"Ted B." wrote in message
eenews.net...


I generally agree with what you write. However, even low-end cars will
last
longer than 10 years/150,000 miles if well maintained. 20 years and
300K
or
more is easily attainable. Just avoid the Chevys and Fords and
Chryslers
(daimler chryslers now, but still domestically built crap).

I think that's an unjustified canard. My mother-in-law drove the same
Ford
Granada for 23 years. If she hadn't died at the age of 93, she'd still
be
driving it today (I've seen it a couple of times around town).



Sure there will always be exceptions to the rule. The Ford Granada you
write about is not one of them, unless your MIL was a 70-93 year old
commuter. (I suspect she was retired for most if not all of the time she
owned that car).

However did you guess? She learned to drive at the ripe young age of 72,
when my father-in-law could no longer drive. Nonetheless, the car had
between 100K and 200k miles on the clock (I don't remember the the number)
when we sold it.

It's about playing the odds. Could you get a Chevy to last 20 years?
Yes.
Would you improve your odds by buying a Toyota instead? GREATLY.

Is this really true? How about a cite?

The best I've been able to come up with is that the US, as a country, does
pretty well in the vehicle longevity department. In the US, cars last an
estimated average of 160,000 miles. It's 145,000 in Australia, 125,000 in
the UK, Canada and France do 115,000, the rest of Europe manages 105,000.
Curiosly, Japan manages a meager 70,000. (From
http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/What_is_the_average_car's_lifetime_mileage ) I'm
unable to find average mileage or age by manufacturer. Since you're so
definite and sure of yourself, I'm willing to concede that I don't know what
to google for - maybe you could provide some backup for your statements.

If we assume the average driver does 1,000 miles a month, cars in the US
manage to last a bit over 13 years on average, while in Japan they manage
less than 6 (I have no idea what the average annual mileage for a private
automobile is in Japan). I expect that as a proportion of the total fleet,
there are far more Japanese vehicles in the US than there are US vehicles in
Japan. At first blush, it would appear that the presence of large numbers
of Japanese cars drags the US average down, not up.