Automotive milestones

Just a few minutes ago on my drive home, the truck turned 200000 miles. It's been 18 years plus a few days since I picked it up brand new after ordering it and waiting for it to get built. It's a 2007 Tacoma double cab, long bed and has been my primary transportation since new. It spent a lot of time in the intervening years sitting at airports while I was travelling for work. It has battled southern California traffic and traversed the south east of the country. It has managed thru heat, cold, snow, and rain. It has dragged more projects, tools, and trailers of questionable Challenge entries up and down the road. It has sat in traffic and run faster than legally allowed. It has really never budged off of the 20mpg it get no matter if I drive like a granny or a rock ape. It has seen minor repairs and worn 5 sets of tires, 2 sets of shocks, and is just now getting ready for its second set of rear brakes shoes.

This truck has seen a lot of my life at a few years under 50% of my time driving on this planet. It will be getting some needed rest and relaxation as I have a new car ordered, which should be arriving in a few months. It will not be sold, just allowed to enjoy more time out of the rotation. I have been tracking and watching the odometer for the past few days and it turned only a few miles from home, near a local brewery, so I stopped to celebrate.

Quite a few of you guys go thru cars like socks, but I tend to be in it for the long haul. There are and have been other cars in the fleet while I have had the truck, but only one has been with me longer.

Heres to modern cars and the reliability we have come to expect from our motorized companions!

Good truck and a well earned break. 

That's awesome

here is my 2022 F150 the day I picked it up

and at 100k

Modern vehicles are so good.

Crunching afew more numbers while I enjoy a cold beer...

A little more than 11k miles per year. There were a few that just barely passed 6k.

10,000 gallons of fuel thru the engine.

I think I am on the fourth set of headlight bulbs, after a few duds that lasted less than a year.

Nearly done with the second set of front brake pads.

Based on the purchase price and ignoring the use costs and maintenance costs, I am right at 10 cents per mile. Yes I only paid 20k for it. The company deal is too good. It is the most basic version of the 4 dorr long bed you could get at the time. Doesn't even have intermittent wipers or cruise control. For a modern vehicle it is as complicated as I think a basic vehicle should be. It requires you to be part of the driving experience and does not allow you to fade into the activity like some technologies do.

Ive had the same DD since 2010, my 2000 Firebird V6 with 200k+ miles. I need to replace it but change is hard for me and 'modern' cars with can bus electronics and OHC engines scare me. So hard and expensive to repair...

I put a deposit down on a 2023 Tacoma stick shift but decided I liked the larger cab being the guy my wife likes to call Hoss.  

I'm convinced those Tacoma's go forever......and look at the parts availability on Craigslist.

In reply to stafford1500 :

Better take it easy on it, you've probably only got another 200k miles or so before it starts needing things haha.

I had a claim on an Acura MDX yesterday. 313,000 miles. 

My '93 Lightning has 170,000-ish on it. I only replaced the original water pump 2 years ago, and the original master cylinder last year.

The mechanicals can clearly go the distance. I think a lot of that has to do with modern lubricants. What I don't see lasting for eternity is the electronics. I wonder how many ECMs will still be working in 50 years?

I'm nearing 350 on my XJ and I'm excited for that photo. Sure helps that it's a car you can buy parts for very easily. The long line of owners have had no trouble maintaining it before me, and now I as well.

If not for midwest rust, I'd keep vehicles for twenty years. I bought a 2003 MINI in 2007 and was still driving it until November of 2023, when it got whacked by a Kenworth. Years ago i had an Astro for a company car. Bought it off the lease after three years and drove it to 250,000 miles before one of my sons ran into the back off an SUV and we scrapped it. Replaced that Astro with another 100,000 mile example, and drove it to 250,000 miles. Currently have a 2019 Canyon with 28,000 miles and a replacement MINI with 16,000. At 72 years old I'm good until death do us part now !

+1 on the rust issue, plenty of cars I wanted to keep but the rust gods had other ideas. 

Congrats Mr Stafford! I've had a bunch of cars break 200k, but only one that we bought new. We drove our 2003 Ody 255k before we traded it in on a 48k 2010 Ody which is now pushing 270k. I'm gonna drive it to 300k because I've never owned a car with 300k.

Pic below was taken 4/10/2019, when my beloved 2007 BMW 525xi hit 200k with AK1 at the wheel.

It's a celebration, bitches!

 - R. James

At the moment we don't have anything in the fleet with under 200k miles on it.  I hit 200k on the E38 early in 2024, and SWMBO's 2005 Camry (which has been in my family since new) that replaced her Prius earlier this year just hit 310k last week.  My Jeep has been at 249k for a few years at this point, as it needs a lot of work and has mostly been a garage ornament. I bought the E38 with 148k on it and the Jeep at a few hundred miles shy of 100k.  The Camry came to us at 306k after my dad drove it from new to ~165k, then my sister did the rest. 

I know the pain of rust though.  The Jeep has a few issues in that department that need fixing (which is a lot of why it's sitting).  And the E38 has recently started to show a few minor rust spots that I need to get taken care of while they're still minor. 

They're symmetrical! And 2 is better than 0 or 1.

2002 Avalanche, purchased new.

I don't get many odometer photos. But I liked this one. At the time I planned to keep that car forever. Times change.

In reply to buzzboy :

Dude!

pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:

+1 on the rust issue, plenty of cars I wanted to keep but the rust gods had other ideas. 

That's why I bought a Volvo.

Today's odometer pic.

Salt season is here, I get about a gallon of washer fluid per 200 miles 

Only about 160k of these miles are mine, I got catching up to do with some of you guys!

I love these stories of cars and trucks racking up the miles, doing what they were bought for, what they were designed for!  I know collectors tend to like cars with freakish low mileage, but to me that seems like a waste.  Let's keep making memories with our favorite vehicles!

I agree with Danny 100%. Keep racking up miles and use the machines for what they were built to do.

Loving all the other high mileage stories.

In reply to Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) :

I catch hell on Swedespeed when I bother to post there.

It's a car, not a statue.  I enjoy driving them, not looking at them.

I love reading stories about people who have like 400,000 miles on a 356, or the guy with like 700,000 on a 911 Turbo.

stafford1500 said:

Quite a few of you guys go thru cars like socks, but I tend to be in it for the long haul.

Congrats on logging 200k!  I've got a similar tendency of buying new and keeping forever, but I've been encouraged (by wife and/or kids) to move on at approximately the 14 years/175,000 miles mark.  I'm getting old now, and I've owned/own a fair number of cars, but since buying the '89 Mazda 626 new, I've also had an '05 MPV, and this 2019 CX-9 and those 3 vehicles have been my daily drivers for almost all of the 35 years between 1989 and now.  And I expect the CX-9 to last many more years.

I've got 180k on my 2004 rx8.

I've got 210k on my 2015 silverado.

DW's 2017 S60 just rolled over 30,000 miles this week.

Bought new in September 2017.