I’d be upset if a vehicle of mine didn’t last at least 210,000 miles.
My current car has 250,000+, and it still runs great.
My '89 pickup had 338,000 miles when it got totaled in an accident.
My '91 Camry had 249,000 miles when I gave it to my son.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
None of these vehicles ever had the engine or tranny opened… except for a new clutch on the truck at 295,000 miles.
If you buy a car new of a make and model that has a reputation for reliability and longevity, maintain it well, and don’t abuse it, your odds of having it for hundreds of thousands of miles are excellent.
I posted the photo mainly to illustrate the point that it got to 250,000 miles by being well taken care of. That’s a key part of keeping a vehicle for a long time. I do this with all my vehicles.
But the other part is buying a car with a reputation for reliability and longevity to start with. I made the mistake twice over the last half-century+ of buying a vehicle that did not have such a reputation, and even though I took excellent care of both I did not get the same service from them. You can make a reliable, long-lasting car into a piece of junk, but you can’t make a piece of junk into a reliable, long-lasting car.
Vehicles with more than 200,000 miles are not that unusual. In 1991 I bought a 1962 Chevrolet pick-up with 600,000 miles on it and used it for 9 years/40,000 miles camping in the desert.
Longevity It takes a commitment form the owner, generally after ten years the vehicle has its second or third owner and maintenance/repairs of a low value vehicle are ignored until the vehicle is disabled.
I am still driving my 1996 Dodge Stratus, 235,000 city miles, in the hot southwestern city. I will not buy a Toyota out of fear that other makes are subpar, my next purchase will be a Chrysler Crossfire or a Dodge Viper.
Google search; look for excessive oil consumption or something to that effect. There will be many responses and you’ll need to cull through them. Also try google search recall, oil consumption. Best thing though print some of this stuff off and show it to service manager; their “stock response” chasnges very quickly.
+1
When I had my Outback in for its last oil change, I mentioned to the service writer that I would be back in a few months for the 90k service. His reply was… The way that you maintain your car, the only extra service that you would need at the next oil change is a transmission fluid change. Of course, a trans fluid change was already on my list for the next service.
A gullible person, or one who fails to educate one’s self about his car’s maintenance, can easily be misled by a service writer who “oversells”, but there are some honest people out there–even at car dealerships.
