She called me ecstatic on Monday to say that he had been able to get at everything to give an accurate estimate: about $500 or $550 to do the same work. She said that the lesson she learned was that she should probably trust my advice more! Big win for the Unc!! Oh - final bill? - $325!

[Hammer]

Re: Cars

Almost 98K on my '03 Ranger. It eats brakes like a fat kid eats cake, but other than that, nothing of any significance whatsoever.

Brooky, just changing the fluids on a routine basis, along with tires and brakes, will get most vehicles to 100-120K with no problem whatsoever nowadays.

[St. Clown]

Re: Cars

Never owned a vehicle with more than 55,000 miles on it. I've always been very opposed, and terrified to own a car with the warranty expired making potential expensive repairs an out of pocket expense. I have purchased service contracts on most vehicles to cover repairs after warranty expiration. I don't put heavy miles on vehicles and service contracts always expire by time before I reach their mileage limits. I'm curious if those with high mileage vehicles bother to purchase some kind of coverage for after factory warranty has expired?

I bought my 2000 Altima brand new off the lot in December 2000 and I just went over 156K miles. I've had three repairs on it, and they've totaled to $340 because I bought a $20 Haynes book back in the day to make sure that anything I attempt, I do it right. The simple key to keeping a car a while is to just do the maintenance. So long as you're maintaining the parts that wear out, the vast majority of the time the car should keep on going without major repairs. A few weeks ago I had the struts replaced, because I just know that's out of my comfort zone to do alone, and I expect to have this car last me well into the 200K range before I replace it.

I think the next car I get will be an automatic, though. I'm getting tired of shifting.

And somebody mentioned replacing their clutch, I'm still on my first clutch. I would recommend a Nissan based upon my overall experience.