I recently had a poster criticize my response about part failure at low miles and what constitutes high wear. I didn't wish to debate him. But I thought I'd lay out this concept that wear can be high on low mileage cars.
If someone drives their car 90% of the time in city traffic, they will have high hours per mile. If someone drives 90% Interstate, they will have low hours per mile. Two extreme examples, but I feel it illustrates how a low mileage car can have deceptively high wear. Most cars and drivers fall in the middle range. In Los Angeles, when asking a local "how far to a location", you'll be told time instead of miles. So there's one example of an area where cars will have high hours per mile. I wish cars had hour meters like boats and heavy equipment do. Is anyone aware of a "hidden" menu that shows hours on our LS? I only drive about 3k a year but it's all city driving. I change my oil annually. I also do other services based on months or years as recommended by owners manual.

 

You are correct, it is especially applicable to vehicles that used for any kind of ride service. I suspect vehicles like LS460L and LS600HL with an upgraded luxury package are more likely to have high hours, however, it depends on each particular case.

 

I have a 2005 F350 with 170k miles and 3000 hrs, what does that tell you? nope, I converted the hours the same way as the kilometres haha. it's 5000 hrs

 

It tells me, you don't like math.

 

Not sure on the LSs, my other cars all have engine hour counting systems. All are low relative to miles and it lines up with how they were driven

 

I'll toss a wrench into the mix fleet cars idle most of the time engine is rarely turned off. Engines in these vehicles last 500K miles or more.

 

Touche haha

 

Where will train A meet train B if A is traveling 20 mph and B is traveling at 60 mph? Please convert the answer to metric.

 

If you have the mileage and the hours you can find the average miles per hour. From there you can figure whether on average a car is mostly driven city speed or highway speed. At least that’s the way I looked at it when I was buying a higher mileage truck.

 

I believe certain parts can easily fail at low mileage / high hours. I can see it happening. If your engine is running all day long and the car is in park your engine is, well, still running, just at lower oil flow rate and pressure. Engine doesn't really cares whether your car is traveling down the road or parked. Crankshaft and all the music is still spinning and moving. Moving means It wears out, just slower than under the load. Same goes for your AC system components, electronics, cooling fans, fuel and water pumps and who knows what else. That's why generators, pumps, airplane and marine engines counting operating hours, not miles. So if your car spends more time idling than driving you might have brand new suspension and transmission and pretty worn out something else.

 

My point was either of these things combined or alone don't really give you much information other than the obvious. Even used vehicles with perfect dealer service records can have problems...there is not one licensed seasoned tech that wants to do an oil change on your vehicle unless it's in combination with another repair/service that pays well.

 

I assume the Hours would be logged in the computer. There must be a way we could access it ?