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Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

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Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#151

Post by p1esk »

mattbrewsbytes wrote: post #67
SilverElfin wrote: post #2

> Over the years, nearly everything on the vehicle has been replaced or repaired, and Campbell says the only original part is likely the body, and even that has had work done on it. To me this makes it less interesting. I would be amazed if the original parts (outside of what gets replaced for maintenance) lasted that long. But it’s hard to judge how durable the car is when everything has been replaced

I don't think anything with mechanical moving parts is going to last that long, with regular usage, and have original parts. The fact that the owner can keep it going is a testament to the maintainability of combustion engines that don't have high tech computers in them.

I don't think anything with mechanical moving parts is going to last that long, with regular usage, and have original parts.

You should visit any third world country: plenty of old cars still running around.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#152

Post by fransje26 »

jacquesm wrote: post #142
fransje26 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me wager a guess: Mercedes models W124? > I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore. You guessed correctly. The 1980's W124 was one of those cars that would keep going and going. Mechanically great, with a galvanized chassis and bodywork that made it also pretty rust resistant. The 1993 version of the W124, supposed to be an "improved" remodeled version of the original car, was a worst car in every as…

One of my sons drives a W210 that has now got well over 300K on it and is still running like new. You can see the plastics are drying out and there is some minor rust in places but it is still a very solid car and likely will continue to run for many years to come. It's the kombi version, 320.

Mechanically, it's pretty solid, absolutely. But the rust.. The rust!! And that's an issue the original galvanized W124 didn't have.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#153

Post by fransje26 »

fasteo wrote: post #103
fransje26 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me wager a guess: Mercedes models W124? > I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore. You guessed correctly. The 1980's W124 was one of those cars that would keep going and going. Mechanically great, with a galvanized chassis and bodywork that made it also pretty rust resistant. The 1993 version of the W124, supposed to be an "improved" remodeled version of the original car, was a worst car in every as…

I have a w245, 410.000 Km. Still going strong

Good news! Keep it going strong!

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#154

Post by SoftTalker »

TimByte wrote: post #137
jillesvangurp wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This kind of mileage is unusual with cars but it's pretty normal for semis. But even with those, engines get overhauled and there's lots of cumulative maintenance over the years. There are still trucks build in the sixties in service in some places. With EVs, we might get some battery packs and drive trains actually lasting this long. Maybe not with nmc batteries. But some lfp batteries seem to have enough charge cyc…

I suspect in 30 years we'll be seeing million-mile EVs… but they'll probably be on their second or third infotainment system

They still have control arms, ball joints, shocks, tie rods, bearings, and rubber and plastic seals and other bits that will wear out, dry out, or degrade. Not to mention a lot of electronics with limited-life components such as capacitors. The oldest modern EVs are just now getting to the age where those sorts of repairs will start to become necessary.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#155

Post by nayuki »

griffzhowl wrote: post #24
bot403 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact, on average most (not all though) of the cells in your body are brand new after 7 years. When do you stop being you and take a new name?

This kind of thing is repeated often, but I don't think it's true. For one thing, how would tattoos last so long then? More relevantly, I don't think neurons are replaced. There must be some material churn in the atoms and molecules that make them up, but even then different for different molecules - e.g. I don't know how much of our DNA molecules get replaced over a lifespan from the repair or other mechanisms.

> how would tattoos last so long

Answered by Kurzgesagt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGggU-Cxhv0

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#156

Post by fransje26 »

SoftTalker wrote: post #143
fransje26 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me wager a guess: Mercedes models W124? > I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore. You guessed correctly. The 1980's W124 was one of those cars that would keep going and going. Mechanically great, with a galvanized chassis and bodywork that made it also pretty rust resistant. The 1993 version of the W124, supposed to be an "improved" remodeled version of the original car, was a worst car in every as…

The W210 was a very good car, the so-called "Camry" of Mercedes-Benz in terms of reliability, except it had one huge problem: rust. The true "million mile" Mercedes are probably the W123 diesels. Built very solid, they will still rust if you live in areas where road salt is used, but most cars will eventually. It's weird how some cars are much more prone to rust than others. I had a Toyota truck in the 1980s and it r…

> "Camry" of Mercedes-Benz in terms of reliability, except it had one huge problem: rust.

Absolutely. The rust.. The rust..!!

> The true "million mile" Mercedes are probably the W123 diesels.

Yes, for sure. And the W124 diesels.

> It's weird how some cars are much more prone to rust than others

Different levels of anti-rust efforts. Where Mercedes-Benz truly angered their clients, was by coming up with a new model with a lot worse rust properties. (Well, they cut corners on other things as well, like the quality of the interior, but the rust would be the first thing you'd notice.)

MB had the know-how and the processes in place to make a car less susceptible to rust, and just decided to go with the cheaper option, clients and longevity be damned.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#157

Post by yakkers »

rendaw wrote: post #130
jbeard4 wrote: post #69

> Over the years, nearly everything on the vehicle has been replaced or repaired, and Campbell says the only original part is likely the body, and even that has had work done on it. It’s the Tercel of Theseus: if every part has been replaced, is it still the same car? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus

Well the odometer's gotta be the same, right? I reckon the soul of a car resides in the odometer.

If it's a mechanical one, there's a possibility that it's been repaired or replaced. The mechanism after all these years will likely wear out. At the same time, I know someone with a car whose odometer has been at 249,999km for a few years now.

As for (early) digital odometers, does the soul more specifically exist in the EEPROM chip in the instrument cluster* that stores the odometer data?

*at least on my late-90s car, this is how the odometer/trip meter works.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#158

Post by nayuki »

The article and comments show that as usual, the general public doesn't use metric prefixes effectively.

While it is technically correct to say "1.2 million km" or "1,200,000 km", it is needlessly verbose. It is written more succinctly as "1.2 Gm (gigametres)". However, it is incorrect to stack prefixes like "1.2 Mkm".

After I point this out, the usual complaints will surface: "But no one knows what a gigametre is! We're all used to talking about odometers in only kilometres. No one uses big prefixes." Oh really? Are you telling me you don't know the difference between a kilobyte and a gigabyte? Should we revert to calling a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency as "2.4 million kHz", because kilohertz is familiar to people working with audio frequencies and AM radio?

Overall, I think we should use the right prefixes for the right job. If you're talking about city blocks, use metres. If you're talking about a single trip, use kilometres. If you're talking about annual driving distance, use megametres. If you're bragging about how long your car has survived, use gigametres (or at least thousands of megametres).

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#159

Post by jacquesm »

Tade0 wrote: post #14

It's less than (originally Matt Farah's) million mile Lexus: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/mechanic-restores-an-ls-4... Although the current owner's plan to do a cannonball run in it is something I find off-putting. His previous stupid idea was to put a turbocharger and see how long it will last, fortunately his fans dissuaded him from doing it.

They're both Toyota's, but the Lexus cost an order of magnitude more so by that measure it is not nearly as impressive. This is a low end car we're talking about.

Re: Car has more than 1.2M km on it – and it's still going strong

#160

Post by jacquesm »

kentiko wrote: post #45

> Since then, he's used it as his daily driver, putting on at least 120 kilometres a day driving from his home in Wyses Corner, N.S., to Halifax and back each day of his working life. 120km per day of commuting is crazy to me. I work from home and occasionally do a 14km bicycle commute to the office.

In Canada, the USA and Australia this is nothing special. Low population density means long commutes.
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