I know there's a bloke in America with a Volvo which has done a squillion miles. There are undoubtedly thousands of mini-cabs with hundreds of thousands of miles on them. there will be as many Transit vans and the like with equally full odometers. Trucks and buses reputedly regulary exceed the million mile mark.
But....back to normal everyday family cars as owned and run by proles like me. I wonder if many people choose to run them up to huge mileages. I don't mean the one or two hundred thousand brigade, I mean the really big milers.
The garage I take our cars to looks after an Audi A6 Avant 1.9 diesel for a customer. It has been owned by the same guy from new and is now up to 450,000. He uses it for his work as a sales agent and travels widely in it on a daily basis. Of course the consumable bits have been replaced more than once but the basic car is original appaently.
Evidently his theory is that it is much cheaper to just keep it fettled than to replace it. Of course it has more or less no resale value at all but by lobbing a few quid at it every year he keeps it rolling along nicely.
Fashion, boredom, fear of problems, change of circumstances, ability to afford to change, desire to change and many other factors encourage most of us not to follow suit but I am moved to wonder of this may become, at least in the short term a rising trend ?
Do any of the forum contributors in the trade have a view ? Are you seeing more high mileage cars being kept in good order and used daily by "normal" drivers?
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I have seen many cars with starship mileage in less affluent parts of the world, you can spot a high miler by the hole worn in the floor by the drivers heel. I think the MOT and neglect killed off many high milers in the UK. Many people won't spend the money on an older car.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 27 Jul 10 at 13:32
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Quite so ON. There does seem to be an attitude of throwing in the towel when a repair cost is likely to exceed resale value. Conversely though, a car which is worth peanuts but which could be made good by spending a few hundred pounds on it seems quite a clever choice at one level, but by and large most will buy something else at that point at much greater cost.
I have one, for example, which feels like it could go on indefinitely. I have been using it today. It has the thick end of 200k on it but everything still works, the bodywork is fine and it is entirely usable and useful. It is though, worth very little were I to sell it. However, nothing about it makes me feel that it couldn't carry on being a viable car for the foreseeable future.
I'm just moved to wonder if that penny may drop with others as the financial squeeze continues.
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>> I'm just moved to wonder if that penny may drop with others as the financial
>> squeeze continues.
>>
It may drop with a big thud the way things are going, and become a necessity, I fear the clowns running the country have really screwed things up this time.
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Well that's kind of where I'm getting to ON. You will know from other threads that there is a car fund burning a hole in our pockets for my wife's next purchase.
She (sometimes) wants a Qashqai. She loves the one I have as a company car. However, I work from home a couple of days a week on average and am usually local at weekends. Resultantly she can use my Nissan 4 days out of seven, more or less, at no cost other than the private fuel. I'm quite happy tooling around in my old clunker on those days. In fact in many ways I prefer driving it and and find it more useful than the new one.
Given the way things look set economiically, I'm sorely tempted just to lob the car fund at the mortgage and just carry on as we are.
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>> Given the way things look set economiically, I'm sorely tempted just to lob the car
>> fund at the mortgage and just carry on as we are.
>>
Could be a wise move, I am old enough to be motgage free, so went for the car before the VAT goes up and the pound becomes worthless.
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... I'm sorely tempted just to lob the car fund at the mortgage...
You need to do one or the other.
It makes no sense borrowing your own money.
So if you decide not to spend £15,000 on a new car, there is no point leaving it on deposit somewhere if you still have mortgage debt outstanding.
There's something to be said for having some liquid funds, but I imagine the car fund is not every spare penny you have, because if it were, you would not be thinking of spending it on a car.
Not that I imagine I've told you anything you didn't know already.
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Volvo's R good fer 1,000,000 miles, or less ~ www.volvoclub.org.uk/miles.shtml
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>> Volvo's R good fer 1,000,000 miles, or less ~ www.volvoclub.org.uk/miles.shtml
Hondas are pretty good as well
www.hondabeat.com/highmiles.php
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>> I have one, for example, which feels like it could go on indefinitely. I have
>> been using it today. It has the thick end of 200k on it but everything
>> still works, the bodywork is fine and it is entirely usable and useful. It is
>> though, worth very little were I to sell it. However, nothing about it makes me
>> feel that it couldn't carry on being a viable car for the foreseeable future
Same with my car. I sometimes feel like buying something else, but the car is quiet, smooth, handles well, does reasonable mpg and has started instantly every day for five and a half years so far. It failed it's MOT a couple of years ago on corroded rear brake pipes, but I got them done and carried on. I have replaced the shocks and bushes, so it doesn't really feel like a 157000 mile car as the rest of the drivetrain is so durable.
I guess crunch time will come if something big happens to the engine, or it literally does get crunched. Or my circumstances change and I have to do more than 6-7000 miles a year. Other than that theres no reason to change, short of getting bored. If I did change it, theres no doubt I would miss certain things, but it's the same with any car isn't it.
I think age will get to it before mileage at this rate.
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>>The garage I take our cars to looks after an Audi A6 Avant 1.9 diesel
What reg and model is this Humph?
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Dunno Corax, but I can find out.
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At my annual mileage (6k), I will die before my Yaris does...
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Been thinking for some time now if drivers who neglect their cars instead of maintaining them properly for a long life might just come to regret should their expected replacement have to be put on hold for several years.
With good maintainence there's no reason 3 or 4 times round the clock shouldn't be achievable by any reasonable quality car.
Your Audi mucker could do worse than plump for a Hy and Dai with it's 5 year unlimited mileage warranty, i understand they don't offer that warranty for taxi's but would his commercial travelling be covered?, be a bit of a mickey take if not, no one's going to cover that sort of mileage for pleasure.
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I quite like keeping cars a long time, I get to like them more as the years pass - providing they've been reliable, which they generally are if you've owned them from new and not abused or crashed them.
I can't claim any starship mileages but :
I've had 3 company leased Vauxhalls
The first diesel 1.7 Cavalier did 145K only needing tyres, pads, and discs plus with service intervals at 4500m it had 32 oil and filter changes!
2 Vectra 2.0d followed each giving 140K miles of service with just 1 breakdown - my fault I misjudged how deep some floodwater was
My own BMW 323 was running perfectly with nearly 190K miles when I sold it
My wife had a Rover 218D - bought new - for over 10 years and her current MINI was bought in 2003 and we fully intend to keep that until it dies.
Avoiding anything French is a good starting point.
Jacks
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>> Avoiding anything French is a good starting point.
I would disagree with that. Much of the French stuff that was built in the late 80's through to late 90's has proven very long lived. I still see 15-20 year old Pug 205s, 306s and 405s tooling about in good outward condition, with no visible rot (which is usually what ultimately kills old cars). It always amuses me, considering they were slated for build quality in the contemporary reviews. The trim was always naff, but the mechanicals were tough and they resist rot incredibly well.
I agree though that 200k is a reasonable expectation for any reasonably well maintained and cared for modern car. Engines are now tough as old boots. A mate of mine bought a 2.0 Zetec from an accident damaged mk1 Mondeo last year to put in his Caterham. It had done 145,000 miles, with regular (10k) servicing.
When he stripped it to assess its condition, he found bore measurements, cam lobes, and bearing clearances still within new tolerances. No marking or scoring on any of the bearings or journals. In short, nothing needed replacing. He put a new oil pump in as a precaution, stuck it all back together with new gaskets and belts, and dropped it in. Fitted some flashy throttle body fuel injection on it, and its making a solid 176 bhp on its standard 145,000 mile internals. :-)
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I see 2 recurring peculiarities about the UK market which distort everything:
- many people crave the snob appeal of a new(ish) car, preferably with a "premium" badge and will spend (borrow?) huge sums to keep up with the Jones's;
- Used car values are ridiculously low, perversely because of the above point probably.
As a result, it seems that most of us will change/sell/upgrade perfectly good 2-5 year old cars for newer shinier ones. The car industry must be laughing! Didn't the UK get named "Treasure Island" by them a few years back?!
In NZ, used car prices are very high - 2500 quid for a '99 Primera with 100k miles anyone?! - so people keep their cars longer, and spend their money elsewhere. (Boats and fishing gear around here for example).
There is no stigma in running an older car in NZ - average age is 11 years - unlike in the UK?
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Saw a 20 year old Passat diesel estate on Ebay recently. 350k, few niggles but seemed essentially usable. Sold for £285. Alot of money for something so far past its sell by date. Just shows the value people put in certain cars.
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"Given the way things look set economically, I'm sorely tempted just to lob the car fund at the mortgage and just carry on as we are."
Makes perfect sense, Humph - largely because you're fond of the valiant old Mondeo and it's worth far more to you as a 'going concern' than its market value. If you and your garagiste are happy that it's still sound and isn't going to need a new engine or gearbox in the near future, it must be worth doing as you say.
Unless of course you find another Ford (Kuga? C-Max?) that both you and SWMBO could come to love.
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The things, in my experience, that goes on old cars is the driver's seat.
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My experience too, MM. The driver's seat of my old Volvo is noticeably darker than the others, and there's an inch-long split in the edging material. It's as comfortable as ever, though - no sign of sagging or collapsing as some others seem to.
I took a special detour yesterday on the way to work, so that I'd have somewhere safe to stop and take a commemorative photo of the odometer showing double Nelson - not 222 but 111111. Turned out to be an empty Halfords car park in Slough. Easy enough - although driving with both feet off the floor was more of a challenge.
};---)
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>> The things, in my experience, that goes on old cars is the driver's seat.
The one thing I changed soon after buying the Bimmer. The standard seats are like cardboard, so I put a used sports seat in and transformed the comfort. Do I care if it's different to the other seats? Not at this stage, no.
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>> Evidently his theory is that it is much cheaper to just keep it fettled than
>> to replace it. Of course it has more or less no resale value at all
>> but by lobbing a few quid at it every year he keeps it rolling along
>> nicely.
Very true. The number of people that try to kid themselves and others that they're changing cars to save them money on maintenance. How much maintenance will your old car require if it is to cost more than buying a new one?
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I'll be shortly getting rid of my 52 plate Skoda Octavia diesel estate as I need a bigger car and can get one at a reasonable cost via my employer funded lease scheme. It's done just over 150,000 miles but I'd be pretty happy driving that for a while longer, even though I do about 20,000 miles a year. I'd be happier doing that than funding a new(er) diesel and potential repair costs myself. Most things on the Skoda are fairly well understood and easily fixed by a competent garage.
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So just how far will they actually go ? - Old Navy
