Years/miles for the car you've owned longest?

[Sarah in SC]

Shortstop, that Saturn may well last forever! One of ours was a 96 and it had around 300k when we decided to take it to the junkyard. Those are great, great little cars and so easy to work on.

I think maybe we need a classified section for me to pick up used cars from some of you! Y'all have some seriously low mileage vehicles! And must be some super short commutes.

 

[2soon2tell]

I'm still driving a '93 Ford F-150 pickup with 160,000 miles.

DW- drives a '06 Lexus with 90,000 miles

 

[unno2002]

June 2015 we “traded in” (dumped) the wife’s 1998 Tracker, around 175,000 miles… It seemed to be spending more time in the shop than on the road… I’ve still got my 1988 Suzuki Samurai, around 250,000 miles… It starts, it gets me around, and handles our “messy” jobs.

 

[tulak]

We buy new and plan on keeping the cars for 8-10 years. Our oldest car is a 2001 Toyota Sienna with ~140k miles. We bought it November of 2000, so it's been almost 15 years. I'm hoping that it'll last until our youngest goes off to college in four years, but there's been some pressure to replace it with car more suitable our older child, who's about to start driving. We'll see how that goes. The car doesn't get very many miles per year at this point, probably around 6-8k.

 

[Rick_Head]

In my youth I bought "disposable cars". Never paid more than a few hundred $ and kept them from 2 months to ~3 years. Usually sold hem because I could make a few $. My last 2 cars were an 88 Tempo (that I kept 14 years and 180K miles) and a 2005 Mustang GT (nearing 11 years and 70K miles). I Also have an 07 Ranger as a winter vehicle (~70K miles). I'm 66 and unless I'm bored with the current fleet, I'll own'em until they pry my driver's license out of my cold dead hands.

One of the longest owned and driven cars I know about belongs to a friend. It's a 59 MGA that he bought new. It's been winter stored for at least 30 years but he thinks it has about 350K miles on it. Before you go looking for one, it has had 2 restorations and is getting ready for another one. The next one will cost about 3 x what he paid for it even with a lot of free labour supplied by friends.

 

[photoguy]

My longest owned car was a 95 accord that my parents bought new in 95 for me as a graduation gift. I kept it until 2014 and it had at least 208k km (odo stopped working).

I would have kept it longer but we fired and decided to make do with one vehicle.

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[RE2Boys]

Owned the longest........1986 Dodge D-50 (read Mitsubishi) pickup bought in 1992, junked in 2004. Had 24K miles when purchased, 88K when junked. Engine ran great but plastic and rubber parts disintegrated in the southern sun. Needed new ball joints, light switch died (could have jury rigged a replacenet switch/solenoid), new exhaust, getting near new clutch and brakes and timing belt.....just gave up but only cost $3400.
Most miles.......89 Grand Prix bought new (last new car ever bought) sold in 2000 with 115K, also 95 Windstar, passed on to niece in 2005 with 115K.

 

[capjak]

Longest Owned: 2003 Honda Pilot bought new 169,000 and still going strong

Other Inventory:

Lexus ES350 2011 bought 1 year used 60,000 miles

BMW 328 xi 2013 bought new 22,000 miles

No major issues (replaced condenser on AC for the Honda $900)

 

[UtahSkier]

For The past 10 years, I have had 3 cars for 2 houses. 1 car at each home and 1 that travels between the homes.

I just sold my 2000 corvette convertible with 70,000 miles. It was well maintained and would have kept it another 10 years if not for life style changes.

I also just sold my 1999 dodge Durango with 68,000 miles. It was also working just fine and maintenance costs were low. Again, I would have kept it for another 5 years if not for life style changes.

So now I have 2 new cars and expect to keep them 15+ years.

 

[Nunthewiser]

What is it they say about those old gm cars...they run badly longer than most other cars run..or something like that.

 

[Andre1969]

What is it they say about those old gm cars...they run badly longer than most other cars run..or something like that.

LOL, glad to hear I'm not the only one who's used that line. I think the most miles anyone in my family got out of a GM car was Mom's '86 Monte Carlo, with a 305 V-8. She bought it new at the end of the model year, and gave it to me with about 179,000 miles on it in early 1998. I had it all of three months. Got t-boned delivering pizzas with it, and it was a hard enough hit to total it. Final mileage, 192,000. So in just three short months, I racked up 13000 miles!

 

[scrinch]

We had a 98 Dodge Caravan that we had to donate to the glue factory last year (16 years) when it started having electronic problems that no one could easily trace down. It had 185k miles on it and looked and ran very nicely until the computer started making the engine do dangerous things (surging, dying at inappropriate times). We had several shops including the dealership try to diagnose the problem, but they all gave up. Actually they each offered to keep testing components, but wanted $125/hr and said they'd just be guessing what to test.

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[Andre1969]

We had a 98 Dodge Caravan that we had to donate to the glue factory last year (16 years) when it started having electronic problems that no one could easily trace down. It had 185k miles on it and looked and ran very nicely until the computer started making the engine do dangerous things (surging, dying at inappropriate times). We had several shops including the dealership try to diagnose the problem, but they all gave up. Actually they each offered to keep testing components, but wanted $125/hr and said they'd just be guessing what to test.

My 2000 Intrepid went through a spat something like that. One day I was driving along and it just cut out on me without warning. I coasted to the side of the road, stopped, put it in park, and turned the key to see what would happen and it fired right up. I thought it was a one time glitch, but then it happened a few weeks later, and then started happening more often. It got to the point I was getting so accustomed to it that I could throw it in neutral and start it up again. But, eventually it refused to start, leaving me stranded at work.

The next day it started with no trouble at all, and I drove it to my mechanic. Naturally, it didn't act up for him. He adjusted some vacuum hoses and said to take it home and give it a try over the weekend. It stalled out again about a half hour later so I took it back.

I got online and found that either a camshaft position sensor or crankshaft position sensor could be the culprit. Unfortunately, the computer didn't store error codes for either one, so replacing them was trial by error. I had the mechanic replace them both at the same time, and it was about $500 for both. That was around May of 2008 and the car never stalled out again in the 18 months I had it after that, so I guess one of those sensors did the trick!

Mine never surged though. It would simply stall out. Sometimes, if I feathered the gas pedal just right, it would simply buck and kick for a couple seconds, but wouldn't stall, at least.

 

[Lakewood90712]

Still have a Revel 1958 Chevy I got as a kid ( 1958 Chevy, geez, what an ugly car ) the year the stylist group at GM snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
Not quite sure of the mileage

 

[Andre1969]

Still have a Revel 1958 Chevy I got as a kid ( 1958 Chevy, geez, what an ugly car ) the year the stylist group at GM snatched defeat from the jaws of victory
Not quite sure of the mileage

I had a Revell model of a '58 Impala when I was a kid. It was blue with a white top, I think. I remember it had some extra pieces so you could build it to look factory stock, or customize it. I forget which way Dad and I built it.

Alas, when I was in 4th grade, one rainy Saturday I decided to have a demolition derby with all the scale models Dad and I had made, so that Impala, along 8 or 9 other "classics" were destroyed forever...

I actually kinda like the '58 Chevy. The main thing that scares me about them though, is that the wasp-waisted X-frame they used is horrible when it comes to crashworthiness. I know, all old cars are bad by today's standards, but those X-frames were even worse.

 

[Walt34]

I wasn't much into models unless they had an engine, mostly airplanes. But I did have one Cox .049 glow engine driven tether car with a 1964 Buick Riviera plastic body on it. Gear driven, I was surprised at how fast that car went.

I let it run free once, and that plastic body was done for.

 

[unclemick]

Doesn't count for this thread but along the GM comment line - I got a 'free' for the cost of paperwork transfer a GM Sonoma pickup 5 speed with 180,000 miles on it and gave it away at 251,000 miles to the son of the first 'free'.



heh heh heh -

 

[Koolau]

LOL, glad to hear I'm not the only one who's used that line. I think the most miles anyone in my family got out of a GM car was Mom's '86 Monte Carlo, with a 305 V-8. She bought it new at the end of the model year, and gave it to me with about 179,000 miles on it in early 1998. I had it all of three months. Got t-boned delivering pizzas with it, and it was a hard enough hit to total it. Final mileage, 192,000. So in just three short months, I racked up 13000 miles!

That's a lot of pizza - or is there another story about the 13K miles? A girl in another city, perhaps? That's just the romantic in me, of course. But, never mind as YMMV.

 

[scrinch]

My 2000 Intrepid went through a spat something like that. One day I was driving along and it just cut out on me without warning. I coasted to the side of the road, stopped, put it in park, and turned the key to see what would happen and it fired right up. I thought it was a one time glitch, but then it happened a few weeks later, and then started happening more often. It got to the point I was getting so accustomed to it that I could throw it in neutral and start it up again. But, eventually it refused to start, leaving me stranded at work.

The next day it started with no trouble at all, and I drove it to my mechanic. Naturally, it didn't act up for him. He adjusted some vacuum hoses and said to take it home and give it a try over the weekend. It stalled out again about a half hour later so I took it back.

I got online and found that either a camshaft position sensor or crankshaft position sensor could be the culprit. Unfortunately, the computer didn't store error codes for either one, so replacing them was trial by error. I had the mechanic replace them both at the same time, and it was about $500 for both. That was around May of 2008 and the car never stalled out again in the 18 months I had it after that, so I guess one of those sensors did the trick!

Mine never surged though. It would simply stall out. Sometimes, if I feathered the gas pedal just right, it would simply buck and kick for a couple seconds, but wouldn't stall, at least.

I wish we had been able to find our problem like you did yours. I searched online but couldn't seem to pinpoint or even narrow down much what the problem could be. That was a convenient, cheap car that held 16 years of memories of soccer, school, girl scouts, camping, and road trips, and we were surprisingly sad when we had to say goodbye to it.

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[Katsmeow]

We've always done a lot of driving. When DH and I were working full-time his place of employment was about 60 miles away from mine so one or both of us always had to do a lot of driving. Now, we don't drive as much.

Our highest mileage car is actually in the possession of our son who is in college. It is a 2008 Prius with about 130k miles on it. The cars were are driving are a 2012 and a 2013.

The highest we had was an Excursion some years ago that had almost 200k when we sold it. I think it was about 10 years old then.

I don't usually keep cars longer than that. I think that newer vehicles are safer so wouldn't want to keep one much longer than that.