Odometer readings. Its not just Toyotas putting on 300000 miles

I work in the service department of a Ford dealership in NE Ohio and drive 20-30 cars a day.
One of the things I like to do is look at the odometer readings on the cars I am driving and then look at the wear and tear. I have seen 2 cars so far this past month with more than 300000 miles. One was an older Acura MDX (?) with 328000 miles. It still ran great but the body was starting to rust and the drivers seat was shot. There were still a lot of miles left on that car. The other was a second generation Ford Excape with 366 000 miles. The Escape blew me away because it ran great and still looked fairly good except for the hood rusting through. It even drove nice. The owner told me it was coming in for its second set of brakes and that she is a courier and drives this Escape all over the country. I have also seen Rangers with 219000 and 236000 miles. A Focus with 216000 and a Lincoln LN (V8) that just rolled 200000. Its not just Toyota and Hondas getting these kind of miles.
Now on the other hand I see new F150s and Escapes blowing engines and head gaskets and transmissions at an alarming rate. I also see most Domestic products having suspension issues after 70000 miles. I think how you take care of your car and the way you drive it has a lot to do with what kind of miles you get out of it. Luck also plays into it. The same day I drove the 216000 mile Focus I also drove another similar Focus with 58000 miles. The high mileage Focus was in a lot better shape.

 

We used to use laboratories with couriers, most utilized 4-cly. tacomas.

Around 325,000-350,000 they would be sold. Aside from the occasional ball joint or u-joint, they never had issues, just replace the 0w20 every 10k and treat them like the fleet vehicles they are


In terms of domestics racking up trouble-free 300,000+ miles, the crown vic 4.6 L SOHC V8 has most everything else beat. The chevy caprice 9C1 is an
another unbreakable tank of a vehicle.

 

I drove my Honda Accord off-road more than half the users on this site have ever driven off road. I ragged it out regularly. I had 250K on the odo when I sold it.

 

The highest miles in a Grand Marquis (Crown Vic) I have seen so far is 168000. They are tanks and I love to drive them when they come in. That is a car and they ride like cars should.

 

i bought a ford new 1988 150 with the 300 6 in it put 528000 miles on it never had any issues

 

What does any of this have to do with a 3rd gen Tacoma?

 

Well he has one in his garage if that helps. It should be in the off topic section but it’s still a good thread.

I think engine design plays a lot on the longevity. A lower compression NA will most likely last longer.

What would be considered the most reliable vehicle?

 

I wouldn’t drive one of those vehicles 3k miles let alone 300k

 

The very best way to get high mileage out of anything is to rack up miles quickly in other words they get driven a lot in shorter periods of time usually highway miles. I commuted 100 miles a day some times 7 days a week never got rid of any thing I owned in till it had at least 250K+.

 

Anymore 300K isn't that big of a deal. I think the new benchmark is probably 500K. Most any vehicle should be getting 300K with proper maintenance. Especially those who drive high miles each year. Many parts wear out from age, not use and the folks who do a lot of driving each month will see some parts go a lot of miles. My dad worked in sales and drove about 40,000-50,000 miles a year from the 1970's into the 1990's. He would buy a 3 year old used car with 50,000 miles on it for a fraction of the cost of new and drive it about 3 more years before trading again. He put 200,000-250,000 miles on every car he ever owned.

He changed his own oil every 5K and never once had an engine problem. One car needed some transmission work done, but it wasn't replaced. Dad never once had a transmission serviced. He never replaced coolant, belts nor hoses. Occasionally a battery, and front brakes. He never had rear brakes done on any car he owned. He could have done more maintenance and probably kept them even longer, but when he did the math he figured it was cheaper to sell it with 200-250K and just buy another one rather than spend money replacing parts. And cars built in the 1970's -1990's weren't particularly noted for good build quality.

What you don't see from many non-Toyotas is the vehicles approaching or over 1 million miles on mostly original parts.

 

My first car was a 91 Golf Diesel NA with 52 HP and it went to 500,000 km before it rusted away

I had a few golfs after that (gas) with 200 to 400,000 km.

Buddy had a 1.9TD Passat with 750,000km.

I've driven a few work trucks, Ram Cummins, with 500,000 + km

My 2003 WRX went almost 400,000km before the center diff blew (had to replace the turbo at 200,000)

It's not a rare thing