Tag Archives: high mileage

Good Luck Driving Your Brick into the Ground


The NY Times is finally understanding the concept of high mileage in a consumer car. When the recession hit in 2009 the Times ran a few articles documenting how consumers were coping with their economic struggles by keeping their cars longer. Pity the poor family who needed to keep their 8 year old V70 instead of trading it in for a new car. Have mercy on the woman who is roughing it in her BMW with over 25k miles and going out of warranty.

Today the Times documents the trend of drivers keeping their cars past the 100k mile mark. The article feature photos of a clean and mean 1990 Volvo 745 with over 300k. Citing technological changes in piston rings, catalytic converters and rust proofing, engineers explain how recent cars can be expected to last much longer than vehicles from previous generations. And if you take proper care of it your car may even outlast you.

What’s the Best Cross-Country Beater?

Is this even a debatable question? Jalopnik asks, and then answers its own question of what’s the best, cheap car to ride across the country this summer:

Though we’ll always answer Volvo 240 wagon when it comes to reliability, a working wagon with A/C is getting somewhat harder to find.

This makes me feel a little better about all the money I dumped into my AC last year. My brick is now a rare find.

But ultimately Jalopnik decides the brick just doesn’t make the grade and instead choose the Subaru Forester. Be sure to add your answers.