Going for 400K

[Rick Potter]

A carpenter friend of ours is building us a new garage/BR addition. He has been a framer all his life, and is 72. Today we were talking about his Chevy half ton pickup, and whether he will get a new one or not.

He has been talking about this, for at least five years, and I have been watching the mileage on his current (04?) truck build. Today it is up to 391,000 miles, and will hit 400 by the end of summer.

I am willing to bet he goes 500 before letting it go. It looks like it is three years old, and with regular maintenance and repairs, it starts right up, and runs quietly. He takes very good care of it.

I guess the real question is which will give up first? High mileage owner or high mileage truck?

[Frank Pratt]

I've had lots of GM trucks & I will say that they can run just about forever. They have very good drive trains, but it's the rest of the vehicle that falls apart. I currently have an 03 2500HD with about 220,000 Km on it & runs very well, but every time I have it serviced it costs at least $1000 because of all the other stuff that is breaking & wearing out.

So let's hope he lasts longer than the truck :)

[Jim Andrew]

I have an 04 Chevy 2500, and can't imagine driving it 500,000. but because of the gas mileage. Usually it averages 4 mpg or a little better, but last Saturday drove it 600 miles and it actually made nearly 14 mpg on the highway. I drive my Tacoma, as it averages about 24 with just stop and go driving. But the Taco can't haul a load like the Chevy.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I used to have a 1988 C2500 with only 133000 Km.
Every year when I closed off my books, I noticed it ran about $2000.00+ for maintenance, and gas mileage was horrible.
Sold it and got a Mazda B3000. I'll bet I havn't spent 2000.00 on it in the 7 years I've owned it.

[Tom M King]

My Chevy truck is a little older, being an '01 Diesel Dually, but only has 340k on it so far. I do spend a little money on it every few years now, but doing the work myself, the most I've spent any year has been less than one month's payment on a new one. Since this one gets 18.8 mpg regardless of what I do with it (last year model without smog control-even EGR, and before the yearly power wars), and last truck payment was Nov., 2000, I hope it will also keep rolling to 4 or 500k. Being close to 69, and still working, putting 80k in a new work truck seems like it would have questionable returns.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I'm in the same boat (71+years old). Current truck is 1988 Mitsubishi with about 250K on it. Body is solid, and it runs well. Leaks some oil around timing chain cover, which I will fix when I replace the radiator, which has begun to leak at bottom. Former truck was a 1986 Nissian, which had 540K on it when it finally died. Because we can do repairs, we generally run them till the wheels fall of, put wheels back on, and repeat process. Scrapped my 1990 Honda Civic with 337K on it because the body was rusting into. Bought it used for $293, drove it over 200K and sold it for scrap. Fetched $168 at scrap yard. Other than tires, hose, belts and a master cylinder, I spent nothing on it. Didn't even have to replace the brakes, as previous owner had just done them.

[Michael Weber]

I'm 72. My 2003 Toyato basic white Tacoma has a little over 70,000 miles. I know which one of us is going to go first:o

[Jim Andrew]

Amazing to me the life of Hondas and Toyotas. Have a neighbor with a Honda Civic with over 500k miles. He says it is getting a little weak. And we had a coop employee with a basic Tacoma with over 500k. The thing would creep downhill parked on a slope, compression was getting weak.