Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cbc.ca

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 276 posts

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

#191

Post by stockresearcher »

_fat_santa wrote: post #119
physix wrote: post #57

When I lived in Germany, in the 90s, I regularly sat in diesel Mercedes Benz taxis with over a million kms under the hood. Private drivers usually. Many had giant mileages. We used to say (tongue in cheek) that after 250k, the MB diesel engine was broken in. I don't think MB makes them like they used to anymore.

I remember one day I took my car to the mechanic and saw they were doing a head job on a Toyota Sienna (the minivan) that was used as a Taxi. Took a peek inside and realized the car had something like 450k miles. Now a proud 4Runner owner, I see on forums all the time guys bragging about hitting 300k, 400k and as high as 600k in their 4Runners.

Well, as you yourself saw, they still need maintenance and repairs. And the “traditional” larger Toyota engines are gone. Because their fuel economy was always terrible. 600k miles in a 4Runner at 60-75 cents a mile in fuel doesn’t sit too well with people when it costs 35 cents a mile in a Hyundai. That pays for a lot of repairs!

The 4Runner of last year was the last traditional uncomplicated V6. The Lexus GX of two years ago was the last traditional V8. Aside from their small 4-cylinders, it’s all super-complicated turbos and we don’t know if those will hold up as well. Early indications are that they aren’t quite as special compared to everyone else’s super-complicated turbos.

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

#192

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

amluto wrote: post #82
_heimdall wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No diesel engine is made well these days in my opinion, at least as far as passenger vehicles go. Emissions systems on diesel engines have made the reliability pretty abysmal. That's not to say improving emissions isn't a good goal, but it was implemented terribly. Between regulators over prescribing solutions and car companies finding the quickest and cheapest "fix" every step of the way, we ended with horribly comp…

Given that one single old car without functioning emission controls will stink up an entire block far more than that entire block full of ordinary, modern traffic, I would expect that the (non-CO2) air pollution from an old diesel is far higher than that from building and operating new diesel vehicles.

> one single old car without functioning emission controls will stink up an entire block far more than that entire block full of ordinary, modern traffic

My son's 1963 Dart (daily driver) puts out far less smell than a lot of pickup trucks in this neighborhood.

And the Dart is certainly cleaner than modern choker-style pickup trucks.

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

#193

Post by SeanSullivan86 »

mvanbaak wrote: post #65
Sylarr wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's 31k kilometers so around 20k miles.

pretty normal commute

It's higher than average/median in the US, but certainly not exceptional. Pretty normal for certain groups of people. There's a huge gap in miles driven between urban and rural area. US average is something like 13-15k miles per year (for all driving, not just commute).

20,000 miles solely for commuting would be about 43 miles each way (if you work 235 days per year), which is obviously more unusual than 20k total miles driven from all sources.

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

#194

Post by dahauns »

bluetomcat wrote: post #105
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 W210s did indeed rust badly and the interiors weren't on par with previous generations, but in purely mechanical terms, they were still solid cars. The diesels (particularly E250 TD and E290 TD) could cover 700k+ kilometres without any interventions to the engine or the transmission. The W211 is an improvement to the W210 in almost every aspect, and they are still plentiful on the roads in Eastern Europe.

>(particularly E250 TD and E290 TD)

Not a coincidence, though - these two still use those legendary OM602/OM605 diesels of its predecessor series.

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

#195

Post by durovo »

jschveibinz wrote: post #162
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

Fun fact: The average replacement rate of cells in our bodies (generally speaking) is around 7 to 10 years. So all of our parts have been replaced several times over...

Speak for yourself, old man

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

#197

Post by guywithahat »

I hate to be a purist about this sort of thing but once you start replacing engines/transmissions, having a million mile car starts losing its novelty. This isn't some exceptionally reliable vehicle, it's just a guy who has more time and money then sense

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

#198

Post by guywithahat »

TimByte wrote: post #135
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…

Once you start swapping over-engineering for bean-counting, you don't just lose durability, you lose a whole loyal customer base

Unfortunately it's hard to run a car company when your fan base consists of people who only buy used cars. People who buy new cars just don't care what the reliability will look like at 200k miles

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

#199

Post by thePhytochemist »

martini333 wrote: post #196

> equivalent of 1.5 round trips to the moon Thanks. As a frequent visitor to the moon, I know exactly what that's like.

Lol, I agree it's a good example of an odd reporter metric. How about 30 times around the earth, isn't that impressive too?
Post reply on HN