How long do cars last nowdays?

[84GNTTYPE]

I've been looking at a lot of different used cars lately, mainly early to mid nineties, mainly GM's or Fords, but a few Mazda's etc. Most of them want $2000-$3000 for anything that looks decent, but they all have 140,000 miles on them or more. I was just wondering how many miles you can put on something reliable like a 3.1 or 3.8 without having major tranny or motor problems.

Thanks!

 

[GNSS]

I bought a 93 Aerostar 2 1/2 years ago as a work van. Was leary about it at first as it had 140,000 on it. Now it has over 208,000, doesn't burn any oil, runs good and I get 24 MPG if I keep it under 70.
It has the mazda 5-speed transmission and I replaced the clutch and pressure plate at 192,000.

Jeff

 

[scottyb]

Depends on maintenance. My wife's 92 Exploder got totalled at 172,000, we had previously vowed to drive it to 300,000 miles. Only big expense was a tranny at 150,000 (which I hear is good for 1st gen Ex's). We both loved it and neither of us even blinked at the tranny rebiuld because we know it was a great car.

No car will run flawlessly, but if you take care of things and do good PM, then you're ahead of the game.

 

[T-top87GN]

I've got a 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T. It has 105k on it and all it has needed is the regular maintenance stuff, along with a new clutch about 2k ago.

Runs 15.1 in the 1/4!! Wife drags it.

 

[Joe 1320]

Just sold an 88 skylark with 160K that ran tight. My 89 Deville daily driver has 190K and runs great. It's all in the maintainance.

 

[Demon]

Well, I've had 4 Explorers in the past few years. Buy 'em with over 100k on them for ~$3-4k, drive for a couple of years, then sell them with 180k+ for ~$3k. And they still run strong. Nothing but basic maintenence work. No rebuilds of motors or trannies. I love these things. That 4.0L motor is pretty solid as far as I'm concerned.

 

[victa1]

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