Cars that last a million miles
Yes, it's still rare to see a million miles on an odometer, but it happens. And while in decades past automobiles were often junkyard-bound at 100,000 miles, today's cars can easily run 200,000 miles or more with minimal maintenance.
Automaker Saab announced recently that it would give a free car to any original U.S. Saab owner who drives the car 1 million miles or more. Spurring the challenge were Wisconsin insurance salesman Peter Gilbert and his 1989 Edwardian Gray Saab 900 SPG, whose odometer not long ago clicked over to six zeros.
His car, now in a museum, still has its original engine and turbocharger.
That's impressive, but he can't touch retired New York schoolteacher Irv Gordon, who's in Guinness World Records for having driven more than 2.5 million miles in his cherry-red 1966 Volvo P1800.
Though stories such as Gilbert's and Gordon's happen once in a blue moon, people who drive their cars for several hundred thousand miles today aren't so unusual. And they're not all devotees of Swedish iron.
Virtually every marque -- Chrysler, Honda, Chevrolet, even Miata -- has a not-so-underground community that's just as proud of the car at 500,000 miles as when it was new, maybe even more. (Mercedes and Volvo hand out grille badges and window stickers.) And their secrets range from the mundane to the downright mystic.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/CarsThatLastAMillionMiles.aspx
http://www.allpar.com/old/club/viewall.php
To be in the Club, vehicles must have over 200,000 miles. The owner must provide their contact information, including their phone number, for verification. We do actively verify vehicles at random (and those with exceptional descriptions).
How long should a car last?
"Days past, 100,000 miles was usually the average life of a car," says John Ibbotson, a workshop supervisor who's in charge of vehicles that are tested for Consumer Reports' Auto Test Center in Connecticut, referring to vehicles from the 1950s to 1970s.
"At 100,000 miles, we were into major engine and transmission rebuilding," Ibbotson says. "Cars in the '90s, it was 140,000, 150,000 miles."
The U.S. Department of Transportation reports the average life span of a vehicle is 12 years, or about 128,500 miles. But that could be low simply because people don't maintain them, Ibbotson says. "If you bought a car today, there shouldn't be any problem with that car going 200,000 miles," he says.
Yes, it's still rare to see a million miles on an odometer, but it happens. And while in decades past automobiles were often junkyard-bound at 100,000 miles, today's cars can easily run 200,000 miles or more with minimal maintenance.
Automaker Saab announced recently that it would give a free car to any original U.S. Saab owner who drives the car 1 million miles or more. Spurring the challenge were Wisconsin insurance salesman Peter Gilbert and his 1989 Edwardian Gray Saab 900 SPG, whose odometer not long ago clicked over to six zeros.
His car, now in a museum, still has its original engine and turbocharger.
That's impressive, but he can't touch retired New York schoolteacher Irv Gordon, who's in Guinness World Records for having driven more than 2.5 million miles in his cherry-red 1966 Volvo P1800.
Though stories such as Gilbert's and Gordon's happen once in a blue moon, people who drive their cars for several hundred thousand miles today aren't so unusual. And they're not all devotees of Swedish iron.
Virtually every marque -- Chrysler, Honda, Chevrolet, even Miata -- has a not-so-underground community that's just as proud of the car at 500,000 miles as when it was new, maybe even more. (Mercedes and Volvo hand out grille badges and window stickers.) And their secrets range from the mundane to the downright mystic.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/CarsThatLastAMillionMiles.aspx
http://www.allpar.com/old/club/viewall.php
To be in the Club, vehicles must have over 200,000 miles. The owner must provide their contact information, including their phone number, for verification. We do actively verify vehicles at random (and those with exceptional descriptions).
How long should a car last?
"Days past, 100,000 miles was usually the average life of a car," says John Ibbotson, a workshop supervisor who's in charge of vehicles that are tested for Consumer Reports' Auto Test Center in Connecticut, referring to vehicles from the 1950s to 1970s.
"At 100,000 miles, we were into major engine and transmission rebuilding," Ibbotson says. "Cars in the '90s, it was 140,000, 150,000 miles."
The U.S. Department of Transportation reports the average life span of a vehicle is 12 years, or about 128,500 miles. But that could be low simply because people don't maintain them, Ibbotson says. "If you bought a car today, there shouldn't be any problem with that car going 200,000 miles," he says.
