New cars, on average, cost a massive $50,000. New car insurance is also a rising cost. So it’s not just, say, shelling out nearly $1,000 a month on a car payment that may prevent you from buying new. It’s also the cost of insurance on that slick set of wheels that could pile on another $500 a month, too.
The alternatives are buying used, or keeping the car you own for longer. The question many drivers have at that point is how many miles can a car last if you keep it properly maintained — and that depends heavily on the kind of care you give it.
If you’re going for either of the latter routes, here’s advice from a wrench with 30 years of experience running a shop that maintains everything from BMWs to Mercedes, Toyotas, and Hondas. I also consulted with Honda’s corporate folks. Not to promote Honda, but because their advice proved relatively universal.
FYI: My main source for this reporting, Derick Karabec, the owner of Beek’s Auto in Gardiner, New York, is also a collector of plenty of old cars, too—mostly British iron, like Minis from the 1960s. So he has a vested interest in keeping the classics going as well.
In order to provide you with excellent advice, we spoke to head mechanic and shop owner of Beek’s Auto, Derick Karabec, because they have an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau, a strong measure of customer trust. We also solicited official advice from Honda USA, and used data from iSeeCars’s VIN data of over 400 million registered vehicles still on American roads.
Why Time Matters More Than Mileage —Usually
There’s an old saw about cars running for about 100,000 miles and then going kaput. Karabec never bought that, but he’s aware that we’ve reached the inverse moment, where so many cars are sold as “maintenance-free” that buyers too often ignore regular service. He’s not tooting his own horn, by the way, when he advises you to find a shop for service that’s capable of doing all necessary repairs. He’s advocating for seeking out a shop you trust that knows about everything that can go wrong.
See A Full-Service Mechanic
FYI, Honda says something similar. This sounds like advocacy for only going to your Honda dealer, but Honda says the wise play here is going to someone—the same someone—regularly. This is for the same reason you have a primary care physician. For car anatomy rather than the human kind, a mechanic you see regularly will know your car. And they also have loyalty to you, because you’re going to see them again. So showing care is symbiotic.
Karabec is especially dubious of the only-does-oil-changes or only-does-brakes kinds of outfits. “The tricky part is some shops don’t know more than what they know. That’s all they do, so it’s all they know.” And that’s literally, Karabec says, because they don’t provide other services, so there’s no benefit to looking up check-engine lights, if that shop only changes oil.
The Most Common High-Mileage Problems To Expect
Karabec brings up one delicate matter that could harm your car: oil. Yes, you need regular oil changes, and Karabec has two reasons you want to exceed the regular change interval called for in your service book.
- Service intervals are often about mileage, not time
- The wrong oil of the “right” weight could cause harm
Part one is pretty straightforward. If you’re not putting high mileage on your car, and you’re just going by the official mileage count, you might not visit your mechanic frequently enough. A year between service checks is too long for your mechanic to keep tabs on the health of your entire car, and to spot what could be going wrong. Also, oil is the cheapest maintenance tip with the biggest bang, Karabec says. Modern cars have exceptionally tight tolerances, which means old oil is extra evil to modern, high-compression engines.
Oil Is More Critical Than You’d Ever
Part two is more complex. Basically, not all 10W-50, are created equally. GMs, Karabec says, have a different American Petroleum Institute-rated “gravity” with a specific code, vs. a Toyota. If you get the wrong API-rated oil in your engine, that can lead to excessive oil burning, or more wear. And he says the average quick-change shop may not know that.
By the way, this isn’t just Karabec’s opinion. Honda computers (and, in fact, many manufacturers’ cars) are monitoring a lot—so that you’re not just following the service interval. This is why a check engine light is such a huge deal. Per Honda:
All Honda vehicles also have a system called Honda Maintenance Minder. It is an intelligent system in your vehicle that uses onboard sensors and computer algorithms to track your driving conditions and determine when specific maintenance is needed, rather than relying on fixed mileage intervals. A code will appear on your dashboard indicating which services are required, such as oil changes or tire rotations.—Honda USA
Before diving into brand-specific data, it helps to understand how many miles can a car last in today’s real-world driving conditions.
How Long Do Modern Cars Last On Average?
There’s no right answer to this question. But one legendarily reliable rig is the Toyota 4Runner. Another is the Honda Accord. iSeeCars’s survey of over 400 million registered vehicles shows that these models—and Hondas and Toyotas more generally—dominate the list of cars that can go at least 200,000 miles. Here’s their list:
Top Ten SUVs, Pickups, and Cars for Reliability According to iSeeCars.com
|
SUVs |
Pickups |
Cars |
|
Toyota Sequoia |
Ram 3500 |
Toyota Avalon |
|
Toyota 4Runner |
Toyota Tundra |
Honda Accord |
|
Toyota Highlander Hybrid |
Chevrolet Silverado 2500 |
Toyota Camry |
|
Chevrolet Suburban |
GMC Sierra 2500 |
Honda Accord Hybrid |
|
Lexus GX |
Chevrolet Silverado 3500 |
Toyota Prius |
|
GMC Yukon XL |
Ford F-350 Super Duty |
Toyota Camry Hybrid |
|
Chevrolet Tahoe |
Ford F-250 Super Duty |
Lexus ES |
|
Honda Pilot |
Ram 2500 |
Lexus IS |
|
Toyota Highlander |
Toyota Tacoma |
Toyota Corolla |
|
GMC Yukon |
GMC Sierra 3500 |
Honda Civic |
Which Cars Are Most Likely To Go The Distance?
Karabec says that if you’re buying used, that he sees a lot of Japanese cars meeting or exceeding 200,000 miles—with a bunch of caveats. Because he says it’s less about brands and more about being proactive about regular maintenance. Yes, the Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Prius, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Honda Accord litter iSeeCars’s list, but just buying one of those is merely table stakes. You still have to maintain what you buy.
How Much Will It Cost Me?
Car owners often ignore maintenance because they fear the expense, Karabec says. But he warns that this is penny wise and pound foolish, and cites two big costs you don’t want to encounter: Replacing an engine, or parts of it, and replacing a transmission.
To address the former, he suggests more frequent oil changes, as noted above. Again, it’s very cheap compared to overhauling an engine.
Transmission Maintenance Is Critical
The other advice is to have your transmission fluid checked more frequently—ideally, annually, with your annual inspection—than your car’s manual suggests. That’s for a few reasons. One, far more modern cars have CVT transmissions where fluid contamination can cause a failure, and far more cars also have all-wheel-drive. He worries that too many customers never have these fluids checked and changed, even though that’s part of regular maintenance. A dead transmission won’t mean the end of your car, but changing fluids every few years is an exponentially cheaper option.
Less Catastrophic But Still Expensive
If you have a mechanic who knows your car, they’ll check your plugs. Even though they may only required to be changed every 100,000 miles. Karabec says he does this check anyway because it’s easy to do. But if a plug fails, it can cause an ignition coil to overheat and fail, and coils are more costly than spark plugs. In addition, a few other maintenance tips can go a long way to keeping costs down. See the next section.
The Dreaded Four-Letter Word: Rust! It’s A High-Mileage Killer
Honda officials advise regular car washing regardless of where you live. This might seem like a no-brainer (if you’re a diligent car wash person), but lots of car owners skip it. That’s bad not only for the paint you can see, but for the car’s underbody. Karabec says lots of car washes have the capability to spray beneath your car’s undercarriage during the drive-through, and if that costs an extra $5, pay that at least every quarter of a year, and more often if they salt your roads in wintertime.
Undercarriage Washing Is A High-Mileage “Hack”
Revisit the high-mileage list from iSeeCars, and you’ll note just how many body-on-frame rigs are on that. There are Suburbans, the entirety of Ford’s F-Series, Sequoias and truck-based GMCs. All of these are susceptible to frame corrosion, says Karabec, because they trap moisture between the frame and the body. So even if you do everything else right on the TLC checklist, ignoring your rig’s frame can kill it. “I’ve seen trucks with rust issues even after just seven years, so you want to stay on top of this early.”
Early Warning Signs and Prevention
If you drive a body-on-frame vehicle, have your mechanic inspect the frame whenever it’s going to be up on a lift—like for an oil change. There are a lot of aftermarket undercarriage treatments, like Waxoyl, that can protect your pickup or 4×4’s frame. Is it worth it? A seven-year-old pickup could be in perfect running condition—but not if the frame’s shot. If you want to keep driving it for another seven years, then the answer is definitely yes.
Rust And Filters for 4x4s
If you drive off-road, ever, Karabec says you should change your fluids more frequently, and check and change oil and air filters, too. Plus, definitely wash the rig’s undercarriage, because grit is an attractant to moisture, and creates the ideal environment—like a sponge—to hold water up against that frame, slowly but surely corroding it.
Tips To Help Your Car Reach (Or Pass) 200K Miles. A.K.A.: Don’t Ignore It!
The rust lesson goes hand in hand with other advice. Karabec mentioned one customer whose spouse doesn’t tell them when something’s wrong with their car’s engine. “They just turn up the radio so they don’t hear it.” That’s, obviously not a good idea. Likewise, he said another customer kept ignoring a tire pressure sensor warning light, because they found it annoying. Until they came in with a shredded tire.
Karabec says your eyes, ears, and hands are telling you about issues with your car. Regularly checking the tire pressure readings of a car—many modern cars will tell you the exact pressure—keeps your car safe.
Bad Vibrations
Be proactive when something feels “off.” Keep a log of a shimmy in the steering wheel; a new noise from under the hood, etc. “Look, we’ll take your car for a test drive,” Karabec says, but he adds that that’s not the same as driving in traffic; then on the Interstate; then on 15 errands. If you can’t diagnose what’s different, that’s OK. Just report what’s changed to your mechanic and that way their forensics will go much more quickly.
For instance, an alignment may cure a shake or shimmy. Not doing that won’t “murder” your car, but it can lead to quicker tire wear, as well as beat up bushings and put more stress on steering components. Why pay to fix all that when you can just get an alignment done? We’re talking a few hundred bucks vs. thousands later.
The Single Biggest Reason NOT To Ignore That Check-Engine Light
Want your car to go the distance? You may, at some point, need to replace the timing chain. This is typically an expensive repair, but again, it’s nowhere near the cost of replacing the car itself. Modern cars usually throw a code when a new chain is needed, because of wear. Yes, you can also look in the manual for the typical schedule of needing a new chain.
But the code is fail-safe. A worn timing chain will alter the engine’s timing, and in turn, Karabec says, a knowledgeable shop will know immediately whether the code is just about a timing issue or if that’s a sign that the chain needs to be replaced. Ignoring that warning, however, can destroy your engine, and that’s often so expensive that you’ll be looking at a new car.
TopSpeed’s Take: Don’t Fear High Mileage
Modern cars are expensive. When you do the math on spending upwards of $40,000 on a new car, it can often make way more sense to maintain what you have. Doing the math on the trade-in value of what you’re driving is also a good, cold-eyed way to calculate the ROI of an expensive repair. But you can avoid truly costly fixes if you just take the time to build a relationship with a reputable shop, and have them see your rig twice a year. In states that require annual inspections, sticking with the same shop is one way to engender that. In turn, they’ll have a record of work they’ve done, just like your family doctor.
With proper care, your car can easily get to 150,000 miles or more. And by the way, that also means shopping for an older, properly maintained car, shouldn’t be scary. Just look at that list of so many cars, SUVs, and trucks that are still on the road after 200,000 miles. Getting to 300,000 or even more isn’t impossible. But it is a matter of care—and not stinting on regular service. Think of this like flossing your teeth. It takes a bit of time. But not doing so is going to cost you way more in the long run.