It ran forever

With the various discussions about the cars that are having their various issues. How about some stories about cars that ran forever.

My MIL bought a new Ford Ranger in 1995. When my husband was old enough to driver, he inherited the truck. Finally, in 2011, after moving to NY and getting his first job after college, he bought a different car. The ranger, nicknamed The Black (because it was black), went back home to his parents and is spending his days living in Grandma's garage. When we go home, my husband likes to pull it out and take it for a spin, but The Black is now closing in on 20 years old. It was well over 150,000 miles on it and I think it's pushing 200,000 but I'm not sure about that.


So what are your stories?

My car looked like that this weekend and still drove fine. I drove it back to my house and then from there to the shop. It's currently closing in on 207k. The only time it hasn't been drivable is when I went to do the rear brakes and one of the calipers was seized. That car is a champ.

I had my old GMC Sierra for about 10 years, and it was used when I got it. Before I switched to my Avalanche, the GMC had over 300,000 miles on it. But it was finally getting too unreliable with as much cross-country traveling as I do.

Hahaha, my first car was a 1985 Honda Accord. We actually SOLD it after I got a new car, because it was still running, at over 300,xxx miles. I don't know how long it ran after that, and it wasn't sold for much. But aside from the heater not working I cant' remember a thing that was actually wrong with it. My grandpa bought it new off the lot in 1985 and it was in the family until around 2003?

200,000 is just breaking it in lol!

My first car was a mercury version of the tempo, the topaz I think. The counter flipped back to zero before my grandparents have it to me. As of a couple years ago the guy we sold it to was still using it. I hated that car because it would not die. My grandma used it as a three hour daily commute car for years and my husband even did his two hour commute in it a while.

Our f-250 has almost 230,000 on it now. Diesal.

My dads contour is over 300,000.

We have had numerous Hondas and nissans over 250,000- 300,000.

My explorer is at 140,000
Our beater zx2 is at 130,000

Honestly not a clue what the new jeep has on it but our old one was over 300.

My current car is 14 years old and just over 150,000. I bought it from my parents in 2006 when my 13 year old car was getting up there and my mom wanted me to take her car. I might actually sell it this year, just because it's a high value type of used car here (Honda Civic, manual transmission) and I want to get the money before it loses all of its value.

All of the cars my parents have sold have been 13+ years. Typically they were sold because the laws in PA are pretty strict about rust for passing inspection, and it can be thousands of dollars to fix a small rust spot. One car was sold to a guy who was a welder and fixed the rust cheaply, then drove it for 5+ more years (which would've put it at 20).

My husband's Accord is only 8 years old and has well over 150,000 on it already. It's a nice car (bought it used with all of the upgrade packages) and I hope we have that for many more years. It will be my "new" car when we sell the Civic and get a truck (Toyota Tacoma, which we also plan to have forever)

We've only had Hondas and Toyotas. My mother-in-law recently sold a 20 year old Del Sol, so they do seem to last forever.

So far I've only been able to take a vehicle to 132K (my 2001 Toyota RAV4). It would have probably gone for MUCH longer, but thanks to a drunk 20 year old in a Saturn hitting me at a stoplight, that car died a sudden and ugly death a few years ago.

It'll be interesting to see just how many miles I'll be able to put on the XT. Currently I'm at 15K...and it's 11 months old. :rofl1:

I have a 96 Jeep Cherokee with 210k miles on it. I need to replace it by May because the floor boards are rusting out and they won't pass inspection. Which sucks as I've got a bunch of new parts under the hood (radiator, starter, water pump, just to name a few).

But it will be nice to finally have a car that doesn't act like its dying when you use heat or AC, or idle, or smells when it's running. Automatic things and doors that lock would also be nice. :rofl1:

Definitely agree that 200K is just breaking it in!

We've got a '99 Ford Escort that has over 400K on it and my mom's 2005 Expedition has 250K on it. My '97 Escort has 130K on it.

The other two Fords we have are newer, so they haven't racked up the miles... yet!

I really miss our F-250 Diesel truck. Pretty much grew up in that thing! My mom always had extra kids with her, so we would cram about 8 or so people in there and head off to field trips or to my dad's football games. Good times!

And while its not the same thing I will throw out there that we had a nissan spec v that got hit almost head on by a giant chevy diesel truck and it drove away from it and my husband was just shooken up. The truck smashed in. I give nissan a lot for that! I don't in general feel safe in smaller cars and hate to be in our beater but that thing held up! the ins company didn't even total it(though they probably should have) and I still see the car and it had over 100,000 when we sold it.

I drive an insane amount of miles per year, and tend to eat through cars quickly so I don't know all the specifics for past cars.

What I can tell you is that my Ford Focus is now at 230k and runs like a top. It might help that I seriously baby my cars. My Taurus(RIP) only had 160k and wasn't even close to tired... /sigh. Stupid Hurricane.

We sold my husband's old Honda Accord for $800 when the odometer read 270,000 miles!! I was surprised someone was buying it

My little brother had a 1985 Ford Ranger that he bought super cheap. He drove it for a year, and although it broke down regularly, it was always a cheap and easy fix. He only got rid of it because some drunkard ran into it and pushed it halfway down the block one night while we were all sleeping. Even then he just hammered the metal bits out of the way and drove it to the scrapyard...where they fixed it all up, since we still see it around town.

I currently have a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited and it's fine - a bit loud, and it needs a few things like a CV axle and a rear differential gasket (which I have, but it's been too gross out to fix it), but nothing major with the engine or anything. The only time it's failed to start is when the battery died (granted I've only had it a few months, but my brother had it before then). The body damage says it's been in a few scuffles. I do, however, want to try to trade it for a V6. This V8 is a beast and gets only 10mpg. But I'm so in love with it, I haven't had the heart to post it on Craigslist yet. Now that tax time's approaching, I think I'll give it a go. It's fairly low-miles for an almost-20-year-old car.

My "first" car was my dad's old '89 Geo Prizm. He bought it new when my brother was born and it was my brother's first car, then my first car. It literally had NO problems (besides the crank windows getting off their track at one point or another, so they didn't work). It went caput around 250k...dad was slowing down to turn at a light on the highway and it completely locked up. Luckily he was only going about 30mph at the time and he was able to get it off the road, or that could have been very bad. But it was a great little car!

My actual first car that was "mine" was a '98 Oldesmobile Intrigue (had enough features on it that at times I think it was better equipped than my 2013 base model Honda LOL). Sun roof, 12 disc CD player, automatic climate control, multiple speed windshield wiper...I traded it in as the down payment for my lease car about three years ago now. I had about 220k on it. That last year with it was rough, and my dad dropped about $1500 in repairs on it...but I loved that car. I still miss it.

I'm currently driving a 2013 Honda Civic. So far so good, but I have less than 2k on it. I put just over 40k on my 2011 lease and I didn't have any issues. I'm hoping this Civic will last as long as my prior two cars and I intend to drive it into the ground unless we need to trade up to a bigger vehicle when kids come around.

My 1st car was a 1994 Honda Civic that I got new. I couldn't drive it when I bought it, but I was determined to buy a standard, so I learned how to drive stick on it. I finally got rid of it in 2010....it had 220,000 miles and still had its original clutch.

It ran great for all of its 16 years, with only regular maintenance. I didn't drive it the last few months I had it, so when I went to donate it, I told them it needed to be towed because the battery had died while it had just been sitting. When the driver came to tow it, he tried to jump it first. It started right up and he just drove it on to the tow truck. I almost ran after him to get it back. :rofl1: I still wish I would have kept it just to see how long it would have lasted!

That's what my last car was! It had a moon roof but no other extra features. But man, it was COMFORTABLE. Most comfortable seats I've ever sat in in a car. It was also nothing but problems. My brother has it now (traded it for the Jeep) and he's put a couple thousand dollars of repairs into it and it STILL leaks coolant. He refuses to believe it probably has a blown head, but...meh, not my problem anymore


My Jeep is ridiculously technologically advanced for its time. It has a monitor that shows me all sorts of stuff from mpg, avg mpg, distance to empty, temp/direction, what fluids I'm low on, what doors are open, etc - remember this is a car from 1996. It's crazy. And the only thing "off" about the display is that sometimes it'll go pixelated or blank when it's humid out. It's also got power seats, automatic climate control (it even waits to turn on until my car is warmed up so it doesn't blow cold air on me!), etc. None of my cars have had cool features like this. AND IT'S SO OLD. Blows my mind. In 1996 I still had a DOS-only computer.

My shortest-lived car was a very nice 2005 Taurus that I bought in January 2007. It was totaled in July 2007 by an idiot that was reading her bible instead of stopping at a stop light. If not for that idiot, I'd probably still have my Taurus and be in a much better position car-wise than I am now. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Our Toyota Camry is from 2000 and has I think around 150k on it. Might be more but it's my mom's car. Never had any issues other than physical damage with it! It's still going strong and being used everyday.

300.000 on my sr something twin cam toyota corolla..best car I ever had, and never ever should have parted with it. Family decision I should give it up, because "who knows how much longer it will last" drove the car to u wrench it thinking this is wrong. Just wrong wrong wrong. IT took more in crap car replacements then it would have to rebuild the motor when it did die. Incredible gas mil;age and drove like a dream. Never ever used oil. Haven't had anything as good since.

We've always owned Hondas, Toyotas, Subarus, and Mazdas.

My parents had a little Toyota truck they bought new in '88, and they sold it 10 years later with almost 200,000 miles on it. Still ran great and I want to say they got about $2500 for it.

My husband's Honda civic started in my family. It's a '97, has 207,000 miles on it, and is still going strong. It's our beater but **** reliable.

All of the other family cars are at 100, 000 miles or less, but we drive them into the ground, typically.