Good, it won’t take all day. I decided that a 140,000 mile limit on Tempos and Tauruses would be my recommendation. After that, get rid of it before it kills you. The 45’ turning radius and lousy suspension, rotting exhaust system and 60,000 mile O2 sensor and won’t start without a heater when temps went to +25 are my pet negatives. The broken door detents didn’t help either. The cars were built to be inexpensive, not to run forever. I liked the $14 brake rotors that were super easy to change. I never bothered to resurface them.
I just figured that the cars weren’t worth the bother after 140,000.
An article in the NY Times auto section stated that 200K miles from a car is now what 100K used to be, meaning most cars can make the 200K mark and then repairs and keeping them can get more expensive. The main reason cited is emission requirements that brought catalytic converters into use. The cats are sensitive to oil burning which kills them. To make the cat last 100K miles with 90% of the original efficiency it was necessary to reduce oil burning as the motors racked up years and miles. This meant vastly improved rings which now can last up to 200K and beyond without allowing oil to get into the combustion chamber.
So, the question of how long to keep a car is a moving target. The motor isn’t usually the first thing to go. The auto transmission is more likely to fail due to neglected maintenance. Body rust isn’t the big issue it used to be either. So the car can last as long as the owner can live with the stuff that breaks (windows that don’t go down anymore, etc.) or just doesn’t want to drive it anymore.
That just stuns me that the average American spends $1100 per year on repair and maintenance. I’ve never come anywhere close to that with any vehicle I’ve owned. Sure, they’ve had years where they exceeded $1100, but not over a several year average. I think the worst year on my 97 Taurus totalled up to about $1200, and that was followed by 3 years of extremely minimal maintenance (12 oil changes, 1 trans fluid change, a coolant change, and a brake fluid change). I’ve broken $1100 on my 98 Camry as well, but it similarly has gone through periods of calm after a few repairs (rather minimal work needed in the past 2 years).
Of course, I do most of my work myself, and many people go to dealers for their work. For example, replacing a brake caliper, mounting bracket, flex hose, turning the rotors, and replacing the pads on my Camry cost me ~$150. When a relative had similar work done on their Camry at the dealer? $850.
Cars tend to be cyclical with repairs. You spend what seems to be a lot of money and get frustrated and sell the car, then the new owner fixes a couple of minor things and gets a period of time and miles with no or at least few repairs. You can buy a whole heck of a lot of parts for the price of a new car, and if you buy a used one, you have no idea what you are getting, i.e. maybe more repairs than this one. I say you’ve done pretty well so far. If the body is in decent shape and the car is safe, I would run it and repair it and see how long I could keep it going. Who knows, you might get another 1/4 million miles. It’s only 16 years old. Even and engine and trans would not cost what a new car would. Is it auto or standard, by the way?
I own a 93 Toyota pickup with 150k on it and I tell people it’s gonna be my last truck. I’m odd that way.
To put my comments in perspective, several of my vehicles have literally been saved from the junkyard. Buy 'em cheap and run 'em for 10-12 years.
@eraser
We’ve had this conversation before. Most Americans do not do any of their own work, and most Americans do not do PROACTIVE maintenance, like you do, to prevent failures. The figure includes all maintenance, repairs and tires. I too have years where I only spend $500 or so.
If you don’t believe me go to the AAA or another websites where they have surveys of owners reporting in.
If you keep a car for 400,000 miles, you will spend its original value in R & M, probably over 25 years or so.
I paid $3115 For my Dodge Dart GT new and over 14 years I spent over $3000 on upkeep. And this was an above average car.
It’s an automatic and I think that might help the transmission last longer.
Here’s a picture of some of the rust that bothers me. I’ll probably have the transmission rebuilt on it. If it ever gos out I think I might up the gear ratio while I’m at it, to where I can drive 35-45 MPH in 2nd gear, I drive in the range of 35-40MPH quite a bit and sometimes it has to kick up into the next gear to go faster, this I think will save me a little on the fuel economy.
Also, I’m going to be an splash guard for my cat. With all this rust, I’m surprised it hasn’t cracked open and blown away.