I have a 2003 Nissan Altima that has 75000 miles on it. I have changed the oil every 3000 miles, taken it in for all scheduled maintenance, rotated the tires and drive it at reasonable speeds. How long can a person expect to drive a Nissan taking good care of the car?
the true answer is how long you want to drive it, and at this point be making NO car payments.
But, eventually you will start to do repairs. (things do wear out) when these repairs start to equal what you would be paying in new car payments, then you should consider getting a new car.
i think the answer you were looking for, is how many miles can your car be expected to last. this is the question for the ages. if anyone knew those answers, they would be a genius! but generally 150,000 is a good baseline. with really good care 200,000. again that depends on you, and how long you would want to wait to buy a nice, new, shiny car though.
With proper care I would say at least 200,000 miles. I would guess that Nessan calls for oil changes more like 5 - 10,000 miles. Unless you fit the severe conditions class, doing it more often will not really help. It won't likey hurt but it is really not needed. Very few cars ever suffer short life related to oil issues unless they have failed to follow the manufacturers recommendations.
There was even at least one test that indicated more wear in the first 500 miles after an oil change than in the last 500 miles.A long time.
Frequent oil changes will protect the wear surfaces inside the engine, which is good, but there are a lot of parts that can go before the engine dies. You can maintain the car as long as you want, and are willing to pay the price. City driving is tough on a car and the miles is only part of the story. If you live in the country and drive on dirt roads mostly a lot of suspension parts will require maintenance. You are doing the right stuff and 200,000 miles or more is not unreasonable, but you may decide before then to trade if you don’t feel you have reliable transportaion.
At least another 5 to ten years at the rate you drive it. You have a good car and you treat it better than most anyone would. You can back off to every 5000 miles or more for oil changes unless you drive in abusive conditions like stop-and-go, lots of idling in traffic, or many short trips.