Until this week, I have never owned a car with 200,000 miles on the odometer despite our family policy of driving cars into the ground. We have owned lots of Subarus, which tend to rust out somewhere around 175,000, so congratulations to Honda for making a Civic that resists salty New England roads pretty well.
When I was a kid, cars rarely made it to 100,000 miles without rusting out or otherwise dying – people would celebrate the odometer hitting six figures; I remember a friend who had a framed photo in his living room showing his odometer turning over. Now 100,000 miles is barely middle aged, and a coworker has a Volvo pushing 250,000. Cars are much, much better than they used to be.
There’s a downside to my accomplishment: It’s a reflection of the fact that I drive a lot, mostly due to work. The Civic is only 13 years old, which means it has racked up more than 15,000 miles a year. (We bought it used with, if I recall, about 75,000 miles on it.) Even thought it’s a hybrid that gets around 50 mpg, that car has burned at least 4,000 gallons of gasoline. So shame on me for that.
The vehicle that does least harm to the planet is the one sitting in the garage, even if it’s a Hummer.
Return to the Concord Monitor
My 2002 Camry over 263,000 miles on it as of my last fillup. I feel a little better about my 30MPG car versus the 22MPG car it replaced (1994 Dodge Intrepid with *almost* 250,000 miles on it). I just want to get about another 2 years out of that can so I can buy a Tesla Model 3.
Your 1st?? Our last 3 or 4 reached 250K. One (a 2005 Toyota Sienna w/240K miles) was just passed down to our daughter in fine shape. The thing that surprised us more than the absolute mileages was the clutch plate. 2 of the 3 vehicles were standards, and NONE had clutch plate ever go, not even in 250K miles. That was shocking! BTW: 1 Honda Accord (still on road w/youngest kid), 1 Nissan Maxima (traded in for Honda) and 1 Toyota Sienna.
My 2001 Civic has 302,000 miles on it. After a recent head gasket replacement at 300K, it is now showing low compression in one cylinder which is preventing it from passing the emissions portion of the inspection here in NH. Not sure if it is worth fixing either.
My former Civic, a 1989 had 275,000 miles on it when it was sold.
I also owned a 1999 Honda Odyssey with 230,000 miles on it that was unfortunately made a bit shorted when some (uninsured) kid rear ended it at about 50 mph, injuring my daughter who was driving.
We now have a 2013 Honda Ridgeline – hoping to get many miles out of it as well.