Aron9000

Just wondering about this, as my family has a 2000 Toyota Avalon with 253k on the odometer. I drove that car from Nashville to Destin Florida last year, about a 900 round trip. Car runs great, looks good on the outside, no peeling paint, no dents, interior is mint, no fading, no rips in the plush cloth interior. About the only bad thing you can say is it needs new shocks, but even then the ride isn't old Cadillac floaty, it rides well enough. My sister just borrowed this car to go back down to Florida a couple days ago, 253k miles on it. She has a lease Rav4 she wants to keep the miles down on.

Anybody else have a high mileage car they trust 100%????

Radio88

If you guys faithfully kept up on its maintenance requirements this shouldn't even be a question.

mmarshall

One thing that's important to do on a long trip, especially with an older engine, is keep an eye on the oil level...even carry an extra quart or two with you. The engine doesn't necessarily have to be particularly old or worn, either. When an engine is cold, the moisture that sometimes accumulates in the oil system adds to its visible level on the dipstick, giving a reading to the eye that can be somewhat higher than the actual amount of oil in the engine. But, take that engine out on the road for an extended cruise, get it really warm (which you won't do just buzzing around town for a few blocks), and the moisture in the oil system all burns off or evaporates, causing the level in the crankcase and dipstick to drop noticeably. I've not only read tips about this from engineers and technicians, but have noticed it myself in several cars I have owned.

Also, when you shut the engine off, don't check the dipstick immediately. Give it at least several minutes for all of the oil in the passages to drain back down and fill the crankcase....THEN check it. Shouldn't take too long to drain if the oil is hot and flowing easily.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

That's not true at all. Completely disagree.

You can follow the maintenance program religiously, but in this day and age, all vehicles are big electric computers on 4 wheels. Way too many electronics that can fail at any given moment without prior notice. You cannot plan for that. One bad sensor and your car aint going anywhere. Doesn't matter if it's a 10 year old car or a 1 week old car.

SW17LS

And when a car gets older, things are far more likely to just fail, even when maintenance has been done properly over time.

I personally would not hop in any car over 200,000 miles and drive my family on a long road trip. Just myself? Sure.

UDel

If it is a well built reliable car to begin with and is maintained well I would have no issues with it. I would feel more comfortable owning a well maintained Honda, Toyota, Lexus, or Acura for 200K miles then most European and sad to say US cars with 60 or 70K miles. After the 4 or 5 year warranty is up and 50K miles that is when many German/British cars really can start having problems, expensive problems especially if they are not perfectly maintained.

coolsaber

At a certain mileage marker, all claim to reliability are off. The easy answer is yea, skip it and rent or use another car. Why drive up the wear and tear on your own. Yes, I can carry extra fluids, an emergency kit but I also need to keep in mind that I`m not near my comfort zone where if anything breaks, I have access to all my tools, friends or family, my trusted mechanic etc.

tex2670

I agree. At that point, just about anything can fail without warning just by virtue of normal wear and tear.

Coleroad

The last long road trip was with 3 cars when we moved from Texas to Kansas. The newest one with the least mileage is the one that had the problem. The alternator broke. The other two are British vehicles. One of which is now sixteen years old. I'm fine with driving any of my cars on a long trip. You never know with any of them no matter what , when one will break.

Toys4RJill

Yup. Agree. My sister had a four year old Lexus that left her stranded on the side of the highway on a 8 hr trip. Had to be towed home and the trip was cancelled. It only had 50k at the time and the fault was the air conditioning compressor seized.

mmarshall

That engine must have had a large fan belt (known as a serpentine belt) that ran a number of different things under the hood (A/C, water pump, power steering, etc...). Otherwise, the simple loss of the A/C compressor should not have immobilized the entire car.

Toys4RJill

IS 250 AWD 2010 model. The belt got shredded when the compressor seized

blacksc400

iTrader: (4)

There are things I used to always put in the trunk when I go on a trip:
1: couple quarts of oils
2:bottle of coolant
3:jumper cable
4:toolbox with common size tools
5:compact flat floor jack(lots of my cars were lowered, factory jack won't work)
6:little air compressor
7:bar and sockets to take lug nuts off.

they adds weight and take space for the trunk, but they also provide me a huge peace of mind.

But since all my cars are new now, I don't carry any of them anymore. And even if something happens to it that I can't drive, I have to use roadside assistance since most likely the problem is beyond what I can simply fix on the road anyway.

Radio88

The OP's question pertains to a car with over 250,000 miles-this is what I stated to. You two are talking about uncontrollable things that could happen to any vehicle at any mileage. Not the subject here.

SW17LS

The bottom line is an older higher mileage cars are far more likely to experience a failure than a newer lower mileage car. The fact that something might happen as a fluke doesn't change that at all.