I am curious as to when problems started creeping up on the cars you have owned in the past, that go beyond basic maintenance?
For example, I was looking at the CARFAX record for my car, a 1999 Honda Accord. Bought it brand new. And have about 270,000 miles now.
It basically went 8 years and 200,000 miles with no problems. The biggest cost was the clutch at around 150,000 miles as preventive maintenance. (I think it could have gone longer.)
But after it went past 200K, during the past 12 years and 70K miles, other things started creeping up:
- Replace Starter
- Replaced Relay under stealing wheel
- Replaced Fuel Pump Assembly
- Replaced both front axels (torn boot)
- Replaced struts
And one long term maintenance item:
- Replace Timing Belt / Balancing Belt / Water Pump
The first 200K in 8 years were a dream. But the last 70K in 12 years hasn’t been so dreamy.
I’m not complaining because I think I got good value from my car over the last 2 decades. At the same time, I’m trying to learn more and understand more about what to expect after the honeymoon period, and how long that honeymoon period might be.
The honeymoon period is going to vary greatly from model to model, and will depend a lot on location, application, driver etc. etc. It's very hard to put a number on it.
Ballparking .... My experience is that after around 8-10 years or 150k miles vehicles start to rise drastically in maintenance cost.
I consider struts, CV axles and belts to be regular maintenance "consumable" just like brake pads.
I can see how they are like brake pads.
I've owned too many cars, but I will give you the top of the list:
1. 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 - Check Engine light at 50 miles. Yup. Drove over some railroad tracks and it popped. Took it to the dealer. Turns out someone at the factory did not seat a rubber intake gasket well and it got sucked in towards the engine. Fortunately, the intake was rectangle in shape and there is a small plastic divider pin right in the middle. The gasket got hung perfectly on that pin, or it would have been bye bye motor at 50 miles.
2. 2013 Camaro SS - 900 miles. Serpentine belt started making noise. Took to the dealer and was told they had a defective batch. Drove a Spark for three weeks until the backordered part came in.
3. 2018 Ford Mustang GT - 8,000 miles. The ECM took a dump and had to be reprogrammed.
4. 2018 Ford Mustang GT/CS - 5 miles. Driver's side seat rail bolt came out on my ride home from the dealer. That was fun.
5. 2018 Ford F150 XLT SuperCrew 5.0L - Oh bother.
1. 2,000 miles - burning oil. Did dealer test. New block installed.
2. 4,500 miles - burning oil, hood became misaligned, transmission slipping. Dealer requested replacement motor from Ford. Denied. I tried to Lemon it through Ford. Denied.
3. 6,000 miles - engine 2 literally grenades, leaving me stranded hours from home. Trans problems worsen. Towed to dealer who tells Ford it is a lemon. Ford denies claim.
4. 4 months of waiting, rentals, and litigation. Ford settles the day we were due in court.
Those are my worst experiences.
Oh man, those are some pretty bad experiences. 5 miles!?!?! That is crazy.
now tell us your best ones 🙂
I can do the best ones as well 🙂
My best cars for reliability/maintenance:
1. 1999 Ford Mustang GT - Went 120k HARD miles without a single issue. Yes I realize the irony. Lol.
2. 2000 Pontiac Sunfire Coupe - 100k miles with no issues. Just oil changes and maintenance. Was actually a fun little car believe it or not and I got it new for like $10k or some ridiculous amount.
3. Mid-90's Isuzu Pup pickup - 140k miles and a hard rear end accident did not phase that beast. Was a very good truck. Note on this one that it was the base model, manual trans with no power options. It was also built in Japan before Isuzu moved production to Mexico and everything went downhill quality wise.
4 & 5. 2006 Mitsubishi Eclipse and Eclipse GT. Both coupes and automatics. Both went 30k miles, no issues. By this point I wasn't keeping cars a long time, but I remember still enjoying these. Only traded the SE for the GT because I have a horsepower problem. 😉
That mustang. Haha.
I was wondering, how was Isuzu in the eighties and nineties? They never garnered as much a following as Honda or Toyota. Heck, they even rebadged some Honda’s and vice versa.
There lineup was too big either.
Do you remember how they were in terms of quality, performance, and longevity? Were they under appreciated at the time?
I think so. I mean, my pickup was literally flawless and my mother had a Isuzu Rodeo around then that went 150k miles with just general maintenance. Now, neither were performance machines in any way, but they did do well on gas and neither were expensive to purchase either.
My experience:
1999 Fiat Uno. I had to junk it when it was 12 years old because it was so badly rusted it did not pass the inspection. It had only 80k km.
2002 Suzuki Swift. I sold it this year because of rust. It still passed inspection with comment on rust. It had about 140k km (or 240k km, who knows 😀). Last two years I noticed oil consumption which increased this year. Exhaust system was bad, otherwise no extra problems.
2018 Toyota Auris. I bough it this year and noticed rear inner fenders are loosen. I plan to make a complaint about it while it under warranty. I hope it won't get rotten like previous two.
