And this brings up the point that engines don’t need to last forever. They just need to last as long as the rest of the car. There’s no point in having a good running engine if the rest of the car is falling apart around it.
I’ve seen and serviced numerous vehicles that were getting close to the 500K mile mark and still had fine running engines. The vast majority of these were worn the &#%! out needing substantial body, interior, and chassis work.
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No accounting for taste, there were a few nice cars in the doctors lot, Boss 302, and a nice Camaro.
GF of one of the docs came to pick me up, driving a Camaro convertible, nice car says I, I hate it says she, it’s Ralph’s.
That is a good policy, that provides a good supply of used vehicles on the market for “value conscious” buyers.
Years ago, I bought a Dodge Ram with only 92,000 miles, all other vehicles that I have owned had over 100,000 miles at the time of purchase.
Some engine models have inherent problems, but most will last 3 times longer than necessary for your relatively short ownership.
A friend got his first job as an emergency room doctor in the Bronx, NY about 198. He drove a clapped out Pinto. He didn’t live too far from work given what he did. Driving anything nicer than that Pinto was just asking for trouble.
I have said this before, but a surgeon at one of the downtown Nashville hospitals drove an old Sentra to work instead of his high end vehicles…
Back in 2011, I hired a lawyer to sue a driver for breaking my left leg. The lawyer arranged a date for us to meet at his workplace. I arrived earlier than he did and drove my 2010 Toyota Camry SE, all tinted up with flashy wheels.
About 15 minutes later, while waiting in the parking lot, the lawyer pulled up in a 2001 Toyota Camry.
I turned to a relative inside of my car and said “ Look, he’s a lawyer and making a butt load of money and driving that, meanwhile I don’t make half of what he earns and look what I’m driving ! Maybe I need to think about my life choices “
Simple , his Bentley was home in the garage so it would not get vandalized setting outside his office.
Or will last plenty long enough for a new owner that only drives 3000 miles a year!
We bought a 4 year old Audi with 30,000 miles in 2018. It now has 51K 7 years later. At this rate we have 16 years before it even hits 100K miles..
Most lawyers make a lot less than you think they do.
Not likely. For one thing, some engines are just defective. They have little chance of even getting to 100,000.
But most modern engines will exceed 100K, and some even make it to 250K without too much struggle. In rare cases (very rare), we hear about engines pushing 300K, but those claims are hard to verify. After all, if someone poured lots of $$$ into the engine, has it really “lasted” 300K miles?
As for 1 million miles, most of those claims wither under and form of scrutiny. Is it possible? Sure. It’ is also possible to fall off the Golden Gate Bridge and survive.
I would say that statistically, the optimum lifespan of a modern engine, if you took very good care of it, would be 175K to 225K. That is not an unreasonable expectation for most cars.
I’m a certified auto appraiser. I view LOTS of car, all the time. I rarely ever see mileages beyond 250K–every now and then.
Even less when you add in paying off that paper hanging on the wall… I think you need to be a Partner in a big firm (or whatever) before you are making the big bucks…
A co-workers wife was a corporate lawyer making good money for not being a partner, and her student loans were crazy, but they lived in a very expensive part of downtown Nashville, dressed nice and ate out at the finer diners a lot, but they used his income as their play money (season tickets, vacations etc etc), both drove everyday middle class vehicles, but since they loved to drink a lot and lived downtown town, they Ubered a lot, he lived 1.6 miles from work, she was even closer to work.. And yes, they put a ton back for retirement…
He wasn’t insecure about driving a 10-year-old vehicle. Some would feel it to be wasteful to part with a vehicle in the middle of its useful life.
My son in law is a lawyer and they have just about paid off his law school loans. They continued to pay during Covid. He didn’t go to an expensive law school and still got a well paying job at one of the larger firms in Baltimore. A great GPA goes a long way. He’s a corporate lawyer and as a conservative person, that suits him just fine.
#1 - seats don’t wear out by age. They wear out by use (hours someone is sitting in it). My wife sold her 07 Lexus last year and the seats were still EXTREMELY COMFORTABLE.
#2 - Seats will also wear out faster from someone who’s extremely large. My wife only weighs 125lbs so her car seats will last a lot longer than someone who weighs 350 lbs.
We tend to keep our vehicles a long time. Not so much in years, but miles. My wife’s 07 lexus was the first vehicle we sold/given away in the past 30+ years that didn’t have over 300k miles. Never had a problem with the seats in any of those vehicles. Keep up on normal maintenance and a properly designed vehicle can last a very very long time.
+1
Many years ago, I knew a very heavy guy who was a news reporter on the local beat. He was in and out of his VW Rabbit constantly, and in only 3 years the seat springs were visible to such an extent that you saw more of the springs than the upholstery.