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None of those cars mentioned will last forever. And, in price range you WILL end with a junk if you go that route.
There are several indestructible cars in that price range though. Old diesel Mercedes. Can't kill them.
I know quote a few people who have high mileage 3800's.
And cops & taxis have used Crown Vics for years.
I'd throw the Town Car and Grand Marquis in there as well, since they're also Panthers.
Avoid Grand Caravan/town & Country minivans. Do not be fooled b the incredibly low prices. Otherwise any car can last 200,000 or more and any car can fail at 100,000.
Our highest mileage car so far was a Saturn Ion. Total POS, kept on chugging along. Almost made 300k
Next highest Volvo V70 XC AWD. Bad reputation. Ours has about 260,000 miles. However I am told the engine was rebuilt before we got it.
My brother had a ford ranger around 320,000 miles and still running (scrapped due to rust). I had one die at about 160,000 or 175,000. My dad had one go to 200,000. the same brother had another one over 200,000 and an electric one that was pretty well a lost cause at about 60,000.
My camaro Z28 croaked at 110,000.
Lincoln Town Car (1992 - safest car made that year btw). Went forever, Pushing 200,000 when the odometer broke. Still out there somewhere. (Also got surprisingly decent MPG).
Chevy Express vans have dies at 155,000 or so, 80,000 and 200,000. the current one has 175,000 I think. still going strong.
Mercury Sable did not make 75,000 miles. However a friend has one at 190,000 and he is still happy with it.
I could go on and on (we have had a lot of cars in the past ten to 15 years). But the fact is, nothing matters with old beaters. Some go a long long time, others turn crappy very early. All the "this brand is more reliable" is complete BS when you gt to old beaters. They are all marginally unreliable and you will hear anecdotes about pretty much every brand and model making it to huge mileage and crapping out or getting impractical to keep repairing at 100K or even below.
One thing to consider (I am currently discussing with my son) some cars are crazy expensive for parts. (our volvo is one).
BTW, people always carry on about this engine or that engine. Engine failure is very rare. Auto transmission failure ended most of our cars' lives. Sometimes it is just an accumulation of small things. It truly is hit or miss. You may get 100,000 miles out of a $2500 car, you may get 10,000 (or even less). it is just a risk you have to take when you are poor (or cash poor even if you are paper rich - been there)
I know quote a few people who have high mileage 3800's.
And cops & taxis have used Crown Vics for years.
I'd throw the Town Car and Grand Marquis in there as well, since they're also Panthers.
yep, a lot of taxi companies bought used police crown vics, painted them yellow, and ran them into the ground, many had more than 300,000 miles on them before they were finally retired. and those 300,000 miles were not easy ones by any means, lots of stop and go traffic, long periods of idling, engines running pretty much nearly 24 hour per day, and these cars were treated like crap most of their lives.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
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Toyotas Corolla, Camry, Prius, Tacoma, T100, Tundra, 4Runner, and FJ80 Land Cruiser. Lexus LX470, LS400, ES300. Any of these can be found for less than 5k in good shape with good maintenance histories. And every single one of them, if maintained as recommended by the manufacturer, will run pretty much forever. The only thing that kills these cars is rust.
the GM 3800 IS NOT bullet proof. They are notorious for developing a intake manifold problem and if you dont catch it, coolant leaks into the engine and destroys it. EVERY one I know witht he 3800 has has this problem and a few of them had the engine go out, because they didnt adress it.
If you can get a 3800 where the intake manifold has been replaced, Im sure you can get some good miles out of the car.
Find an old Jeep Cherokee with the inline 6. It will run forever, and the cars are so simple to work on, with cheap parts pricing to boot.
It's the perfect long term beater.
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