How long can you realistically expect a new car to last?

[Anonymous]

If you are taking about a new car bought today, probably 12 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well we have two cars 26 years old and 20 years old both are going strong (knock on wood). You just have to maintain them. They both have ONLY city miles on them too!

Same we have two 20 year plus cars. City miles that we take care of. It's wasteful to buy a new car just to buy a new car. If it takes you to where you need to go it well then that all you need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is always going to be someone who says their 15 year old Toyota Camry has gone 280,000 miles with only oil changes. But for luxury brands, following scheduled maintenance, not driving like a maniac, and garaging, how long can you expect a car to go before things start breaking, especially with all the electronics on today's vehicles?

I generally only buy Hondas, but I’ve never gotten more than about 170k miles out a any of our vehicles before they start having problems. I’m extremely good about oil changes and maintenance, but it seems like 160k and 12 or so years is the limit for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree that the more electronics, the worse they age. The new electric vehicles have even more problems: usually the engine is designed to not be opened post-sale, or only with great difficulty. So having an electric battery or an engine problem (whatever it might be) essentially means you need to buy a new vehicle. It would be very costly to repair.

My basic petrol Japanese cars are 19 and 14 years old. They've been sitting out in my driveway, exposed to the elements, all this time. We drive them mainly for short distances, so they don't have a ton of mileage. Repairs have been minor so far.

I love the idea of "clean" energy, but not the omnipresence of electronics in a vehicle, or the reality that current battery technology is actually quite polluting. Not to mention that electric battery fires are much harder to put out than a regular fire. Plus the repair issues...

Don't know what to buy when our cars finally pass on.

Well for one thing, the reason you can’t “open up the engine” in an electric vehicle is because they don’t have an engine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we have a moral obligation to conserve the environment, then cars should be built to be both low-polluting and infinitely repairable. Electric cars *should* be able to meet this standard but are so far a major disappointment, and instead are following the disposable appliance trend.

The lie for the last 15 years is that we have to be early adopters to support the industry, but that is not bearing fruit.

Life-cycle pollution and repairability continues to be awful for electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles will outlast ICEs no problem. They’re significantly less complicated with fewer moving pieces and a far more straight forward drivetrain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hoping ours holds out for 12 years. I believe that's the average on the road right now. Toyotas with regular maintenance can probably go 15-20, depending on mileage.

Yes, 12 years is average in US.

European luxury cars have had finicky electronics for decades. Many brands have been really expensive to fix for decades. No new news here.

The BMW that had trouble at 10 years probably could have been repaired to working order. But it would have been spendy.

Maybe Americans don't know how to maintain German cars? Or maybe our roads are bad? Or maybe the German are only sending cars that fail quality control to the US? There are many Mercedes and BMW in Germany and they last forever. In fact they even outlast the Japanese brands over there. Many Mercedes on the road as Taxi running strong with hundred of thousands of miles.

Yes poor American roads and our inability to maintain German cars have made their electronics bad for… the past 30 years .

[Anonymous]

It's not a realistic question. So many brands, makes, models, how they're put together, varying ages, accidents, driving habits, exposures to temperatures, plugged oil passages on some cars, great or quirky electronics on others, short trips vs. highway miles, etc.

[Anonymous]

My husband's 2006 Nissan Altima is mostly working well. Had a problem with the fuel pump and they noticed the brackets that held the gas tank needed to be replaced too. But Nissan no longer makes those.

Unfortunately, if they don't service the car, it will have a defined life span and that sucks.

[Anonymous]

15 year old Lexus. No reason a car should die before 150K miles.

[Anonymous]

I think 10-15 years or 120,000-180,000 is a pretty reasonable range. My Audi is only 8 years old but has over 120,000 miles on it. Still going strong with just oil changes, brake pads and tires ... but, man, do those oil changes get expensive on a "luxury" car! My previous cars were Subaru and Honda, both made it to 150,000 before needing something expensive enough that it made more sense to sell them for scrap parts - about 10 years for each. I'm hoping the Audi lasts longer than that, I'm not ready to give it up in a couple of years.

[Anonymous]

My 11 year old Prius has had nothing but basic maintenance. 95k miles (not much driving during covid).

[Anonymous]

There was a recent study showing that currently, traditional gas cars are the most reliable, electric least, and hybrids are in the middle. We just bought our first hybrid (not plug-in). I generally aim for ten years.