How long should a car last?

MovingForwards

My last one, which is now residing with a good friend, is now 48/49 years old, depends on how well they are looked after.

Do repairs when they pop up and regular services and it will last longer.

Do repairs when it's MOT time and occasional oil changes and you may as well run it into the ground and get 3-5 years out of it.

MEM62

Too many variables to put a figure on it. Some things will fail with mileage, some will fail with age and not all cars are built equal.

Having recently given up my company car because of the onerous taxation, I recently purchased a 2011 320i with 50,000 on it. I drive around 20,000 per year and I am looking to get between three and five years out of it before I change it for something younger / lower mileage again.

In mechanical terms I would expect that I could probably run the car close to 200,000 but the economics work differently. There will be a point around the 100,000 mark where there is a significant drop in value as many people are wary of cars with higher mileages on them. So at that point I will keep an eye on the resale values with a view to changing it just before that cliff edge arrives. My annual mileage will drop in around three, maybe four years time as I am looking to retire.

alan_d

I find the whole 100k mile thing quite amusing - as many people seem to assume that somehow a car will suddenly become unreliable / expensive once it passes this figure.
Looking back at my car purchase history, I think i've only bought 1 in the last ~20 years that was under 100k (and even then only 9k under). As a result they are usually a fair bit cheaper for the age because of it.
I'd rather have a proven service history and lots of miles in a reasonably short period - which therefore will mostly be long journeys, which are way better for the engine etc.
I once bought a 3-year old Volvo V70 on 120k miles - and kept it for another 11 years until 270k miles, eventually sold to a mate who is still running it. No mileage related horror stories to report.

Jackmydad

Agree with the rest. It's hard to know.
Treat them like a washing machine, used and ignored until they break, drive them hard and badly with no mechanical empathy?
I've seen people make them worthless in a few years.
Do the opposite, and you could get 20 years depending on the mileage. More if you're prepared to do more complicated repairs as they get older.

There's lots of thriving car clubs for cars that are 80 + years old.
Some of those cars get used regularly too,

EdGasketTheSecond

AdrianC wrote: »

Define "major problem".

It's all about your attitude to maintenance. Cars are complex mechanical objects.

FWIW, our youngest car is 22yo with 80k miles on. It probably needs the rear suspension rebuilding soon. It failed to proceed this afternoon, with major electrical shenanigans probably caused by a cracked battery clamp I should have noticed when replacing the battery and alternator a year or so ago. Meanwhile, the camper (31yo, somewhere around 200k miles, probably) is currently fairly heavily dismantled for a lot of replacement pipes and a full brake rebuild. It's likely to need an engine rebuild or replacement soon. The Landy (only 40k miles across its 39 yrs) needs a bit of bulkhead welding for the MOT. I regard all of this as basic routine maintenance.

I take my hat off to you though calling the above 'routine maintenance' is stretching the definition of routine maintenance into the realms of major repairs.

MEM62

alan_d wrote: »

I find the whole 100k mile thing quite amusing - as many people seem to assume that somehow a car will suddenly become unreliable / expensive once it passes this figure.

I don't get it either but that's the way the market works. (And it's even more extreme in the case of motorcycles) How many times on other boards do we see posters with limited means taking on large loans and spending £000's to buy a new-ish, low mileage car because "it must be reliable as I need it for work". It is just one of those mass-illusions that people will not be talked out of.

From an economy viewpoint that means you either bail out and sell just before the financial cliff edge or run it way past that point to where that car owes you little or nothing in residual value.

alan_d

MEM62 wrote: »

How many times on other boards do we see posters with limited means taking on large loans and spending £000's to buy a new-ish, low mileage car because "it must be reliable as I need it for work". It is just one of those mass-illusions that people will not be talked out of.

Good point - or someone who clearly knows little about cars trying to buy something new/expensive that they can't afford because they think that the current car is likely to need expensive work soon - yet have no evidence to prove this.
...And usually, even if the expensive work happened, it would be waaaay cheaper than the shiny new one on finance depreciating like a stone.

AdrianC

MEM62 wrote: »

How many times on other boards do we see posters with limited means taking on large loans and spending £000's to buy a new-ish, low mileage car because "it must be reliable as I need it for work". It is just one of those mass-illusions that people will not be talked out of.

Or, even more entertainingly, to save a hundred quid a year in VED.

silverwhistle

EdGasketTheSecond wrote: »

I take my hat off to you though calling the above 'routine maintenance' is stretching the definition of routine maintenance into the realms of major repairs.

Quite. Requiring expertise, tools, at least a drive if not a garage, time, alternative transport if you haven't got the time to do it quickly. I've got none of those. I can do wiper blades, change summer to winter wheels, top up fluids and the like but for many of us unfeasible.



I do service and change components on my push bike though.

AdrianC

silverwhistle wrote: »

Quite. Requiring expertise, tools, at least a drive if not a garage, time, alternative transport if you haven't got the time to do it quickly. I've got none of those. I can do wiper blades, change summer to winter wheels, top up fluids and the like but for many of us unfeasible.

Routine maintenance doesn't have to be DIY.

Obviously, point and pay costs, and that moves the economics more than somewhat.