Age and mileage for a "trouble free" car?

My 2012 Chevrolet Cruze that was purchased with 12000 miles that now has 85000 miles.

This is everything done in order of repair.

15000 miles Dexos oil service. 20000 miles Dexos oil service, steering sector shaft. 25000 miles Dexos oil service. 30000 miles Dexos oil service. 35000 miles Dexos oil service. 40000 miles Dexos oil service. 45000 miles Dexos oil service.
50000 miles Dexos oil service. 55000 miles Dexos oil service. 60000 miles Dexos oil service. 65000 miles Dexos oil service. 70000 miles Dexos oil service. 75000 miles 4 Toyo tires, Dexos oil service. 80000 miles Dexos oil service. 85000 miles valve cover, Dexos oil service.

I have a 3mm on the brake pads as of today.

The overall average mixed driving at 80mph highway is 30.2 mpg.

Run_Away wrote:

eastsidemav wrote: Are the 05-up Xterras the ones that tend to get coolant and trans fluid mixed together? I'll probably want something that gets better mileage than them, but I sure won't rule them out.

Yes, they have problems with the trans cooler in the radiator failing. The transmissions themselves are quite reliable as long as they aren't filled with coolant

Correct. The problem is, the replacement radiators have the same cooler. About the only way around it is to bypass the original cooler entirely and install a MASSIVE (and I do mean MASSIVE, like a/c condenser size) trans cooler. If you use one of those dinky ones by itself, the trans will overheat and fail. The VQ engine has proven itself pretty well, 05 and up have a lot more electronic doohickeys on them. Not that they have a particularly bad record, I just prefer the simplicity of the earlier ones.

If I have one gripe about mine, it would be the aforementioned gas mileage. Granted, I'm a leadfoot, but I average around 15.2 mpg city and about 18 highway. Some of the Xterra board members say they've squeaked 21 out of a 2wd V6 on the highway by driving very conservatively. Still better than the Trooper, which was 13 city/16 highway.

Speaking of the Trooper, just talked to my bud who bought it this AM. His wife has put about 17k completely trouble free miles on it, meaning it now has just shy of 220k on the odometer.

The most reliable car I've had bar none was an '03 CRV. It was my wife's car and we put like 120k on it until she bought a new RAV4 last year. In all that time it went through 2 sets of tires, and had one failure, the AC compressor a couple of years ago. That's it. Just oil changes, wiper blades, etc. We since sold it to my brother in law, and he's got the mileage up to 150k with still no failures. It's not the most exciting car to drive, but its not bad. And with the square back, can hold an amazing amount of crap that larger SUVs can only dream about. Its not for track work obviously, but if you want something reliable, cheap to own, and gets decent mpgs, its tough to beat. Oh, and no timing belt!

The kid has really racked up the miles on the ION. I got it with ~148k, it now has ~180k. I had to replace the radiator when I got it, but that wasn't the car's fault, the DPO had cracked it on a parking lot stopper. I put 4 tires on it, replaced the radiator, even though there were no issues such as noise I replaced the timing chain as a preventive measure, replaced the brake pads and generally gave it a good going over. The oil gets changed every 3500-4000 miles the tires rotated every second oil change. The only unplanned repair so far was the plastic part of the wiper transmission broke. Otherwise it's been reliable as the sun.

The downside is it does feel cheap inside, even though it's a top of the line ION3. Rattles and squeaks, the door belt molding plastic has shrunken and wrinkled.

In reply to racerdave600:

That's good to hear. I'm actually thinking of running up to the local Honda dealer in the next day or so. They have an 04 CR-V LX with under 90K miles on it for sale right now.

My thoughts are as follows 1)Electronic ignition and fuel injection are much more reliable than older technology. 2)First generation of any technology is less reliable. For instance ABS. 3)The more extras on a car the more chance of things to break. 4)Lower horsepower cars tend to be less stressed and last longer. 5)The higher volume vehicles were more reliable and will be cheaper to fix. 6)Simpler designs tend to be more reliable.

These are very general statements as the OP requested. They are not always true and YMMV.

Thanks

I'll toss another suggestion in the ring.

My ex wife is a huge Toyota fan, with good reason. She has had a few Tercels, an Echo, and now has an 05 Scion xB. I gotta say... they were rock solid. Her first Tercel needed absolutely nothing in 150k except tires and brakes. I think her dad had to replace the muffler once but not sure. Her second one needed a front wheel bearing at 80k but otherwise nothing. Her Scion we bought with 23k and it now has probably 120k. It has needed nothing. The CEL came on a few years ago for an evap problem. I popped the hood and saw that the vacuum line had popped off the nipple.

Most toyotas have a timing chain (not that a belt is bad, just a potential added failure point), they have good parts from the factory and aftermarket replacements tend to be cheap and good.

My years running repair shops suggest that as well. One of our shops was a cut-rate shop, so we got a lot of cars-on-their-last-leg duct tape jobs. I have to say, most of the old Toyotas we got were pretty simple fixes; gaskets, A/C compressors, tune-ups, bearings, axles, clutches, but rarely anything big.

I know that this is not news to anyone on this board that Toyota makes a reliable car, just adding more opinion into the fire.

Kind of hoping to avoid some of the cutting edge tech, and would prefer a timing chain.

I've got a bit of time this evening, so am going to try to test a 1st gen highlander, and a third gen CR-V. The Toyota 3.3 uses a timing belt, but as far as I can tell its supposed to be a non-interference engine.

I suspect I'd really like a Lexus RX330, but that looks like it'll stretch my budget, unless I accept 140k or more miles.

Lexus ES and Toyota Avalon and Prius are in the running if sedans end up being acceptable, but I'd think loading and unloading bags of mulch, etc would be a lot easier with a CUV.

Real SUVs are a possibility, too, but I'll admit I might feel a bit like a poser driving around in one. Not to mention the crappy gas mileage.

Edit: Would be nice to have heated seats, too.

What about the first gen RX - the RX 300? Different look, but just as reliable and I see 2000's go in the 5k range. My only gripe with the early RX's was that ugly mirror tint on the back windows that a few other SUV's rocked back in the day

In reply to redhookfern:

Considered them, but in gaming the odds, came up w/ two issues. Up until the final year (2003), they were susceptible to the sludge issue, and the transmission in them was apparently fine in the cars, but a bit marginal in the RX and the Highlander. One of them would probably be fine, but less certain than the newer ones with the 3.3 and the 5 speed auto.

An 03 model with records of a recently replaced/rebuilt trans might be okay.

One nice thing about this search is not having to look too far and wide. Most of my searches have been in a 25 or 50 mile radius and have shown multiple candidates. Maybe I should buy generic cars more often

What about an Infiniti QX4? Luxury, probably heated seats, not a full-out poser car, and Nissan Patherfinder reliability and ruggedness... Seems like it would be a solid answer.

In reply to mtn:

Not a bad idea, and old enough not to have Nissan's newer weird design language. May start adding it to my search. Thanks!

Holy crap it's way too expensive, but a 20 year old Cherokee with only 53K miles!?

http://www.kingstoyota.com/used/Jeep/1995-Jeep-Cherokee-cincinnati-40bd73a40a0e0ae81b7120965db78d0f.htm

Oh I forgot about the QX4! Those had all the toughness of a pathfinder but all the Infiniti tech like xenon lights, wood steering wheel, heated everything. I used to love those trucks. I'd totally rock one

Test drove an 04 CR-V that was pretty much a time capsule. Outside of one ding, and some very slightly faded trim, it could've been mistaken for a brand new car. Drove that way, too. Ride was a bit more harsh than I would like, though.

Also drove a 2wd 05 Highlander. Didn't get it on the highway, but it was a noticeably smoother ride on surface streets. May keep my eyes open for a Limited, so I can get the nice interior. I have doubts about being able to find one in 2wd.

Still need to take a few other cars for as spin, and I've got an appointment at my credit union tomorrow to apply for a loan.

Bobzilla wrote: Truly trouble free? I don't think even new ones are that way anymore.

204k on the 2011 Elantra, that you recommeneded, trouble free

A little more research, and CR-Vs are probably out. Turns out up through at least the 07 model year, they had a flaw where the AC compressor can self destruct, and send shrapnel through the whole system, so the pretty much everything needs to be replaced to keep the bits of metal from damaging any replacement parts.

Going to try to look at a few more cars this weekend, including an RX330 and an Xterra. I must be getting old, looking at cars is not anywhere near as fun as it used to be.

Hondas are pretty tough but not perfect. IIRC there are aftermarket kits to retrofit the CRV to a Sanden compressor. Some of the older CRV's could barf the trans; the outer case would get 'seal worn' and lose second gear when it warmed up.

Oh, on Xterras: the 4 banger is tough but doesn't get any better mileage than the V6. It also cuts the tow capacity to 3500 pounds.

In reply to Curmudgeon:

I've driven an 01 Frontier with the 4 cylinder. It was painfully slow, that engine in the Xterra has got to be awful.

Other than weak transmissions, which can apparently be improved upon during a rebuild, know of any major issues with Chevy Trailblazers and their various badge engineered relatives? My neighbor has one, and loves it, and I've noticed they seem to go pretty cheap compared to other stuff I'm looking at. It is somewhat larger than I want, but at least it's not Tahoe/Suburban-sized.

For full size fords I usually go with less than 80k and less than 6 years old. Then just price according to where they are relative to those numbers. I find that those numbers are about the optimal for remaining service life against price and ware and servic needed. Most fords need a 100k ser if so factor that in to the price of if purchasing from a dealer or have them do it as part of the sale.

eastsidemav wrote: A little more research, and CR-Vs are probably out. Turns out up through at least the 07 model year, they had a flaw where the AC compressor can self destruct, and send shrapnel through the whole system, so the pretty much everything needs to be replaced to keep the bits of metal from damaging any replacement parts. Going to try to look at a few more cars this weekend, including an RX330 and an Xterra. I must be getting old, looking at cars is not anywhere near as fun as it used to be.

As stated above, ours did this a couple of years ago...total cost to repair was about $600. And that was a shop doing the work not me. At 150k miles, that's a small price to pay as its only failure. Not trying to change your mind, but I checked our logs up until we sold it, and our total cost of ownership minus gas and payments was less than 2k over 10 years and 120k miles.

Find a W123 wagon. I've been really impressed with the $800 example I picked up. Its a bit rusty around the edges, and slow (of course) but it's been dead reliable for me for the past 6 months since I bought it, putting on about 300 miles per week. Now, lots of stuff doesn't work (A/C, cruise) but the drivetrain itself is pretty solid, despite having an unknown amount of miles (odometer broken, too). PLus it can swallow an impressive amount of stuff. Find one with a stack of maintenance records and not too much rust, and make sure the transmission shifts OK- that's about the only part of these cars than can be finnicky. Parts are generally pretty cheap, too, and they ride really well, especially on rough roads.

Tried to check out three different RX330s, none on the lots when I got there Same story for an Xterra. Did drive an LS430. It would be highly impractical for going to Home Depot/lowes, but dang that was nice.