Turned 100,000 miles today!

[boomeyers]

Both of our cars are over 100,000. It's the only way to go...Drive it till the wheels fall off!
My daughters are embarassed too! Love it! Hope we are teaching them a lesson!
Ours is a 1989 Camry, but it was a little old lady going to church car before we got it, so it had really low miles. Would love it if DD1 could drive it when she turns 16 in a year and a half, but no guarantees! Would be really cheap insurance!

[sakigt]

Congrats!

Mine is about to turn 60,000. Cant wait to see it go to 100k.

[Daylily]

I've never understood people who trade in their cars every 60,000 miles or so.
Aside from the 211,000 mile car that we have as our backup car, we also had a car with well over 100,000. The odometer broke and we drove it for at least 4 years after that. The car that DH drives has in the neighborhood of 150000 miles.

[Gruntina]

I can not really say I get excited if my vehicle reaches the 100,000 miles. I live in the mountains just outside the Bay Area and work in the Bay Area. I would never give up my mountain home for anything but it is 27.6 miles commute one way! I drive at least 60 miles a day! It is actually pretty common for commuters here and we be reaching the 100,000 miles before the car turns 3 or 4 easily.

[disneysteve]

I can not really say I get excited if my vehicle reaches the 100,000 miles.

I drive at least 60 miles a day! It is actually pretty common for commuters here and we be reaching the 100,000 miles before the car turns 3 or 4 easily.

Interesting point of view. Is it pretty common in your area for people to keep their cars well beyond 100,000 miles or do a lot of people get a new car every 3-4 years because of the high mileage they drive?

In my area, i don't think most folks put that many miles on. Either they lease a car for 3 years and turn it in at the end of the lease or they buy a car and trade it in after 5 years or so once it is paid off. And still others buy a car and trade it in before they've finished paying it off. I'd say average mileage around here is probably 12,000-15,000/year, so hitting 100,000 means at least 6.5 years of ownership.

[LuxLiving]

Thanks Steve, this helped me figure out my vehicle lifespan - if I can continue with the usage I'm currently operating - I'm running about 4,000 miles per year and at that rate I won't turn 100,000 miles on my truck until 2022!! Not likely as I'm thinking of taking employment soon, so perhaps my mileage will probably increase, but wouldn't that be nice?

[beebop25blue25]

I have a 1990 Honda Accord that has 198,000 miles on it and it's still going strong!! I love driving it and It hasn't given me any problems. I will continue to drive it til' it dies and i'm hoping that will be many, many more miles away!!

[Gruntina]

Interesting point of view. Is it pretty common in your area for people to keep their cars well beyond 100,000 miles or do a lot of people get a new car every 3-4 years because of the high mileage they drive?

In my area, i don't think most folks put that many miles on. Either they lease a car for 3 years and turn it in at the end of the lease or they buy a car and trade it in after 5 years or so once it is paid off. And still others buy a car and trade it in before they've finished paying it off. I'd say average mileage around here is probably 12,000-15,000/year, so hitting 100,000 means at least 6.5 years of ownership.

I can not say for %100 sure as I am basing my response from what I see. It is obvious that old cars are uncommon as the new cars here so it’s a big assumption that people do replace cars frequently because of high mileages.

I had many difficulties finding a dependable used car with reasonable mileages. Most used cars that were only a few years old already went beyond the 100,000 miles. I often see $10,000 used cars with 150k or more miles because they were not so old in age but high in miles. That is a lot of money to risk on a used car without warranty in my opinion as you can buy a small new car for about $16,000. I remember putting on 60,000 miles in two years on a truck that I had here because of my second job as a Pampered Chef consultant going from houses to houses for show demo's on top of my daily commute to my day job.

At the same time, I see those who can not afford newer cars are more likely to take the bus, Bart, and other form of public transportation over a used car. I am not sure if its because it is hard to find a used car with reasonable price?(more likely not going to find a car older than 5-7 years and that can still be pricey for the low incomes) There are a lot of nice looking cars with clunker engine compared to clunker cars with reasonable engine here. Beauty hides everything eh! (California big cities are a far cry from “what you see is what you get� when it comes to cars)

But the area where I work is heavily corporate area (the heart of Silicon Valley); there are employees in the high end engineering level jobs are given cars and hefty discounts on home ownerships as part of their packages to retain best employees to stay in the area. There are also a lot of high paying jobs here so more wealthy people ratio here and thus probably buy cars as if they were toys.

There is a totally different perspective of the use of vehicles and the lifestyle that supports cares here. For living in the Bay Area, we have many attractions in the San Francisco area, San Jose area, Monterey Bay and Santa Cruz beaches, Palo Alto - Stanford and just so many places to go and see, I believe people are more willing to drive extra miles to these locations. Some people stick with the entertainments here rather than planning two weeks vacations far away because there are enough new things to do here all the time. Everything is so spread out here that you are not going to be able to find everything you need in one city so transportation is very important. That is another factor why people put so many miles on their vehicles and are willing to pay higher gas prices.

I believe just owning a car cost more here in the Bay Area compared to urban areas. But somehow people are coughing up the high prices here and they are so far affording it from what I can see.