Hacker News Reader

Comment by snowwindwaves | Hacker News Reader

So in developed countries that don't have icy winter roads most people are driving cars with more than 300,000 km on them?

I'm really curious where the parent lives that people are investing so much in the longevity of a vehicle. By the time they get to 300,000 km even if they aren't rusty they are usually 20 years old and things like drivetrain start to go and the vehicle is not worth the cost to keep up the required maintenance.

View on HN

I can attest that this is not unheard of in southern california. 1995 cars are driving all over the place. Cars seem to have a lifecycle where they get sold to poorer owners with more and more miles piling on, and only get junked when they are beyond repair. Even a 150-200k miles car is worthy of selling on craigslist (for super cheap of course, but there are plenty of buyers).

Now to be fair, SoCal has a rather unique and essential car culture, so this is probably an outlier as far as "most" cities go.

Yup. Even in snowy places -- my folks, siblings, friends all have cars running in Wisconsin that have at one point or another hit or crossed the 300,000km threshold. We had a Grand Caravan that looked pretty good when we finally traded it in at 350,000km.

Older cars, you keep them relatively clean and knock your boots before getting in so that the salt doesn't grind your carpets away, and replace things as they start to fail. A lot of older cars will just keep on chugging along.

Here in Texas, where the roads are clean and we drive a lot, cars with 300,000km (or, let's say, 200,000mi which is a similar milestone) certainly exist, but are somewhat unusual. But they're not worth much and likely nearing the retirement point from sheer age.

Even in developed countries people are driving their cars way over 300,000 km. Some cars are capable of over 482,803 km without major repairs needed. The Ford Crown Victoria comes to mind, the one used for police cars and taxes. I just read in a forum that police cars are used up to 643,738 km, at that point they're passed off to a taxi service for continued use. http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=show...

Not all places use salt, and even then if you get your car washed and underbody cleaned it should help the longevity of the car.

Certainly not most, but definitely more.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com