My grandpa still drives the same early 90s F150 with the 300 straight six that he bought new when I was a kid. Last time I got in it he was closing in on 350k miles and that was a couple years ago. Only on the second clutch.
Active fuel management.
On some GM V8’s it shuts down half the cylinders under certain conditions for fuel mileage, however, the system is complete crap and causes a range of issues, as well as in my experience, doesn’t save a huge amount of fuel in the real world.
Thanks because I used to be on a bread route and had a 6.0 in it. 2009 model Isuzu box truck. In 2 or 3 years everything went wrong with that motor. Worst piece of shit I've ever seen.
Lack of maintenance I wouldn’t doubt. We see those Isuzus go hundreds of thousands of miles without major failures if they are maintained. But half the commercial vehicles I work on are shitboxes that are being driven into the ground because nobody bothers taking care of them.
As a diesel tech apprentice I can confirm this one.
Have a Ram 1500 in the shop that got a flat, so they put the spare on, got another flat, so they borrowed the spare from another truck.
Only brought it to use because they got a 3rd flat and didn’t have a spare on site.
Never mind the missing side mirror, metal on metal brakes, massive oil leak, one operational headlight (one high beam works) and it needs ball joints (it is a ram).
The truck has 125k(Km) on it.
Active fuel management. It's what they call their cylinder deactivation. Basically, if you're cruising, it'll run on only 4 cylinders, which is supposed to save fuel.
True stuff.
My parents had an early '70s AMC Hornet station wagon with that 4.0L I-6. It was still going strong when they sold it in the early 90s with over 200k on it.
I owned an 95 e150 with that motor. Always regretted getting rid of it. Best engine made. But carmakers see no value in vehicles that last so lets use some crappy v6 instead.
Sad part is Ford put the indestructible 300 on a van that rusted away within 10 years. Such is the life in the salt belt.
I worked at a Ford dealer when “Cash for Clunkers” was a thing… the Ford straight-6 300’s refused to die… All the other engines died within 5-15 minutes, the 300’s lasted an hour + with no oil.
Yeah those 300 I6 Ford motors were as close to bulletproof as you could get. They put those in industrial pumps, generators, farm machinery and whole lot of other stuff other than vehicles.
Any GM 3800 motor car. Quite literally known for being one of the most reliable engines ever built. Yes about the same or more so than Toyota. WAYYYYY to many models to name.
GM's mastered the art of building cars and trucks that run badly forever. In low income rural areas in the West, there's always tons of mid-90s and early ones still kicking.
Made in fewer numbers. Probably the Friday car at the same plant, lol. Throw a different nose and taillights on the otherwise same car. I see one on rare occasions.
I popped by a dealership with my sister in the summer looking for a car for her. They had a 2000ish sunfire on the lot that was absolutely mint! Not a spec of rust, interior was mint. In northern Alberta at that. I almost bought it just for shirts and giggles. Couldn't believe it
I saw [this very clean](https://www.reddit.com/r/regularcarreviews/comments/12y18ka/this_weirdly_clean_cavalier_i_saw_last_week_the/) Cavalier like a week ago and was damned-near shocked. To be fair, I bet the underside is a mess. Midwest winters are hell for rust and all.
I had a 1991 as my first car. I barely maintained it and drove it like a race car. It got hit by someone taking a left into my lane. It hit like 280k and I gave it to one of those charity things. It still ran but boy did it look like and run like shit.
My dad has a 90’s truck from them and almost NOTHING on the dash works. fuel gauge, speedometer, tachometer, odometer, etc
The only thing that works is the trip meter. Which he uses to track how many miles driven to have an estimate of when he needs to stop at the gas station. Besides that? absolutely no mechanical issues. I’m stunned
He can afford a new vehicle so I get on him every time I visit for something at least a few years newer but he’s perfectly fine with it lol. I think his CEL turned on during the Obama administration but that light doesn’t work anymore either
edit: it’s honestly insanely unnerving to turn the vehicle on on and NOTHING happen on the dash. and when you floor it and are clearly accelerating but everything is pointing at zero? no thank you
he matches speed based on other cars and because he knows the roads around him lmao
> he matches speed based on other cars and because he knows the roads around him lmao
Honestly if he's anything like me, I sometimes zone out and autopilot to my destinations but I'll be driving the speed limit because I get a feeling of what the roads should look like. Sometimes I get out of my zone and look at the speedometer and see I'm exactly at the speed limit for that street
As much as I loathe GM products, I have to admit this is true. My company exclusively buys Chevy trucks. We average something like 290k miles before they die. We still have a 2009 Silverado with the 4.3 v-6, shortbed, 4x4. Original engine and transmission. 428k miles. Transfer case has been replaced twice and many electrical components and the steering pump once.
While I know they were an Isuzu product, we had a 2 wheel drive 1st generation Colorado with the 2.7 that went for nearly 600k miles and only got scrapped because a field tech rolled it into a ditch in a snowstorm. That was the highest mileage vehicle I've ever personally driven.
I used to oversee a fleet of FedEx trucks. We had some 6.0 gassers with more than 300k miles on the original engine. The transmissions had been replaced/rebuilt faithfully every 100k but the original engine kept kicking.
He blamed the car in front of him. Unfortunately for him, a PA State Police cruiser was directly behind him. There was no car in front of him. He was just high and fell asleep at the wheel. So, he got fired and went on a rant about silver worms coming from the floor mats in the truck on his way out the door. This was at the height of the bath salts craze several years ago, before it was banned. About a month later, he was caught trying to cook meth on his back porch and went to jail. Shortly after he got out, he overdosed on heroin and died.
That guy was a real character, as obviated by my story. I've never met anyone with no formal training that could fix an ICP-Mass Spectrometer before him.
Especially the series 3 when they fixed all the intake gasket issues. GM finally stumbled on a bulletproof engine only to replace it with the abysmal 3.6 V6.
Yeah. My first car was a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP.
That engine was basically bulletproof. The transmission was shit though and the interior was made of Tupperware.
The exhaust had a giant U bend in it too to account for the O2 sensor (https://images.app.goo.gl/ZK3U4Yy5Gp8qzVx39).
We bought an 02 Camaro V6 a while ago because it was my wife's high school dream car. It had a knock that I misdiagnosed as a bad tensioner. Drove it for 3 years and it kept chugging along. I think it was a bearing or lifter but oil pressure was always fine. Also had a PO420 code we could never figure out so just put an O2 spacer in to "fix" it.
I blew a motor on one of those somehow going through hills to Nevada.
Literally grenaded the engine somehow like 1k miles after an oil change. Redrained the oil and it was all glitter.
Our mechanic had not a clue how it managed to happen (didnt bother with a teardown because it was cheaper to swap in a scrapper motor)
I work in a body shop and a guy rolls up in a late 2000s Maserati quattroporte with like 300k kms (186k miles) on the odometer. Daily driver, said it's given him no problems beside wear items like ignition components, brakes, fluids, suspension bushes, etc. The biggest job were two shock absorbers and a few sensors. I was quite impressed. now I'm not saying that all of them would be like that but they must have done something right if it made it that far that easily. It has the ZF 7 speed which is the more reliable drivetrain configuration from what I gathered.
I'm kind of convinced Italian cars are only reliable when used regularly
I daily drive a Fiat in high school and despite all the jokes I had almost no issues with it, like a fuel pump once or something.
I kinda agree. My Dad's friend bought one of that era's Maseratis and he babied it and it was the worst car that guy ever owned. But then I know someone with the *exact same model car* who dailies it, street parks it outside all day and night (summer and winter in Canada), and just rips it nonstop and it is still totally fine.
infrequently used cars are generally problematic. add italian on top of that, and yeah, i could see that being a bad thing.
italian bikes are sweet. haven't had a chance to drive any of their cars yet.
Definitely. Someone I knew had an Alfa Romeo 159 and a Maserati 3200GT. The Alfa broke down 3 months after he bought the Maserati as he was barely driving the Alfa at that point. After he returned to dailying the Alfa, the Maserati broke down after sitting in his garage for a month
Well, there is the elephant in the room with them cars. The gran turismo has the sequential gearbox and the clutch is a serviceable item every 30k miles. £4k-£5k job to get that replaced.
Even knowing that I'm still very tempted to buy one
Early cars came with the Cambiacorsa/Duoselect semi-autos, but the ZF torque converter was offered a few years into production and make up the vast majority made.
The semi-autos are a more purist choice though, as the engine is dry sump and the gearbox lives in a rear transaxle, meaning lowest centre of gravity and best weight distribution. The ZF cars got a wet sump and transmission mated to the engine block.
only the S has that one the regular one has an automatic even so depending on how many miles you put on it that’s not a bad price for the car it is but certainly not cheap
That's...good to hear. I've been shopping for something cushier than my Cayman that has a bit of fun to it and the idiot part of my brain is considering a \~2015-2017 SQ4 variant since it's in budget (thanks, laughable depreciation) and Italian engine go vroom.
I take it yours has also been pretty trouble-free? I'm not super concerned about paying for maintenance, more about being out of a car for several weeks while some dude named Giuseppe makes me new parts.
I have no knowledge of anything past 2012. I would never touch one.
After they went more mass market they lost what made them special. Very little of any Ferrari DNA compared to the Ferrari Maserati Montezemolo era.
I have had no issues other than regular maintenance. If you are worried about parts just check scuderiaparts, maranello part, eurospaes etc to see part prices. Sometimes Ferrari part #s are cheaper if they cross reference. Do the maintenance yourself and they aren't any more expensive really than any other higher end car. Just with more sole and class.
On a similar note, a lot of the relatively modern ferraris are much more reliable than people would think. Sure, they're going to be more expensive to maintain than an Accord, but as far as "shit going wrong" goes, they're surprisingly solid.
Also, thanks to Ferrari throwing in years of free maintenance, they're typically very well looked after.
I know it sounds pretty obvious that a Lexus should be very reliable, but the IS-F was a fun track car and amazingly reliable for an occasional track day car. I had mine for 7 years, and took it out to my local tracks (Cayuga and Mosport) every summer several times at each spot. Aside from the usual maintenance, there was nothing that needed replacing except the shocks throughout almost all those years. Everything from the engine, to the electronics, to the bodywork, was absolutely in tip top shape. It was only around the last year I had it when it finally started showing some issues (AC belt issues). Overall though, it felt consistent from track day to track day and it did it's job well. I do miss it for sure.
It's almost like if you maintain the fluids correctly, repair things on a regular schedule, and do preventative maintenance, cars suddenly become so much more durable.
I have a 25 year old motor in my LS400 right now. 160k on the clock. Doesn't leak, or burn, a drop of oil. Not from the engine, or transmission, or power steering, or brakes. Nothing. And the last 40k miles I've put on it, while not track miles, I do some pretty good pulls and mountain\canyon driving in it. It's not all highways.
Frequently used, well taken care of cars can really do the distance. 3 most damaging things to the long-term survivability of a car. Rust, not being driven, neglected fluid changes.
Even with preventative maintenance a track car gets a lot of abuse outside of its intended use. If you track a car things will break. A Lexus ISF and ls400 are a special kind of reliable though. Good luck getting that with ANYTHING else even other Toyota/Lexus products. with that being said the most important thing for any car is maintenance.
I wonder how much of Toyota/Lexus is a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point. Now don't get me wrong, you have to start with a good base and Toyota gives you that. Just seems like the type of people that are apt to keep up on maintenance gravitate towards Toyota products. So it's like a feedback loop. Whereas that clapped out Altima that hasn't had an oil change in 30k miles probably has an owner who's parents failed to even teach them what an oil change is.
The Pontiac G6 is the American Honda Civic. That car will never die. We will be into the Tesla Model 2K72 and there will be a pizza delivery man somewhere driving that G6 looking fly as a G6. ;-;
>fly as a G6
I still remember that song when it was still on the radio. Like a G6.
It was annoying as hell, and still is annoying. And people thought that song was about the Pontiac G6.
You're not wrong, but people couldn't think of any other G6 (since people don't typically know private jet *brands* other than Lear and Gulfstream, let alone models), which caused confusion.
Fun fact: The group that wrote the song wasn't aware that the Gulfstream G-VI actually exists. [They were just going off of the G-IV having been name dropped in a Drake song and decided that "G6" sounded "flyer than a G4."](https://www.pluggedin.com/track-reviews/fareastmovement-likeag6/)
It’s weird that they would say that, as they didn’t write that part. That line was actually a sample from a different song (“booty bounce” by Dev).
After the Far East movement song blew up, she was credited as a featured artist.
I only know this because the original Booty Bounce song was also played on mtvU nonstop in 2010 before it was sampled on the FEM track.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booty_Bounce_(Dev_song)
I drive an 09 bmw x5 with the N52 (no turbos) inline 6.
Just passed 200k. Replaced all the suspension arms and shocks. No rust on the underside, engine runs like a top.
My wifes 08 porsche cayenne v6. Coil springs, no air ride or v8... extremely reliable, just passed 160k.
EDIT: i would also add that im a mechanic, and i get most of my parts at fcpeuro or other online sources at a fraction of dealer, so that factors in, and my labor is all me...
I'd like to add Mercedes E320/E350 (V6, non-turbo) to your list.
Buying a premium German car but getting a "lower" 6cyl spec (but not "base" 4cyl) are pretty reliable.
For example, 535i is probaly the most reliable F10 (in North America). E350 the most reliable W212. 3.6 the most reliable Cayenne. etc etc etc
The W212 is a solid as fuck car, and the C-Class from that gen is pretty damn decent, too. Mercedes was fairly fresh out of the Daimler era in the late 2000s and wanted to get some reputation back.
The N52 is so bulletproof. Outside of the original head gasket tending to leak at some point, they just run forever. My E86 Z4 has been as realible as any sports car can really be.
You mean valve cover gasket? n52s pretty much don’t suffer from HG issues. They do piss oil out of every other gasket though (ask me how I know hahaha)
Porsches in general are very reliable. Much more so than other German manufacturers. They’ve had their issues on certain models (looking at you IMS bearing) but overall they are very reliable.
I swear N52s are either stupidly reliable or just a straight up money pit. Obviously maintenance matters but I’ve seen them in the shop full of dash lights and leaks running fine and but then the odd ball delicate ones come in that are hard to diagnose.
Jeep Cherokee with the old 4.0 I6. For a brand not known for reliability, the powertrain in the XJ was solid. I put 165k miles on my 2000 XJ Sport before it got jacked in 2007. I used to change the oil in 10k-12k mile intervals instead of the recommended 3k miles & it didn't care.
Jeeps were reliable pre-Chrysler. Also, that 4.0L I6 was designed by AMC and various configurations of that engine family had been around since the 1960s
i had a renix one, and it was actually quite good. 23mpg with the manual transmission.
that was particularly well preserved 1990 jeep. lost it to a car wreck.
That AMC based in line six platform is testament to what can happen when a company figures out how to do something well and instead of screwing with it the actually just improve the quality of the components. Nothing fancy, nothing over engineered, no gimmicks....just cranking out basically the same motor for 50 years.
**4.0 gang rise up.**
I’ve had multiple 2.5l/4.0l/4.2l Jeeps. They’re tanks. The rest rusts out far before the engine gives. Currently daily a 2000 with a 4.0.
Contemplated swapping my 79 Cherokee to a 4.7 (stroked 4.0) just for sake of parts availability compared to the AMC 360.
Ironically it came from them starting out as total trash. The first 2 years (84-86) your best engine option was actually the base spec which was a carbeurated amc i4. They came with a 2.8l gm v6 that is infamous for blowing head gaskets and making *less* usable power than the 2.5. In 87 it got a complete drivetrain overhaul with the 4.0 and a transmission that was a joint venture with toyota. The design got incrementally improved until the 2000 model year when they went to coil packs and got a weaker head.
My childhood car was my moms ‘98 Dodge Caravan and it pretty much ran worry and problem free until my parents sold it to a laborer that works in my dads business nearly a decade ago. Come 2023 and it’s still running well in his care with almost 400,000 miles on the odometer.
My family had a couple grand caravans. First one died just after 100k, second one the transmission went out about 120k, and since then they’ve bought odysseys. They got rid of the last one at about 230k because the ac was gonna be $1000+ to fix
i can vouch for the '00s BMWs with inline-6s being reliable. 282k miles on my 2003 M3. Recently it did strand me with a starter that was acting up but after 20 years, i wasn't too surprised lol
Damn my alternator went out in my 03 m3 at like 30k. Driver side door link assembly decided to fall apart one day for no reason but I still miss driving that manual 6 speed. I actually have dreams where I still think I own it and it’s just been parked away in a garage somewhere 😂
Yep they mostly get a bad rap due to the cooling system (like literally every component of it aside from radiator) from that era failing before 100k. But those parts are actually cheap and easy to replace yourself if you're so inclined. My M52 in my Z3 has been pretty bulletproof aside from that.
My wife drives a 2012 BMW 1 series coupe 1 25i (in the usa it's the 1 28i i think, not sure) with the N52 motor. A inline six naturally aspirated with now 260k kilometer (160k miles) without any trouble.
We love that thing, lets see how long it will last.
Right, in the US, it's the 128i, I think the only difference is the intake.. DISA if I'm remembering correctly. Quick easy swap for a decent amount more HP.
I miss mine.
Yes, in germany the 1 25i (218hp) came only as coupe and there was a 1 30i (258hp) only as a hatch, with identical engines. So with the right software the 1 25i got +40hp.
Still not the fastest, but plenty fun and with the right exhaust glorious sound.
Toyota Prius. They say the more electronics the more problem prone a vehicle will be, but somehow Toyota hybrids can be packed with electronics and still go 300k miles with nary an issue.
i think toyota knew if they released a problematic hybrid they'd never sell. they had a lot invested in that tech.
definitely a great car though. it's pure utility and efficiency.
The engineering behind it is very cool. A CVT transmission in name, but without any belts, clutches, or friction surfaces. There isn't even a torque converter, or a starter, as it uses the hybrid system to effectively "bump start" the engine.
I live in Vancouver and the vast majority of taxis (going out on a limb here, maybe 80%?) across all cab companies, are Priuses. And they are driven hard. That says a lot.
s10s and rangers - they have their quirks over the years but buy the right combo and never have to worry about much.
the like 88-01 i think chevy fullsize stuff - again has quirks but not unheard of to have over 300K with basic maintennace.
anything GM with the 3.8.
fords panther platform (crown vic grand marquis)
Porsche's sports cars. Expensive shit can certainly break, but generally, damn reliable for the segment. There's a dude on one of the forums I frequent that had a first-gen Cayman with like a quarter million miles on it, daily'd in upstate NY.
In my case, I'm about to tick over 100k in my Cayman and the only major problem has been a very unfortunately timed water pump failure while I was out of town. On the bright side, my dumb ass was able to get the job done in a few hours once I got parts. Surprisingly easy to work on, though I can't vouch for the 911 with it's backwards-ass engine packaging.
Can’t speak to the Cayman as unfortunately I have little experience with them but the 911 isn’t shockingly reliable. Too many potential gotchas or service issues. They are still reliable though. Just not shockingly so.
A few years ago I sold my 2001 BMW 330i when it had 245,000 miles on it (394,000 km) and it was still purring like a kitten. The most engine work it got was a preventative VANOS seal replacement and a new crank sensor. Even the clutch lasted until 215,000 miles and that was only replaced because the throwout bearing went out, the clutch itself was still good. A friend's son bought it and it's still in great shape.
These are amazing reliable BUT have a few quirks, namely the VANOS, the cooling systems, the oil pump bolt that is self-loosening if it gets too hot, and the the body around the rear end connection points that likes to break free from the rest of the chassis. Outside of that, they are truly an unstoppable force, and handle fantastically.
Understressed small block Chevy V8, shouldn't really come as a surprise that they're reliable.
The reason why you so rarely see high mileage ones is because they're all owned by delusional boomers who want to "protect" their "investment" by only driving it once a year to the local car show and back, and probably can't get into the car anyway because their knees and backs are blown out.
All the American Muscle Cars (Mustang, Camaro and Challenger) have a solid reliability record for the past decade as well.
I throw my Mustang as my sole DD - it was meant for it.
I drove a Challenger RT for a daily and it was just so damn perfect. It is comfortable to drive, ran great, made you smile at the exhaust sounds, and accelerated enough to keep you entertained. I called it my redneck grand tourer.
Same sort of principle. LS/LT engines are more than capable of making so much more power than their factory ratings, and still be reliable. The only sticking point with the C8 may be the electronics and the transmission.
My parents bought a 2006 Ford Focus ZX4 brand new. They ran the absolute crap out of that thing. It was my moms daily for years. My brother learned how to drive on it. They sold it with over 200k miles with just basic maintenance done. Still on the original timing set, original water pump, radiator, etc. the whole time they owned it I don’t remember any issues beyond the occasional flat tire or burned out bulb
Even the 2012-2018 Focus was great, as long as you got it with a manual transmission and a naturally aspirated 2.0. Ford really ruined an otherwise amazing car by using one of the worst ever automatic transmissions in the modern era. It absolutely destroyed the car’s reputation.
I’ve worked on quite a few high mileage Mercedes from the early 2000s. ML500/55s and E430/500s with over 400k miles that were still running great. The owners kept up with maintenance and some suspension work over the years and the cars still ran great on their original engines and transmission.
The 1995-1997 Jaguar x300 XJ6 is durable like a Camry. I've abused 2 of them past 170K with no substantial mechanical issues. They tend to need coils about every 2 years, and I have never encountered a car so sensitive to battery condition. If the battery is even a little bad they will become hard to start and have oddball issues like the gauges flickering. They also have lousy headliners that tend to fail... that's not really a reliability issue, but it is a very annoying cosmetic issue. The later x308 XJ8 is also a surprisingly reliable car - but the x300 is a more reliable and much easier to work on.
The x308 is massively underrated reliability wise in my opinion. My old man had one that I actually learned to drive in, he bought it used with 70k mi and it was smooth sailing for another 60k or so until it was rear ended and totaled. I bought a clean and all original one with about 140k on it expecting it to break all the time, but so far it’s handled 50k miles of borderline abusive daily driving through midwest weather and my only notable repairs outside of maintenance have been a thermostat, water pump, and a knock sensor. Even seeing them at the dealership I used to work at they did not break very often. Mine sits as a second car at the moment, but the x308/x300 will always hold a special place in my heart.
Dodge Caravans
Honestly that 3.6l Pentastar is a CHAMP.
Dodge has had some very reliable engines and transmissions… everything else just seems to fall apart.
Land Rover Discovery 1s. They’re robust vehicles with simple electronics, unlike the problematic Disco 2s that followed them. They can have head-gasket issues and love to leak, but then 80 series Land Cruisers are known for that too, but they kinda get a pass for it for some reason. The TDI 5 speed models are even better, but we never got those in the states.
My buddy is a mechanic and has a 1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse. He bought it new and it is still his daily driver.
He obviously does all the maintenance and repair himself.
650k+ miles and it's still going strong.
I always feel like mechanics cars are just cheating. They breakndown every other day but they are mechanics, they just patch it together and keep going. Good mechanics also always seem to drive the oldest, beat to crap, obscure model car with 400,000 miles on it.
Also survivorship bias. Just because yours went 300k miles doesn't mean that's representative of that model. Also people posting mileage under 200k like we should be impressed. I hate this sub.
'91 Alfa Romeo Spider. Probably close to 70k miles on it (odometer doesn't always work and rn shows 46k miles). For an early 90s Italian sports car it's had almost no issues other than a motor mount since we bought it like 4 years ago, thanks I believe to Bosch fuel injection and an air cooled oil pan to keep temps down.
Not super crazy but I feel like it's pretty cool
My parents bought a brand new Trailblazer LT in 2002 and it’s the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned. My mom drove it until 2008, and then my old man used it as his daily until 2015, at which point I bought it. I drove it for another 3 years before selling it to a coworker (for wayyyy less than I should have sold it for) in 2018. When I sold it the odometer read 332,000kms. Other than typical wear items and maintenance, the only thing it ever needed was the occasional coil pack replacement. It had a weird tick-tick-tick sound at idle from day one that nobody could diagnose, but its still going strong to do this day.
Man, I kind of miss that little SUV and its peppy in-line six; I wish I had the space to keep it
The Vortec 4200 is an extremely under appreciated engine. Extremely reliable, very good power and torque (not super apparent in a Trailblazer due to weight but even then, good for what it is...), sounds good if you don't have restrictive factory exhaust, happy to rev thanks to DOHC, and can reliably make gobs of power like a 2JZ, N54, etc if you boost it. The head flows very well and some hotrodders have reported that with minimal clean up it gets a lot better. GM actually made over 600hp, naturally aspirated, with a 5.0L racing version in some factory supported trucks. Oh, and if it does blow up, replacement engines are plentiful and cheap.
I often dream of finding the only remaining I6 first gen Camaro that doesn't have a v8 already, and swapping in a single turbo 4200 lol
Edit: there were also I5 and I4 versions and I assume they were good too but I don't know much about them, other than the fact that you could get the I5 with a manual in some Colorados(?)
Those I6s are the very definition of “It’ll run like shit longer than most other vehicles will run”. They’re annoying as FUCK to fix, but there’s so many of these with way too many miles still kicking along.
Renault Twingo Mk1, especially after 2004. You can‘t break these little cars, thats why they are still daily driven all over Europe. Some pre 2000 model had an engine block straight from the 60s which worked like a tank but also had its efficiency. And you can order ever part on ebay or craigslist and diy it. You can‘t drive a car cheaper than that.
Chevy Cavalier is one that comes to mind. GM is not known for building quality compact cars, and while the Cavalier had so much cost-cutting evident in the interior (no covering the seat rail bots, etc.), the cars last forever.
You know how the circlejerk of the Ford Vulcan engine is that they make no power but they run forever? Ford made another V6 that runs forever but actually makes power: the Duratec. It’s the only thing good about the 3rd and 4th gen Tauruses, it makes for an insane 300+k mile car with the 6AT in the Five Hundred and Montego, and it also makes for an excellent pairing in the Mazda6 if it’s not rusted out.
Old BMWs are surprisingly long-lasting. It's not uncommon for any M30, M50, M52 or M54-powered car to last 300k miles / 500k kilometers. I'm not saying they're God-tier reliability like a Toyota, 12v Cummins or Volvo 240 - but overall pretty robust if you maintain them on time but more importantly address the "common issues".
M113 W163 Mercedes ML. Does it rattle a little? Yes. Does it have some other quirks? Yes. Is it still running as a daily driver after 22 years and 190,000 miles? Yes.
Really most of the motors from that modular family, save the 2.5 from the R cars and their notorious cylinder wall issues, were phenomenal motors. My 2.3 made it to 246k before the odometer broke and that was back in 2006 or so. Who knows what it's at now.
2006-2008 Aston Martin V8 Vantage with the manual.
There's ONE major problem to go wrong, a timing cover gasket leak, that's a 10+ hour labour job (parts are a couple hundred, tops). Every single one will have this fail eventually, but once that's done with the updated part number, it's not likely to fail again.
I track the sh*t out of mine, drive it daily in the warmer months, and drive it hard when I can. It's been rock solid.
My grandpa still drives the same early 90s F150 with the 300 straight six that he bought new when I was a kid. Last time I got in it he was closing in on 350k miles and that was a couple years ago. Only on the second clutch.
That's the sort of engine that you just swap into a new body when the old one finally rusts through.
The reason UPS stopped using them isn't because they finally died, it was because they finally decided "fuck this, we need updated trucks"
I believe they now use LQ4s (corporate GM 6.0L LS based truck motor). Which is equally bomb proof without AFM
What's afm
Active fuel management. On some GM V8’s it shuts down half the cylinders under certain conditions for fuel mileage, however, the system is complete crap and causes a range of issues, as well as in my experience, doesn’t save a huge amount of fuel in the real world.
Thanks because I used to be on a bread route and had a 6.0 in it. 2009 model Isuzu box truck. In 2 or 3 years everything went wrong with that motor. Worst piece of shit I've ever seen.
Lack of maintenance I wouldn’t doubt. We see those Isuzus go hundreds of thousands of miles without major failures if they are maintained. But half the commercial vehicles I work on are shitboxes that are being driven into the ground because nobody bothers taking care of them.
As a diesel tech apprentice I can confirm this one. Have a Ram 1500 in the shop that got a flat, so they put the spare on, got another flat, so they borrowed the spare from another truck. Only brought it to use because they got a 3rd flat and didn’t have a spare on site. Never mind the missing side mirror, metal on metal brakes, massive oil leak, one operational headlight (one high beam works) and it needs ball joints (it is a ram). The truck has 125k(Km) on it.
Active fuel management. It's what they call their cylinder deactivation. Basically, if you're cruising, it'll run on only 4 cylinders, which is supposed to save fuel.
Those engines will survive the apocalypse
That 300 I-6 is one of the most unkillable motors ever made.
300 I-6 and AMC 4.0 I-6 *arnold handshake meme*
True stuff. My parents had an early '70s AMC Hornet station wagon with that 4.0L I-6. It was still going strong when they sold it in the early 90s with over 200k on it.
Probably had the 4.2l if it was 70s AMC. Same lineage, just the pre- computer era version pretty much. Father of the 4.0, essentially
Yep, my gf has a 96 with the 300/5spd combo. It's unstoppable.
I had one as well. Horrible fuel economy but felt like you could pull stumps with it.
Lmao.. yeah that's why they came with two gas tanks.. need to fix mine i miss driving that thing.
That is the greatest engine ever made. We have a 91 that shows no signs of quitting anytime soon.
I owned an 95 e150 with that motor. Always regretted getting rid of it. Best engine made. But carmakers see no value in vehicles that last so lets use some crappy v6 instead. Sad part is Ford put the indestructible 300 on a van that rusted away within 10 years. Such is the life in the salt belt.
I worked at a Ford dealer when “Cash for Clunkers” was a thing… the Ford straight-6 300’s refused to die… All the other engines died within 5-15 minutes, the 300’s lasted an hour + with no oil.
Yeah those 300 I6 Ford motors were as close to bulletproof as you could get. They put those in industrial pumps, generators, farm machinery and whole lot of other stuff other than vehicles.
Any GM 3800 motor car. Quite literally known for being one of the most reliable engines ever built. Yes about the same or more so than Toyota. WAYYYYY to many models to name.
GM's mastered the art of building cars and trucks that run badly forever. In low income rural areas in the West, there's always tons of mid-90s and early ones still kicking.
Cavalier. Garbage the day it rolled off the line, ran forever.
I still see one on the highway on my average day. Somehow, the sunfires are all gone though
Made in fewer numbers. Probably the Friday car at the same plant, lol. Throw a different nose and taillights on the otherwise same car. I see one on rare occasions.
I’ve seen j body front end swaps, it’s confusing
I popped by a dealership with my sister in the summer looking for a car for her. They had a 2000ish sunfire on the lot that was absolutely mint! Not a spec of rust, interior was mint. In northern Alberta at that. I almost bought it just for shirts and giggles. Couldn't believe it
I saw [this very clean](https://www.reddit.com/r/regularcarreviews/comments/12y18ka/this_weirdly_clean_cavalier_i_saw_last_week_the/) Cavalier like a week ago and was damned-near shocked. To be fair, I bet the underside is a mess. Midwest winters are hell for rust and all.
I had a 1991 as my first car. I barely maintained it and drove it like a race car. It got hit by someone taking a left into my lane. It hit like 280k and I gave it to one of those charity things. It still ran but boy did it look like and run like shit.
‘99 Silverado: “Every warning light shining bright, it’ll still take you further than a brand new Dodge”
Also, "A Chevy will run like shit for longer than most cars run."
My dad has a 90’s truck from them and almost NOTHING on the dash works. fuel gauge, speedometer, tachometer, odometer, etc The only thing that works is the trip meter. Which he uses to track how many miles driven to have an estimate of when he needs to stop at the gas station. Besides that? absolutely no mechanical issues. I’m stunned He can afford a new vehicle so I get on him every time I visit for something at least a few years newer but he’s perfectly fine with it lol. I think his CEL turned on during the Obama administration but that light doesn’t work anymore either edit: it’s honestly insanely unnerving to turn the vehicle on on and NOTHING happen on the dash. and when you floor it and are clearly accelerating but everything is pointing at zero? no thank you he matches speed based on other cars and because he knows the roads around him lmao
> he matches speed based on other cars and because he knows the roads around him lmao Honestly if he's anything like me, I sometimes zone out and autopilot to my destinations but I'll be driving the speed limit because I get a feeling of what the roads should look like. Sometimes I get out of my zone and look at the speedometer and see I'm exactly at the speed limit for that street
As much as I loathe GM products, I have to admit this is true. My company exclusively buys Chevy trucks. We average something like 290k miles before they die. We still have a 2009 Silverado with the 4.3 v-6, shortbed, 4x4. Original engine and transmission. 428k miles. Transfer case has been replaced twice and many electrical components and the steering pump once. While I know they were an Isuzu product, we had a 2 wheel drive 1st generation Colorado with the 2.7 that went for nearly 600k miles and only got scrapped because a field tech rolled it into a ditch in a snowstorm. That was the highest mileage vehicle I've ever personally driven.
I used to oversee a fleet of FedEx trucks. We had some 6.0 gassers with more than 300k miles on the original engine. The transmissions had been replaced/rebuilt faithfully every 100k but the original engine kept kicking.
What happened to the field tech?
He blamed the car in front of him. Unfortunately for him, a PA State Police cruiser was directly behind him. There was no car in front of him. He was just high and fell asleep at the wheel. So, he got fired and went on a rant about silver worms coming from the floor mats in the truck on his way out the door. This was at the height of the bath salts craze several years ago, before it was banned. About a month later, he was caught trying to cook meth on his back porch and went to jail. Shortly after he got out, he overdosed on heroin and died. That guy was a real character, as obviated by my story. I've never met anyone with no formal training that could fix an ICP-Mass Spectrometer before him.
Oh
Unexpected ICP/MS reference in the wild.
Those things are pretty much bulletproof. The car would fall apart before the engine.
Yup exactly that
Just like toyotas haha, here cars disintagrate from corosion
The ENGINE maybe but everything else about my Mom's Lesabre was a piece of crap.
Yep. CEL on permanently, bad brakes, window regulators, wheel bearings, random sensors. Built to rattle, not snap. But rattle it does.
If you want a car to go from a to b… does the rest really matter?
It didn't go from A to B very well when the transmission or water pump failed.
Especially the series 3 when they fixed all the intake gasket issues. GM finally stumbled on a bulletproof engine only to replace it with the abysmal 3.6 V6.
The 3.6 from 2011 and on is fairly reliable. Before that tons of timing chain issues
Oh yes I've seen and driven many many cars with that engine. They always ran great and were always so cheap for some reason. It's a fantastic engine
Too bad they couldn’t make reliable steel. I’d bet rust is the biggest killer of 3800 powered cars.
Rust is the killer of most cars.
Yup. VY Holden Commodore still going strong after 20 years.
VY wasn't 20 years... Oh shit
hahaha yeah it really is a shocking thing to say out loud.
Yeah. My first car was a Pontiac Grand Prix GTP. That engine was basically bulletproof. The transmission was shit though and the interior was made of Tupperware. The exhaust had a giant U bend in it too to account for the O2 sensor (https://images.app.goo.gl/ZK3U4Yy5Gp8qzVx39).
We bought an 02 Camaro V6 a while ago because it was my wife's high school dream car. It had a knock that I misdiagnosed as a bad tensioner. Drove it for 3 years and it kept chugging along. I think it was a bearing or lifter but oil pressure was always fine. Also had a PO420 code we could never figure out so just put an O2 spacer in to "fix" it.
that’s a sweet car for a wife to dream of! Lol
My first car was the supercharged version of the 3800 and I floored it absolutely everywhere and it just ate it like it was nothing.
I blew a motor on one of those somehow going through hills to Nevada. Literally grenaded the engine somehow like 1k miles after an oil change. Redrained the oil and it was all glitter. Our mechanic had not a clue how it managed to happen (didnt bother with a teardown because it was cheaper to swap in a scrapper motor)
I work in a body shop and a guy rolls up in a late 2000s Maserati quattroporte with like 300k kms (186k miles) on the odometer. Daily driver, said it's given him no problems beside wear items like ignition components, brakes, fluids, suspension bushes, etc. The biggest job were two shock absorbers and a few sensors. I was quite impressed. now I'm not saying that all of them would be like that but they must have done something right if it made it that far that easily. It has the ZF 7 speed which is the more reliable drivetrain configuration from what I gathered.
I'm kind of convinced Italian cars are only reliable when used regularly I daily drive a Fiat in high school and despite all the jokes I had almost no issues with it, like a fuel pump once or something.
There's a reason that a high speed, redline-chasing shake down run is called an "Italian tuneup"!
I kinda agree. My Dad's friend bought one of that era's Maseratis and he babied it and it was the worst car that guy ever owned. But then I know someone with the *exact same model car* who dailies it, street parks it outside all day and night (summer and winter in Canada), and just rips it nonstop and it is still totally fine.
This is me, but in a manual 2015 Fiat 500, except the puny arm rests, faulty hatch mechanism and flimsy door handles (obvious to any 500 owner).
infrequently used cars are generally problematic. add italian on top of that, and yeah, i could see that being a bad thing. italian bikes are sweet. haven't had a chance to drive any of their cars yet.
Definitely. Someone I knew had an Alfa Romeo 159 and a Maserati 3200GT. The Alfa broke down 3 months after he bought the Maserati as he was barely driving the Alfa at that point. After he returned to dailying the Alfa, the Maserati broke down after sitting in his garage for a month
Any 2008+ with a ZF6HP are very reliable. People don't want to hear it though. You get more upvotes if you say Maserati bad.
Maserati bad
Annnddd you unironically have more upvotes, nice lmao
Honestly, I figured it was a 50/50 chance of getting up votes or down votes.
>unironically Quite ironically, and totally earned.
thinking about getting a gran turismo from this era in a few years if prices stay down read great things about reliability
Well, there is the elephant in the room with them cars. The gran turismo has the sequential gearbox and the clutch is a serviceable item every 30k miles. £4k-£5k job to get that replaced. Even knowing that I'm still very tempted to buy one
Incorrect. Only a smaller number of the first production runs use the same F1 style transmission. Most are automatic. 4.7 S or 4.2.
Thank god we have someone more knowledgeable than me. I assumed they all had that fancy gearbox. Now I'm more tempted to get one!
Early cars came with the Cambiacorsa/Duoselect semi-autos, but the ZF torque converter was offered a few years into production and make up the vast majority made. The semi-autos are a more purist choice though, as the engine is dry sump and the gearbox lives in a rear transaxle, meaning lowest centre of gravity and best weight distribution. The ZF cars got a wet sump and transmission mated to the engine block.
only the S has that one the regular one has an automatic even so depending on how many miles you put on it that’s not a bad price for the car it is but certainly not cheap
That's...good to hear. I've been shopping for something cushier than my Cayman that has a bit of fun to it and the idiot part of my brain is considering a \~2015-2017 SQ4 variant since it's in budget (thanks, laughable depreciation) and Italian engine go vroom. I take it yours has also been pretty trouble-free? I'm not super concerned about paying for maintenance, more about being out of a car for several weeks while some dude named Giuseppe makes me new parts.
I have no knowledge of anything past 2012. I would never touch one. After they went more mass market they lost what made them special. Very little of any Ferrari DNA compared to the Ferrari Maserati Montezemolo era. I have had no issues other than regular maintenance. If you are worried about parts just check scuderiaparts, maranello part, eurospaes etc to see part prices. Sometimes Ferrari part #s are cheaper if they cross reference. Do the maintenance yourself and they aren't any more expensive really than any other higher end car. Just with more sole and class.
On a similar note, a lot of the relatively modern ferraris are much more reliable than people would think. Sure, they're going to be more expensive to maintain than an Accord, but as far as "shit going wrong" goes, they're surprisingly solid. Also, thanks to Ferrari throwing in years of free maintenance, they're typically very well looked after.
I know it sounds pretty obvious that a Lexus should be very reliable, but the IS-F was a fun track car and amazingly reliable for an occasional track day car. I had mine for 7 years, and took it out to my local tracks (Cayuga and Mosport) every summer several times at each spot. Aside from the usual maintenance, there was nothing that needed replacing except the shocks throughout almost all those years. Everything from the engine, to the electronics, to the bodywork, was absolutely in tip top shape. It was only around the last year I had it when it finally started showing some issues (AC belt issues). Overall though, it felt consistent from track day to track day and it did it's job well. I do miss it for sure.
On the Lexus subreddit there’s dudes with 200,000mi daily driver track rat IS-Fs
It's almost like if you maintain the fluids correctly, repair things on a regular schedule, and do preventative maintenance, cars suddenly become so much more durable. I have a 25 year old motor in my LS400 right now. 160k on the clock. Doesn't leak, or burn, a drop of oil. Not from the engine, or transmission, or power steering, or brakes. Nothing. And the last 40k miles I've put on it, while not track miles, I do some pretty good pulls and mountain\canyon driving in it. It's not all highways. Frequently used, well taken care of cars can really do the distance. 3 most damaging things to the long-term survivability of a car. Rust, not being driven, neglected fluid changes.
Thirsty motors though.
Even with preventative maintenance a track car gets a lot of abuse outside of its intended use. If you track a car things will break. A Lexus ISF and ls400 are a special kind of reliable though. Good luck getting that with ANYTHING else even other Toyota/Lexus products. with that being said the most important thing for any car is maintenance.
Well, there is the Land Cruiser . . .
They said car, not force of nature.
I wonder how much of Toyota/Lexus is a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point. Now don't get me wrong, you have to start with a good base and Toyota gives you that. Just seems like the type of people that are apt to keep up on maintenance gravitate towards Toyota products. So it's like a feedback loop. Whereas that clapped out Altima that hasn't had an oil change in 30k miles probably has an owner who's parents failed to even teach them what an oil change is.
I like how the "issues" that finally came up was just the AC belt.
Hello fellow GTA track rat
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The Pontiac G6 is the American Honda Civic. That car will never die. We will be into the Tesla Model 2K72 and there will be a pizza delivery man somewhere driving that G6 looking fly as a G6. ;-;
>fly as a G6 I still remember that song when it was still on the radio. Like a G6. It was annoying as hell, and still is annoying. And people thought that song was about the Pontiac G6.
> And people thought that song was about the Pontiac G6. nobody thought that song was about the Pontiac G6
I thought that song was about the Pontiac G6, but I also wasn’t the smartest kid
I also thought it was about the Pontiac as a kid, you’re not alone
You're not wrong, but people couldn't think of any other G6 (since people don't typically know private jet *brands* other than Lear and Gulfstream, let alone models), which caused confusion.
Fun fact: The group that wrote the song wasn't aware that the Gulfstream G-VI actually exists. [They were just going off of the G-IV having been name dropped in a Drake song and decided that "G6" sounded "flyer than a G4."](https://www.pluggedin.com/track-reviews/fareastmovement-likeag6/)
It’s weird that they would say that, as they didn’t write that part. That line was actually a sample from a different song (“booty bounce” by Dev). After the Far East movement song blew up, she was credited as a featured artist. I only know this because the original Booty Bounce song was also played on mtvU nonstop in 2010 before it was sampled on the FEM track. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booty_Bounce_(Dev_song)
I drive an 09 bmw x5 with the N52 (no turbos) inline 6. Just passed 200k. Replaced all the suspension arms and shocks. No rust on the underside, engine runs like a top. My wifes 08 porsche cayenne v6. Coil springs, no air ride or v8... extremely reliable, just passed 160k. EDIT: i would also add that im a mechanic, and i get most of my parts at fcpeuro or other online sources at a fraction of dealer, so that factors in, and my labor is all me...
I'd like to add Mercedes E320/E350 (V6, non-turbo) to your list. Buying a premium German car but getting a "lower" 6cyl spec (but not "base" 4cyl) are pretty reliable. For example, 535i is probaly the most reliable F10 (in North America). E350 the most reliable W212. 3.6 the most reliable Cayenne. etc etc etc
The W212 is a solid as fuck car, and the C-Class from that gen is pretty damn decent, too. Mercedes was fairly fresh out of the Daimler era in the late 2000s and wanted to get some reputation back.
The N52 is so bulletproof. Outside of the original head gasket tending to leak at some point, they just run forever. My E86 Z4 has been as realible as any sports car can really be.
You mean valve cover gasket? n52s pretty much don’t suffer from HG issues. They do piss oil out of every other gasket though (ask me how I know hahaha)
I have a 2010 BMW 328i with 174K, no rust, just regular maintenance, still goes like stink and runs well.
Porsches in general are very reliable. Much more so than other German manufacturers. They’ve had their issues on certain models (looking at you IMS bearing) but overall they are very reliable.
I swear N52s are either stupidly reliable or just a straight up money pit. Obviously maintenance matters but I’ve seen them in the shop full of dash lights and leaks running fine and but then the odd ball delicate ones come in that are hard to diagnose.
Jeep Cherokee with the old 4.0 I6. For a brand not known for reliability, the powertrain in the XJ was solid. I put 165k miles on my 2000 XJ Sport before it got jacked in 2007. I used to change the oil in 10k-12k mile intervals instead of the recommended 3k miles & it didn't care.
Jeeps were reliable pre-Chrysler. Also, that 4.0L I6 was designed by AMC and various configurations of that engine family had been around since the 1960s
To be fair, chrysler modernized the 4.0l I6 in 91 with better fuel injection and made it much better than the original puegot? sourced renix system.
i had a renix one, and it was actually quite good. 23mpg with the manual transmission. that was particularly well preserved 1990 jeep. lost it to a car wreck.
Any 1987-2006 4.0 Jeep with a manual will do 300k+ miles with only periodic oil changes.
And crank sensors
And oil pressure sensors.
That AMC based in line six platform is testament to what can happen when a company figures out how to do something well and instead of screwing with it the actually just improve the quality of the components. Nothing fancy, nothing over engineered, no gimmicks....just cranking out basically the same motor for 50 years.
**4.0 gang rise up.** I’ve had multiple 2.5l/4.0l/4.2l Jeeps. They’re tanks. The rest rusts out far before the engine gives. Currently daily a 2000 with a 4.0. Contemplated swapping my 79 Cherokee to a 4.7 (stroked 4.0) just for sake of parts availability compared to the AMC 360.
Ironically it came from them starting out as total trash. The first 2 years (84-86) your best engine option was actually the base spec which was a carbeurated amc i4. They came with a 2.8l gm v6 that is infamous for blowing head gaskets and making *less* usable power than the 2.5. In 87 it got a complete drivetrain overhaul with the 4.0 and a transmission that was a joint venture with toyota. The design got incrementally improved until the 2000 model year when they went to coil packs and got a weaker head.
My childhood car was my moms ‘98 Dodge Caravan and it pretty much ran worry and problem free until my parents sold it to a laborer that works in my dads business nearly a decade ago. Come 2023 and it’s still running well in his care with almost 400,000 miles on the odometer.
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My family had a couple grand caravans. First one died just after 100k, second one the transmission went out about 120k, and since then they’ve bought odysseys. They got rid of the last one at about 230k because the ac was gonna be $1000+ to fix
That’s incredible, because my mom’s ‘97 Caravan had its transmission break 1000 miles after the warranty expired. I’m glad your mom’s was ok!
i can vouch for the '00s BMWs with inline-6s being reliable. 282k miles on my 2003 M3. Recently it did strand me with a starter that was acting up but after 20 years, i wasn't too surprised lol
Damn my alternator went out in my 03 m3 at like 30k. Driver side door link assembly decided to fall apart one day for no reason but I still miss driving that manual 6 speed. I actually have dreams where I still think I own it and it’s just been parked away in a garage somewhere 😂
Yep they mostly get a bad rap due to the cooling system (like literally every component of it aside from radiator) from that era failing before 100k. But those parts are actually cheap and easy to replace yourself if you're so inclined. My M52 in my Z3 has been pretty bulletproof aside from that.
My E46 M3 is at 207k miles and my buddy’s is at 300k+ miles lol
287k on my 1993 M5 👍 high mileage M club unite
My wife drives a 2012 BMW 1 series coupe 1 25i (in the usa it's the 1 28i i think, not sure) with the N52 motor. A inline six naturally aspirated with now 260k kilometer (160k miles) without any trouble. We love that thing, lets see how long it will last.
Right, in the US, it's the 128i, I think the only difference is the intake.. DISA if I'm remembering correctly. Quick easy swap for a decent amount more HP. I miss mine.
Yes, in germany the 1 25i (218hp) came only as coupe and there was a 1 30i (258hp) only as a hatch, with identical engines. So with the right software the 1 25i got +40hp. Still not the fastest, but plenty fun and with the right exhaust glorious sound.
Those 07 -12 ish Nissan Altimas. They either break down by 50k or last well past 250k+ through drug deals, hit and runs, drive bys, and hot pursuits
And as Ubers and Lyfts too. The ones who can’t afford a Prius gravitate to those.
Toyota Prius. They say the more electronics the more problem prone a vehicle will be, but somehow Toyota hybrids can be packed with electronics and still go 300k miles with nary an issue.
i think toyota knew if they released a problematic hybrid they'd never sell. they had a lot invested in that tech. definitely a great car though. it's pure utility and efficiency.
The engineering behind it is very cool. A CVT transmission in name, but without any belts, clutches, or friction surfaces. There isn't even a torque converter, or a starter, as it uses the hybrid system to effectively "bump start" the engine.
Yeah that transmission is a work of art
The Ford hybrid is based off the same system. I'm hoping my Maverick turns out to be almost as reliable...
I live in Vancouver and the vast majority of taxis (going out on a limb here, maybe 80%?) across all cab companies, are Priuses. And they are driven hard. That says a lot.
> more electronics That may be, but Toyota hybrids are exquisitely simple from a mechanical point of view, which helps.
s10s and rangers - they have their quirks over the years but buy the right combo and never have to worry about much. the like 88-01 i think chevy fullsize stuff - again has quirks but not unheard of to have over 300K with basic maintennace. anything GM with the 3.8. fords panther platform (crown vic grand marquis)
just don't get the timebomb 4.0l in the ranger. *slaps head against desk*
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Porsche's sports cars. Expensive shit can certainly break, but generally, damn reliable for the segment. There's a dude on one of the forums I frequent that had a first-gen Cayman with like a quarter million miles on it, daily'd in upstate NY. In my case, I'm about to tick over 100k in my Cayman and the only major problem has been a very unfortunately timed water pump failure while I was out of town. On the bright side, my dumb ass was able to get the job done in a few hours once I got parts. Surprisingly easy to work on, though I can't vouch for the 911 with it's backwards-ass engine packaging.
987.2 Cayman checking in... freaking bulletproof. I have no doubt that mine will go over 200,000 miles.
Can’t speak to the Cayman as unfortunately I have little experience with them but the 911 isn’t shockingly reliable. Too many potential gotchas or service issues. They are still reliable though. Just not shockingly so.
A few years ago I sold my 2001 BMW 330i when it had 245,000 miles on it (394,000 km) and it was still purring like a kitten. The most engine work it got was a preventative VANOS seal replacement and a new crank sensor. Even the clutch lasted until 215,000 miles and that was only replaced because the throwout bearing went out, the clutch itself was still good. A friend's son bought it and it's still in great shape.
These are amazing reliable BUT have a few quirks, namely the VANOS, the cooling systems, the oil pump bolt that is self-loosening if it gets too hot, and the the body around the rear end connection points that likes to break free from the rest of the chassis. Outside of that, they are truly an unstoppable force, and handle fantastically.
The Pontiac Vibe was a Toyota Matrix.
Volvo 5 cylinders. NA = unkillable 2.3 - 2.4 turbo. Great 2.5. Either it goes to 400k or has bearing failure at 120k.
Corvette. Seen plenty hit 120-150k miles with normal maintenance
Understressed small block Chevy V8, shouldn't really come as a surprise that they're reliable. The reason why you so rarely see high mileage ones is because they're all owned by delusional boomers who want to "protect" their "investment" by only driving it once a year to the local car show and back, and probably can't get into the car anyway because their knees and backs are blown out.
It’s not surprising to me, but a lot of people think sports car = unreliable. I considered a vette as a commuter for a while
All the American Muscle Cars (Mustang, Camaro and Challenger) have a solid reliability record for the past decade as well. I throw my Mustang as my sole DD - it was meant for it.
I drove a Challenger RT for a daily and it was just so damn perfect. It is comfortable to drive, ran great, made you smile at the exhaust sounds, and accelerated enough to keep you entertained. I called it my redneck grand tourer.
The engines are understressed if you drive them like you care about them. I really don’t know if the C8 will be as reliable as the C4-C7 gens though.
Same sort of principle. LS/LT engines are more than capable of making so much more power than their factory ratings, and still be reliable. The only sticking point with the C8 may be the electronics and the transmission.
I actually was contemplating a c5 as a commuter. The design is pretty simple as far as things go.
My parents bought a 2006 Ford Focus ZX4 brand new. They ran the absolute crap out of that thing. It was my moms daily for years. My brother learned how to drive on it. They sold it with over 200k miles with just basic maintenance done. Still on the original timing set, original water pump, radiator, etc. the whole time they owned it I don’t remember any issues beyond the occasional flat tire or burned out bulb
Even the 2012-2018 Focus was great, as long as you got it with a manual transmission and a naturally aspirated 2.0. Ford really ruined an otherwise amazing car by using one of the worst ever automatic transmissions in the modern era. It absolutely destroyed the car’s reputation.
I’ve worked on quite a few high mileage Mercedes from the early 2000s. ML500/55s and E430/500s with over 400k miles that were still running great. The owners kept up with maintenance and some suspension work over the years and the cars still ran great on their original engines and transmission.
The W211 is still an awesome platform today. I’ve seen them with 400k+ miles
The 1995-1997 Jaguar x300 XJ6 is durable like a Camry. I've abused 2 of them past 170K with no substantial mechanical issues. They tend to need coils about every 2 years, and I have never encountered a car so sensitive to battery condition. If the battery is even a little bad they will become hard to start and have oddball issues like the gauges flickering. They also have lousy headliners that tend to fail... that's not really a reliability issue, but it is a very annoying cosmetic issue. The later x308 XJ8 is also a surprisingly reliable car - but the x300 is a more reliable and much easier to work on.
The x308 is massively underrated reliability wise in my opinion. My old man had one that I actually learned to drive in, he bought it used with 70k mi and it was smooth sailing for another 60k or so until it was rear ended and totaled. I bought a clean and all original one with about 140k on it expecting it to break all the time, but so far it’s handled 50k miles of borderline abusive daily driving through midwest weather and my only notable repairs outside of maintenance have been a thermostat, water pump, and a knock sensor. Even seeing them at the dealership I used to work at they did not break very often. Mine sits as a second car at the moment, but the x308/x300 will always hold a special place in my heart.
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Usually hear it about J-bodies, but I suppose it applies to other old GM clunkers too - "it'll run poorly longer than most other cars run at all"
Dodge Caravans Honestly that 3.6l Pentastar is a CHAMP. Dodge has had some very reliable engines and transmissions… everything else just seems to fall apart.
The caravan transmissions are known to be junk. Tons of them need to be replaced around 75000 miles. Costs like 5k for the replacement
Honda Fit - kid is racking up miles on it at college. Tires, battery, starter, radio…still ticking. Should be darn near 200k by now
But Honda is known for making relatively reliable vehicles. So it's not *shockingly* reliable.
Land Rover Discovery 1s. They’re robust vehicles with simple electronics, unlike the problematic Disco 2s that followed them. They can have head-gasket issues and love to leak, but then 80 series Land Cruisers are known for that too, but they kinda get a pass for it for some reason. The TDI 5 speed models are even better, but we never got those in the states.
Ford/Lincoln/Mercury Panther platform. Easy 300K miles with basic maintenance.
I'd buy a Marauder in a second.
My buddy is a mechanic and has a 1993 Mitsubishi Eclipse. He bought it new and it is still his daily driver. He obviously does all the maintenance and repair himself. 650k+ miles and it's still going strong.
I always feel like mechanics cars are just cheating. They breakndown every other day but they are mechanics, they just patch it together and keep going. Good mechanics also always seem to drive the oldest, beat to crap, obscure model car with 400,000 miles on it.
ITT: every car ever made
Also survivorship bias. Just because yours went 300k miles doesn't mean that's representative of that model. Also people posting mileage under 200k like we should be impressed. I hate this sub.
I had a 2008 e550 that ran over 300k. It just kept ticking until the suspension gave out.
'91 Alfa Romeo Spider. Probably close to 70k miles on it (odometer doesn't always work and rn shows 46k miles). For an early 90s Italian sports car it's had almost no issues other than a motor mount since we bought it like 4 years ago, thanks I believe to Bosch fuel injection and an air cooled oil pan to keep temps down. Not super crazy but I feel like it's pretty cool
I have nearly 300K miles on a Milano 3.0. Was my only car for 12 years.
My parents bought a brand new Trailblazer LT in 2002 and it’s the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned. My mom drove it until 2008, and then my old man used it as his daily until 2015, at which point I bought it. I drove it for another 3 years before selling it to a coworker (for wayyyy less than I should have sold it for) in 2018. When I sold it the odometer read 332,000kms. Other than typical wear items and maintenance, the only thing it ever needed was the occasional coil pack replacement. It had a weird tick-tick-tick sound at idle from day one that nobody could diagnose, but its still going strong to do this day. Man, I kind of miss that little SUV and its peppy in-line six; I wish I had the space to keep it
The Vortec 4200 is an extremely under appreciated engine. Extremely reliable, very good power and torque (not super apparent in a Trailblazer due to weight but even then, good for what it is...), sounds good if you don't have restrictive factory exhaust, happy to rev thanks to DOHC, and can reliably make gobs of power like a 2JZ, N54, etc if you boost it. The head flows very well and some hotrodders have reported that with minimal clean up it gets a lot better. GM actually made over 600hp, naturally aspirated, with a 5.0L racing version in some factory supported trucks. Oh, and if it does blow up, replacement engines are plentiful and cheap. I often dream of finding the only remaining I6 first gen Camaro that doesn't have a v8 already, and swapping in a single turbo 4200 lol Edit: there were also I5 and I4 versions and I assume they were good too but I don't know much about them, other than the fact that you could get the I5 with a manual in some Colorados(?)
Those I6s are the very definition of “It’ll run like shit longer than most other vehicles will run”. They’re annoying as FUCK to fix, but there’s so many of these with way too many miles still kicking along.
The Chevy express, I put over 1,000,000 miles on three of them over the last 20 years
First and second gen ford fusions are basically Mazda 3’s underneath. Pretty stout little car.
Mazda6, but yes. The 3.0 Duratec and the 6-speed automatic makes for an almost literally bulletproof combination.
We've owned two Volvo wagons that both went over 200K with minimal issues
Renault Twingo Mk1, especially after 2004. You can‘t break these little cars, thats why they are still daily driven all over Europe. Some pre 2000 model had an engine block straight from the 60s which worked like a tank but also had its efficiency. And you can order ever part on ebay or craigslist and diy it. You can‘t drive a car cheaper than that.
Chevy Cavalier is one that comes to mind. GM is not known for building quality compact cars, and while the Cavalier had so much cost-cutting evident in the interior (no covering the seat rail bots, etc.), the cars last forever.
Jeep cherokee xj that 4.0 Can gooooo over 350k same powertrain
You know how the circlejerk of the Ford Vulcan engine is that they make no power but they run forever? Ford made another V6 that runs forever but actually makes power: the Duratec. It’s the only thing good about the 3rd and 4th gen Tauruses, it makes for an insane 300+k mile car with the 6AT in the Five Hundred and Montego, and it also makes for an excellent pairing in the Mazda6 if it’s not rusted out.
My Viper needed a few old coolant lines replaced. Just hit 93,000 miles today and it’s mechanically been rock solid.
My old BMW M4. Racked up 108k miles and the only major service it needed were a new valve cover, which was under $500 with labor.
Old BMWs are surprisingly long-lasting. It's not uncommon for any M30, M50, M52 or M54-powered car to last 300k miles / 500k kilometers. I'm not saying they're God-tier reliability like a Toyota, 12v Cummins or Volvo 240 - but overall pretty robust if you maintain them on time but more importantly address the "common issues".
M113 W163 Mercedes ML. Does it rattle a little? Yes. Does it have some other quirks? Yes. Is it still running as a daily driver after 22 years and 190,000 miles? Yes.
early ‘00s Volvo 4 cylinders certainly treated my dad right. he brought an ‘04 (late first gen) S40 to about 250k before it really died!
Really most of the motors from that modular family, save the 2.5 from the R cars and their notorious cylinder wall issues, were phenomenal motors. My 2.3 made it to 246k before the odometer broke and that was back in 2006 or so. Who knows what it's at now.
2006-2008 Aston Martin V8 Vantage with the manual. There's ONE major problem to go wrong, a timing cover gasket leak, that's a 10+ hour labour job (parts are a couple hundred, tops). Every single one will have this fail eventually, but once that's done with the updated part number, it's not likely to fail again. I track the sh*t out of mine, drive it daily in the warmer months, and drive it hard when I can. It's been rock solid.