How do you define young, middle, and old age for cars based on miles? (2009, mileage)

[ragnarkar]

Assuming the car is built after 1990 and completely disregarding the age of the car in years:

0 - 100,000 miles = young (equivalent of a 0 to 30 year old)

100,000 to 200,000 miles = middle age (equivalent of a 30 to 60 year old)

Over 200,000 miles = old age (equivalent to a 60+ year old)

[Parsec]

I think most people (not on this forum) are still stuck on the old benchmark:

0 to 25,000 miles = young
25,000 to 75,000 miles = middle age
75,000 to 100,000 miles = old
over 100,000 miles = time to trade it in because the engine can blow up at any second.

Me personally? I'd say 0-50k, 50-100k, and 100-175k. I wouldn't keep anything over 175k unless I had a backup car.

[straight shooter]

Engines used to need a rebuilt after 100,000 miles. Today engines are built to tighter tolerances and many make it past 200,000 miles. It is usually something else that causes the car to be junked. It could be an accident, rust, or the transmission going out. With that said I would consider any thing under 50,000 miles to be young, 50,000-150,000 middle aged and anything over 150,000 mile to be old but it really depends on the engine make and model.

[Labonte18]

Too many factors to consider here. I have 176k or so on my vehicle.. Engine you could eat off of. Have had the transmission rebuilt on it recently.

But, are the miles highway or city driving.. 4, 6 or 8 cylinder? Diesel or gas engine? All of those things, and more, can play into the equation. 200k miles on a diesel can be just getting broken in.

[Chango]

You don't. I've ridden in restored teens era Model Ts that run as good as new and everybody's heard stories of lemon cars that were crap from day 1. A LOT of factors play into a car's longevity.

A car is a machine, not a human. Human years just don't equate to car mileage and/or age.

[Checkered24]

Its too hard to pin this down. What is high mileage for a certain car may not be for the next, depending on the manufacturer, the prior owner, the climate it has been used in, whether proper maintenance has been done timely...

[texdav]

Anything over 12K miles a year on age is high mileage. Low mileage is below that.

[wawa1992]

0 - 60,000 miles = young

60,000 - 100,000 miles = fairly young

100,000 - 160,000 = middle age

160,000 - 250,000 = old

250,000+ - ancient

[sskink]

In my experience, the pre-GM Saabs and pre-Ford Volvos my wife and I owned were still very much "middle age" at 200K. But both got Stage IV Cancer around 225K and were all but dead a few months later :-)

I now have a 2009 Jeep Patriot that's already behaving old at 65K and a 2004 Benz at 107K that's like a puppy.

[Me007gold]

You either have an old car or a new car, there is no in between. If the car is still in its current generation/body style it's "new". If not its "old"