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I have a 2009 Ford Escape V6 engine that has only 40K miles on it. I have had it since it was 10 months old and had like 6500 miles on it all driven by my Dad.
I have maintained the vehicle very well using Mobil and Mobil 1 filters throughout its life. The transmission fluid and radiator fluid have been changed and flushed twice once in late 2013 and once in June 2017. The tires were changed once in late 2015 with 25K miles.
The vehicle runs great and has not given me many problems until I had an oil timing chain or timing handle (whatever its called) that caused an oil leak in October last year that cost over $1000 to get fixed. Other than that, just tire pressure sensors, new front brakes and new tires.
Now having said all that, the car is over 9 years old but has very low mileage and I have maintained it well. Is it likely the age is gonna start catching up and causing it to nickel and dime me the next few years, or not likely since I take good care of it and the miles are low.
So what really wears a car out more in your opinion. The age or the mileage.
The mileage I have is mostly city driving, but not the severe rush hour traffic where there is a stop light at every side street. Just stop lights at main road intersections. I drive it one way 8.5 miles every week day to work and on the weekends 5.5 miles to my parents house and 4 miles to the grocery store. Is that considered too short of trips and hard on the car, or is it only the 1-2 mile trips that are hard on a car?
I guess the bottom line is should I move on form the car while it still has value and get a much newer one, or just keep driving it until it starts giving me constant troubles?
Any car I get would be new or almost brand new and I would intend to keep it 9-12 years.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Short trips are tough on vehicle, especially in winter.
in winter... Once a week get it out for 30 minutes of OPEN road use.
Keep it on the top 1/2 of fuel tank in winter (avoid condensation).
Keep your battery UP (don't run the heater / AC more than necessary on your short trips.)
I guess the bottom line is should I move on form the car while it still has value and get a much newer one, or just keep driving it until it starts giving me constant troubles?
Any car I get would be new or almost brand new and I would intend to keep it 9-12 years.
Your thoughts.
The major expense with any late-model car is depreciation. Replacing your present car with a newer one will start the depreciation cycle all over again.
I have that same Escape, but with about 150,000 miles on it. No major issues yet.
Pretty much all the popular mainstream vehicle models from the last decade or so are built to last. I'd drive that thing into the ground if I were you, rather than blowing money on a new vehicle - it's not worth that much now anyway as resale or trade-in due to age, and it's much cheaper to insure than a new vehicle is. I can't see minor repairs costing anywhere near what a new vehicle (plus all the expenses that go along with a new vehicle) would be, and if you run into a big repair that's more than the Escape is worth, well, you can always get your new car then. I'd be one thing if it had been sitting in a field somewhere with all the bits degrading, but it sounds like it's been properly cared for.
Yep....my Nissan Quest has almost 200K on it. I maintain the oil changes and routine maintenance etc like clockwork.
As cars age there are some maintenance items that are not normally considered 'routine'; like the timing belt and brake lines. One bad timing belt can literally total the vehicle where it is not worth repairing. Most of the vehicles, I am familiar with, required the belt to be replaced every six years of 75,000 miles. Especially where states use a lot of road salt; our brake lines are corroding. Somewhere around the fifteen year mark, depending on how well the vehicle was washed and cleaned of salt, the brake lines could start to fail. It is not too bad if it is only one or two lines that have to be replaced; but it can get more expensive if the distribution blocks and all lines have to be renewed.
The road salt can also destroy the frame or unibody. That is hard to predict since it depends on the individual manufacturers construction and how well we remove the road salt. Ideally we would all use pressure washers on the underbellies of our vehicles right after they were exposed to the salt - but that does not always happen.
I live in the land of road salt and don’t garage my car. Age matters because corrosion is inevitable. Miles also matter. I need to be able to trust my car because I drive in rural mountainous places with no cell phone reception in subzero weather. If I don’t trust the car, I get rid of it.
In 2018, cars take more miles before becoming unreliable and corrode more slowly. 8 or 9 years and 150,000 miles doesn’t turn the car into a beater if I’m maintaining it properly. 40 years ago, there was no way I’d keep a car that long.
Although your Escape has low miles for its age, it mostly gets driven around town. It might not be a Taxi in New York, those miles are still relatively hard on a vehicle. Make sure you drive it out on open freeway once in a while.
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