I had a 1973 Dodge Dart (slant six) which I ran for 225,000 miles on the engine with no internal work. It did however, in its lifetime have about 8 starters and 12 ballast resistors. It lived in Florida for 4 years so it looked good. I sold it to a Chicago policeman. I told the guy, “It’s not really 25,000 miles. It’s turned over.” I sold it for $3000 which is about what I’d paid for it. Not such a big deal as it sounds, because there was horrendous inflation in between.
@MikeInNH You had a real dog there. My reference was basically that most car owners get psyched out by major repairs. I’ve had some unreliable cars but mostly as s student, and I took the bus to school when they crapped out. I would not tolerate an unreliable vehicle if my job demanded a good vehicle.
I did have a colleague in the 70s who was a broker and needed his car for work. He had a Rover 2000TC which had a hydraulic clutch which, in true British fashion, refused to function below freezing. Other things crapped out as well, but the leather upholstery smelled nice! He finally sold it and got something more reliable.
If you need your car for your job you need to put reliability first. A friend of my wife is a real estate broker and drives a Honda Accord. Never a problem. My niece is an advertising copy writer in a high pressure job with irregular hours. She thought the Fiat 500 was “cute” and asked my advice. I steered her way from it and told her to hang on to her Toyota Yaris for a while.
My 1965 Dodge Dart, the best compact at the time, went though 2 starters, two alternators, 2 sets of torsion bars, 3 sets of shocks, 4 brake jobs, 4 mufflers, 2 sets of ball joints, distributor, and a gas talk, among things during its 13 year ownership. It was then rusted out and scrapped for $30. All through this the car was reliable and my wife drove it with confidence till the end.
I would not tolerate an unreliable vehicle if my job demanded a good vehicle.
I didn’t. That’s why I sold it and bought a 1990 Pathfinder. My first “Repair” was well past 150k miles. I did all the PM myself. But the vehicle served me well for over 300k miles.
Yes, the Pathfinder was the most reliable SUV at that time. My neighbor bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the blunderbuss V8 and solid front axle. It was anything but reliable.
On the Dodge, sure I could have kept it running for another 100K miles. This is CA so no rust issues. The car needed a lot of repairs, mostly done by myself and I am not going to bore you with the list of parts. Lets just say that the AAA drivers knew my wife and her car.
The one thing that did it for me is that all the gaskets were seeping. When you got in the car you could smell burnt oil and this could not be good for my kids. The engine and transmission were fine, thanks to regular maintenance. It was everything else.
I have bought my current Camry with 30k Miles in 2008 and now had 155K miles and in decent shape.
But I also have had to switch a few other cars starting in 2011, mostly because our needs changed. So I started with a brand new Honda CRV and with the proceeds from the sale of that car moved on to two more CUV’s that were one or two year old, with ~20K miles and then sold them after 2-3 years. The cost of ownership on these cars have been the lowest. No repairs, not even brake or tire. Just engine, transmission oil and brake fluid done by myself. So I think if you spend the time and look for good deals, keep the cars nice and sell them well and earlier than the wheels fall off, financially you might be ahead. I am still educating myself, but for those who think I did the math wrong, I have excel spreadsheets for each car from day 1 of ownership.
My neighbor bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the blunderbuss V8 and solid front axle.
I test drove a Jeep Grand Cherokee back then…it has a total of 2 miles when I started out the parking lot. I couldn’t believe how poor the fit and finish was. Every door leaked air. The hood didn’t align correctly. I thought it might have been a wrecked one…but they all seem to have similar problems.
At 150,000 miles, that first Pathfinder repair is more like maintenance. Maybe that’s what you meant by putting quotation marks around repair.