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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

#211

Post by _heimdall »

speedgoose wrote: post #173
_heimdall wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICE vehicles just can't go away quickly enough We do have to either replace them with something else or stop owning personal vehicles. The end goal may be better, but that transition will be long and it will break plenty of things along the way.

Transition is almost done around Oslo, and we are doing fine.

Do people there only use cars around town or for short road trips?

I know the trains in Sweden were great when I was there a few years ago, I assume Norway would be similar.

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

#212

Post by randerson »

Even more impressive is racking up that mileage on the original engine: https://www.corvettemuseum.org/high-mileage-c5-corvette-dona... (It's owner probably also had a little more fun doing that mileage.)

There are also a few Porsche 911 Turbos with that level of mileage. A guy on Rennlist posts occasional updates about his one which he even tracks quite regularly: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-turbo-forum/662617-high-mile... (Engine was restored once, out of precaution after it blew a turbo at 610K km, but when they opened it up it had very little wear & tear, only a small air leak.)

The secret to longevity really is more frequent oil changes than the manufacturer suggests, and doing most of the mileage with the engine fully warmed up.

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

#213

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

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

#214

Post by [deleted] »

kelnos wrote: post #39
mykowebhn wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Customary units"? I hate to break it to you, but most of the world uses the metric system. And the conversion is actually fairly simple. 1M km is 600k miles, so you were in the ballpark.

I hate you break it to you, but "customary units" is what they are called, regardless of the (lack of) prevalence of that custom.

[deleted]

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

#215

Post by thyrsus »

yakkers wrote: post #157
rendaw wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

My 2007 Corolla odometer has been at 299999 since 2019. I've replaced the transmission once, but the rest is original, aside from expected maintenance - tires, brakes, fans, etc. - and an added stereo.

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

#216

Post by torginus »

TimByte wrote: post #133
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.

Nowadays it feels like the electronics or emissions gear will take the car down long before the engine wears out

It's weird how EV fans doggedly believe that EVs will outlast mechanical cars because they got so few moving parts, even experience shows the electronics often fail before the mechanical parts, both in cars and household appliances.

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

#217

Post by Thedarkb »

yakkers wrote: post #157
rendaw wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 c…

My car ('91 Toyota Carina) has been on 149,999 miles since 2007.

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

#218

Post by torginus »

protimewaster wrote: post #85
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.

Those MB diesels made it to the States too, and they were equally well respected here in my experience. Although, there's long been a diesel aversion among some part of the population here, so it was maybe a narrower subset of the population familiar with the legend of the MB diesels. I drove one for years, acquired when they were available as a quite cheap ~15 year old car. I've since switched to a Toyota and been q…

>there's long been a diesel aversion among some part of the

which is well-justified. Diesels just aren't clean in any sense of the word, and I guess Americans make a lot more short trips which Diesels aren't well-suited for, and are not as concerned with saving on fuel as it's much cheaper.

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

#219

Post by tracerbulletx »

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...

Is a wave the particles of water in it at any given instant, or something else entirely.

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

#220

Post by torginus »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #7
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

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 think history will show people have vastly overestimated the durability of EV and not just because of batteries.

Inverters have IGBTs and capacitors, both of which are wear items. I don't have an EV, but just got solar, and my installer told me that I can expect the inverter will need replacing in 15 years.

And solar inverters push far less wattage at far more benign circumstances than cars' do, which push 100s of kWs peak in hot and cold, mud and rain.

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