What Car, Truly Unkillable Beater Edition

In reply to Honda4life:

Please don't ask to borrow my stuff.

Honda4life wrote:

Toebra wrote: My best friend had a green Plymouth Valiant that was the same age as him, and he was no kid when he had it. If there was a road between them, one of those old Mopar slant 6's would go to the moon and back. He had a Civic with a D series motor in it that had just shy of a half million miles on it when his sister was driving in the snow and backed it into a ditch for him You know why they put a rear window defroster in the Yugo? To keep your hands warm when you are pushing it.

Did your best friend kill that thing yet?

Actually no. He put about a quarter million miles on it, and sold it to some hipster for $500 more than he paid for it. It was that dark green, original paint that was pretty thin on the top, like one or two molecules thick. When he bought it, it was missing a piece of the side trim, behind the door. One time he was getting gas in Fairfield at a little independent station, and the guy mentioned he used to have a Valiant that he wrecked. He still had one piece of trim for it. Went in the back and it turned out to be the same piece missing on my buddy's car. Coincidence, or Chariots of the Gods.

He went and bought another Civic VX, same color as the first one, only never been wrecked. He has about 400,000 on that thing now. He has a long commute for 2 more years. Then he is going to K swap the Civic and put a cage in it.

spitfirebill wrote: In reply to Honda4life: Please don't ask to borrow my stuff.

Don't worry i won't ask because i know whats good and whats not good. Seems the newer stuff just keeps breaking. My civic is still running perfectly and i drive at a faster pace shifting 3.5-4000 rpm when i could. also a few times in the ownership of the civic i had to do some stuff that made me a freak out a bit. The 2 that most stand out to me is last winter, had a pretty good snowstorm and i was driving about 20 miles to see a relative at night and the damn highway was covered in slush and snow. If i drive any faster then 45 mph, the car will lose traction and go straight into the shoulder. Luckily the road was empty and i stayed around 40-45 (though smarter people wouldn't even go out or if they had to go, they would go like 10 or 20 mph MAX). The second time was when i was going to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with a friend. i was going down a completely empty highway at around 75 mph and on the road there was a piece of plywood right in front of me and i had to make a move now. i decided to swerve around it AT SPEED (Which was a VERY bad idea because i could easily spin out (i didn't spin out) and it scared the living E36 M3 out of my friend. (Other drivers would see it in advance, slow down, and change lanes the moment they see the plywood) Car is at 39,400 miles and the 17 inch pirelli tires are doing great. And the yard equipment i don't use because we moved to an apartment. It Seems that watching Car Throttle videos on high performance driving has taught me quite a few things like don't let off the gas pedal when in the middle of a sharp corner or swerving otherwise you spin out. I never let off the gas when i had to swerve around that piece of plywood and never spun out, luckily the highway was empty.

My mid-90s Jeep XJ has been the most unkillable thing ever. It's made my Miatas look unreliable. It thrives on being thrashed and neglected. The only downsides are: gas mileage and a penchant for marking its territory.

How are suburbans and tahoes in terms of indestructibility?

Suburbans and Tahoes are your basic Chevy pickup with extra roofing. Possibly with a different rear suspension depending on what generation it is. Automatic transmissions are usually the most likely big ticket thing to break, depending on exactly which version you have, but even then those typically will rack up six figures' worth of miles. Engines and chassis are typically robust.

Time to bring this back again with more sad deaths. I drove more cars. Heres the story. 1998 honda accord v6 with 256k. Friend paid 300 i drove it to his house. He then got in floored it down his street and 2 pulls later transmission is slipping. Scrapped the car. the 14 civic i got is now at 72k, i did an intake, removed the catalytic converter, went airborne 6 feet in the air oh 4 times in a year and still goin strong