One reason I love modern cars is the ease with which they rack up the miles.
150k was unheard of not that long ago. Astonishing in a car that wasn't Japanese.
The Beast reminds me of the departed Flossie in lots of ways. It's like a giant, overpowered, Civic!
I admit that I've been doing a lot of parts replacement since I got it, but not major mechanical.
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When I was a kid it was just common knowledge that if your car hit 100,00 you were out of luck for selling it.
ReplyDeleteAs recently as the early 90's the cut-off for resale value was 60k miles.
DeleteThe friend I bought The Beast from, bought The Biscayne from me. That '91 Caprice has 300k miles on it. I sold it because I'd lost interest when the paint shop screwed me and the custom paint job I'd spent real money to get started flaking off in chunks. It still ran like a raped ape.
Of course, lots of parts hit their wear limit about six months later... I have good timing in selling. ;)
But replacing wear items is part of owning anything. What bugs me is how much of newer cars are non-serviceable wear items or a small, cheap, wear item you cannot replace separately from a larger, expensive, assembly.
Tires that last over 5,000 miles. Engine oils that don't need changing as often. Batteries that hold their charge (mostly, it is Florida which knocks off a year of battery life.) Headlights and other lamps that don't fail all the time. Even crappy 'Murican cars have become mostly long lived.
ReplyDeleteHad an '86 Aerostar that I got 200K+ out of until, on the way back from a camping trip, I let some twit drive it and she redlined the poor 2.8L Mustang engine on I-10 between Pensacola and Tallahassee while pulling a trailer. Told her to keep it at 55mph and not over 3k rpms.
Had an 87 Ford Econoline that I got 300K+ out of, only one transmission and one major engine repair until she died on me.
'96 GMC Safari that I also got over 300K out of. Just started falling apart. Only thing really wrong with it was GMC's damned pot-metal door handles, the rat bastards. I mean, total crap. Got reasonably good at replacing them every year or so.
Admittedly, the Turkish-built rebadged Fiat with an American engine that calls itself a Ram seems to run real well and no mechanical problems. Of course I've only put less than 5,000 miles on it since I bought it in 2017.
I had a '90 Cherokee that made it to 150k without ever having a major problem. That was 15 years. Now my 2009 Ford Explorer has 90k on it and I'm positive it won't make it to 150k. The way the plastic pieces are falling apart, I'll have a pile of plastic chips in the driveway with some metal in it long before that.
ReplyDeletejust went over 15k on my 21 tacoma...panzer guy
ReplyDeleteAwwwww, they're so cute when they're young and low miles.
DeleteThe Colorado my Dad gave me not long before he passed has a little over 170k on it and I've done relatively little to it. Replaced the O2 sensors, MAF sensor, spark plugs (probably were original), cleaned the throttle body (absolutely filthy), air cleaner, thermostat (and replaced coolant), rear shocks. None of that was very expensive or even difficult to do, other than the thermostat is in a really lousy location on that engine, you have to take the left front wheel off and change it through the wheelwell. The sensors are all pretty easy to get to even the O2 sensors if you have a lift. Oh, and I also had to replace a whole bunch of bulbs... Since Iowa doesn't have inspection about 1/2 the bulbs in the thing were burnt out when I got it.
ReplyDeleteMy dad wasn't in good health the last 7 years or so of the 10 years he had that truck so I doubt he did much of anything to it other than consumables like fluids, tires and brake pads. My idiot brother racked up most of the miles on it and I am sure he didn't do anything other than put gas in it (which my Dad paid for).
Anyway, after replacing the spark plugs it really runs very smooth and it doesn't use any oil at all. I need to change the oil in the transmission (NV1500 5 speed), it shifts a little balky, and sometimes clanks when shifting... But I had a '91 S10 with the same transmission and it was exactly the same and I pounded it through the gears for several years and it never failed. The clutch is still solid... I probably should check the brake pads soon and think about replacing the front struts sometime. The tires that are on it are also nearing the replacement age even though they have plenty of tread on them.
I attribute a lot of the longevity of cars today to two things... fuel injection which gives much better atomization and reduces upper cylinder washdown and the much better oils. Even conventional oils today are so much better than what we had even 20 years ago. And the syntheics and synthetic blends are better yet. When I was a kid it wasn't uncommon to rebuild an engine at 100k miles because they'd start losing compression and burning oil and it wasn't uncommon to lose a lobe or two on the camshaft. The old flat tappet cams wore the camshaft a lot more. That's another thing newer cars have going for them. Roller cams. It isn't uncommon to pull a cam out of a 100k mile cam and find it is still at or very near new specs.
Oh... I also mentioned here before that I had a small leak around the rear window that I fixed with a bead of silicone. And the cab is showing the Iowa rust throughs on the back corners I will need to cut out and replace one of these days.
But still... It is reliable enough I didn't think twice about driving it the nearly 700 miles round trip to visit my Mom at her new place a couple weeks ago. That's not something one would do lightly with a vehicle with so many miles when I was a kid.
-swj
I apologize for not being here sooner to find out at the outset, but what make/model is The Beast?
ReplyDeleteThe Beast is a '12 "Chevy" Caprice PPV. A police version of the Holden Statesman. The Aussies kept making big American cars for a long while after we stopped. Union bullshit in Australia killed their auto industry dead as a hammer.
DeleteBack in the 80s,Volvo used to give you a certificate and a grille badge for 100,000 miles. I still have the certificate somewhere for our 74 Volvo .
ReplyDelete