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I guess it depends a lot on the mileage but I know people with 20 year old Toyota Corollas with more than 200 thousand miles that are still going strong. No cra
by felipemnoa 5y ago
I guess it depends a lot on the mileage but I know people with 20 year old Toyota Corollas with more than 200 thousand miles that are still going strong. No crazy maintenance costs either.
- mrfusion 5y agoOlder cars can work great but I just lose confidence in taking longer trips. If it’s statistically going to die soon I feel like there’s a large risk of getting stranded somewhere.
- Lascaille 5y ago>If it’s statistically going to die soon I feel like there’s a large risk of getting stranded somewhere. If you're in North America are you really going to be 'stranded' or just footing the cost of a one-way rental and waiting for the check from the junkyard which will almost certainly cover it?
- toomuchtodo 5y agoYou could be waiting for hours or overnight on the side of the US interstate (possibly in below freezin/0F temps) for a tow truck that may or may not show up. The salvage check may or may not cover the tow and replacement temporary transportation. A majority of Americans can't come up with $1000 for an emergency, which is somewhat close to the cost of a one way rental at the moment.
- oblio 5y agoTrue, but statistically the average HN user with a beat up car won't be a McDonald's employee buying the only car they can afford, but more likely someone working in tech that's aiming for FIRE or whatever they're calling it and saving a ton of money. Highly unlikely the average HNer can't come up with $1000 for an emergency (nota bene: for sure some can't, that why I didn't say "every HNer").
- packetlost 5y agoyou grossly underestimate the cost of car rentals and overestimate the value of a scrap metal car.
- ajross 5y agoFWIW: that's a survivorship bias effect. Old cars don't have "crazy maintenance costs" until they do, at which point they get scrapped and aren't in the population of "old cars" anymore. It's absolutely possible to find 20 year old Corollas (or whatever). But that's not representative. (Also, those 20 year old cars tend to be running around with components from a bunch of parted-out 14 year old vehicles!)
- imwillofficial 5y ago“ But that's not representative.” Except that it is.
- ajross 5y agoIt's absolutely not. Twenty years isn't remotely near the median road lifespan[1] for any vehicle. You see a lot of 20 year old Corollas because c. 2002 the Corolla was the most popular car in the world. I'm sure it's more durable than many other vehicles, but it's not magic. [1] Let me specify "passenger vehicles" and "US roads" lest someone jump in to point out that box trucks last longer or that cars get shipped to foreign markets at end of life, etc...
- oblio 5y agoThe thing is, even in the US this is changing: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/28/cars-on-american-roads-keep-getting-older.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/28/cars-on-american-roads-keep-... > The average age of a car on U.S. roads rose to 12.1 years in 2021, according to IHS Markit. The average age had been 11.9 years in 2020. In 2002, the average age was 9.6 years. And in most of the rest of the world, it's even longer, as the vast majority of the rest of the world is poorer.
- imwillofficial 5y agoBingo. The US is not the world.
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- rootusrootus 5y agoToyotas are unkillable. But OTOH, with 3-4x the running costs compared to electric, I don't think over the span of 200K miles it works out favorably for any ICEV, even a very efficient one.
- natch 5y agoIf you call $1200 - $2500 every 10 months or so not a crazy cost, then sure. For me it felt like a crazy cost when the total resale value of the car was around $2000, being optimistic. But to be fair, Camry not Corolla.