High Mileage Vehicles
When you buy a new car, the issue of mileage isn’t an issue. It’s more of a problem when the time comes to sell the car on or if you’re in the market for a second-hand car. We all know that the higher mileage, the more likely a vehicle is to break down and give up the ghost, so high-mileage cars tend to be a bit cheaper. However, there are exceptions and some cars just seem to keep going and going.
Forbes magazine from the USA recently compiled a list of the cars that were most likely to run for 200,000 miles. Whipping that into metric units, that’s 321,868.8 miles – quite a respectable distance. The article was quick to point out that you need to maintain any car properly to wring a decent number of miles out of it. No car is going to run forever, especially if thrashed. But this article did note that cars in the US seem to be hanging around for a lot longer than they used to.
It should be remembered that this is an American magazine, so some of the cars mentioned in its list might not be available over here Down Under, or maybe not the exact same model. It would be interesting to find out the mileages our readers have managed to get out of their cars. Have you ever had a car that was a member of the “200,000 mile club” or, to choose a nice round number using metrics, the 300,000 km club? What was it?
The thirteen cars most likely to reach 200,000 miles according to Forbes magazine were:
1. Acura RL: This one topped the list but we don’t have it over here… yet. However, it may have been put first because it begins with an A.
2. Ford Fusion: Known as the Ford Mondeo Down Under and in Europe.
3. Ford Mustang: Yes, it’s been around for long enough to see that it can put plenty on the clock. These cars are classics that tend to be well looked after, which explains a lot. According to Forbes magazine, the 3.7 V6 and 5.0 litre V8 variants tend to be the more reliable picks.
4. Honda CR-V
5. Honda Fit: This is the American name for it; we call it the Honda Jazz.
6. Lincoln MKZ: Another one not found over here in the average car yard, more’s the pity.
7. Lexus RX 350
8. Mazda MX-5 Miata: the recommendation here is to go for the manually operated softtop rather than the automatic hardtop version of this hot little convertible.
9. Scion XB: Not found over here, which we can all be grateful for, as it’s ugly as anything.
The Scion xB – ugly but likely to be long lasting. Be grateful it hasn’t made it onto Australia’s roads yet.
10. Subaru Forester
11. Toyota Highlander: Another one that has a different name over here: the Toyota Kluger in this case.
12. Toyota Sienna: The Tarago’s brother that isn’t over here yet but is pretty popular overseas.
13. Toyota Tundra: there’s noises about people importing this to Australia, but it’s not on Toyota Australia’s official list, so watch this space and keep hoping.
General advice for making sure that you can get the most mileage out of your car include buying simpler versions (less to go wrong on them) and making sure that you look after your vehicle properly and drive safely.
Oddly enough, the Volvo that has made the Guinness Book of Records for highest mileage isn’t on that list put together by Forbes magazine. Nor were any of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles that have made it into Mercedes’ High Mileage club (for those who have clocked up 250,000 kilometres). As Forbes is a US-based organisation (and had a whole lot of Toyota ads on the site), are we seeing a bit of transatlantic rivalry and a bias against European cars? Hmmmm….
Level 2, 9 Help Street