3 ms·

I don't know, but if the average is 220 000 km (according to the article) I'd say a fair share of cars must go beyond that. If I had not bought my car (it was

I don't know, but if the average is 220 000 km (according to the article) I'd say a fair share of cars must go beyond that. If I had not bought my car (it was at 300 000 km) I'm pretty sure it would have been sold in Eastern Europe instead, or maybe Africa since it's a Peugeot (a 406). In the countryside, it's also very common to have both a nice recent car, and an old reliable one like mine for the dirty work. Most people I know do have one car that is a few 100 000s of km. Also, we mostly use diesel here, and these are supposed to be much more reliable than the gasoline engines used in the US (and I'm not going into the purported lack of reliability of American cars to begin with). I'm talking about everyday cars that are 15 or 20 years old, not classic cars.

dom0 9y ago
Gasoline engines can be plenty reliable. I think the main reason why a lot of cars from the 80s and 90s are able to go to 400k and more is (1) cheaper and easier maintenance, so more inclined to do it regularly (2) no fancy shit going on, no turbo chargers, no high-pressure fuel injection, thus far less wear on parts, no unreliable high-pressure pumps etc. Replacement parts on these are also far more expensive. New turbo is a four-figure number just for the part. Injection pumps are bloody expensive, too. Less optimized designs may also be a factor. CAD and FEM modelling has only become better with time, so back in the day engineers would rather make a more conservative design, nowadays that's not so necessary any more.
- tyingq 9y ago
  Aluminum heads are part of why some newer cars don't last as long. It's easier to blow a head gasket. Replacing those in a tightly packed front wheel drive engine bay often exceeds the value of the car. Or, driving with the blown gasket causes overheating that damages other components.

dom0 9y ago

Gasoline engines can be plenty reliable. I think the main reason why a lot of cars from the 80s and 90s are able to go to 400k and more is (1) cheaper and easier maintenance, so more inclined to do it regularly (2) no fancy shit going on, no turbo chargers, no high-pressure fuel injection, thus far less wear on parts, no unreliable high-pressure pumps etc. Replacement parts on these are also far more expensive. New turbo is a four-figure number just for the part. Injection pumps are bloody expensive, too. Less optimized designs may also be a factor. CAD and FEM modelling has only become better with time, so back in the day engineers would rather make a more conservative design, nowadays that's not so necessary any more.

tyingq 9y ago
Aluminum heads are part of why some newer cars don't last as long. It's easier to blow a head gasket. Replacing those in a tightly packed front wheel drive engine bay often exceeds the value of the car. Or, driving with the blown gasket causes overheating that damages other components.