Reliablest cars

A 1965 Chevrolet 1/2 ton 6' bed pickup truck.

But only one from inland Texas.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

How high is "UP"?

About any vehicle above a minimum standard will last, effectively forever with proper maintenance and appropriate driving techniques.

As you are specifying current production by implication, and are not focused just on cost, I suggest you start with the Toyota Prius family, then look at various of the Hyundai family.

All of which get good reports, and Hyundai has its very long warranty.

Then, there is the entire Subaru family - if AWD is an attractant.

With proper care-and-feeding, you should get a reliable 200,000 miles (322,000 km) out of any of them.

Peter Wieck Melrose Park, PA

I think that could only be made "compact" by a crusher!

Mike.

I've had fantastic luck with Toyota and Honda. I am driving a Honda Civic hybrid now with over 160K miles on it. Other than standard maintenance, the only thing needing service was the hybrid battery, covered under manufacturer's warranty.

We are still running our 2000 Toyota Sienna van with 250K miles. The plastic door handles are crumbling, and new old stock replacement handles can be had, but they are also deteriorated, so there's no point in it. The only service on that one, other than normal stuff (tires, brakes, battery) is a radiator that I can chalk up to a deer collision years before.

Before that, I had a Toyota Corolla stick shift station wagon that I kept for 19 years! I got at least 160K miles out of that one, and it was still running after 2 accidents, when we decided to retire it.

Jon

Well, we had several "US label" cars that needed a lot of work, both under warranty and after warranty expiration. Stuff like engine block water leaks, AC constantly leaking refrigerant, $3000 transmission overhauls, and on and on, even before reaching 100K miles.

Our Toyota and Honda vehicles have run well over 100K with almost no repairs other than tires, brakes, batteries, windshield wipers and such.

Our 2000 Toyota van with 250K miles has had a new starter and recently a new radiator, but I think that was due to a deer collision.

My 1989 Toyota Corolla wagon ran 160K miles with only a starter at 136K, but was finally retired after 2 collisions.

My current driver is a Honda Civic hybrid with 160K miles, still running like new. ZERO maintenance outside the scheduled stuff, except when the damn mice chewed the wires under the hood. That's 11+ years old.

Jon

They don't salt the roads in the winter there?

John ;-#)#

Some vehicles have known major problems. Like my son had a Nissan Rouge. The transmission went out at around 135,000 miles and cost him $ 4000 to replace. Turns out that transmission was known to go bad in many of them and the company had extended the warrenty to 120,000 miles. That did not help my son.

I have only bought Toyotas for the last 30 years. Other than normal wear items like brakes and tires and batteries and scheduled maintence my 1991 needed a $ 500 sensor at 130,000 miles. Sold it off at slightly over 190,000 miles with no other problems.

I would never buy anything but a Toyota or Honda unless I needed a full size truck or some other thing they did not make. I have had reports that KIA is also good,but not sure.

My 1994 Mercury Villager soccer-mom/dad van has almost 300K kms on the odometer, no major engine work that I know of, but I bought it used about ten years ago....

Mind you one of the engine mounts has split.

John :-#)#

I've owned a Toyota pickup truck (18R engine), Corolla, Celica, an 89 Acura Integra, and I'm driving a 2001 Civic Ex. I thought they were all great: reliable, low smog, good power and mileage, decent handling, low maintenance, no surprises or egregious design flaws, and I could do most of the work on them myself. I guess I would say Honda or Acura, and then Toyota coming in a very close second.

Is "reliablest" even a word?

How is the Lada doing these days? I recall when everyone was talking about the little Russian car...

John ;-#)#

Is any of this even OT?

These new folk, perhaps?

It would be for oldtubeguy. But he'd have to find a pair of shoelaces first.

When I was in Iceland in 2000, there were quite a few Ladas on the road plus Lada Nivas (a sturdy 4 wheel drive jeep-like vehicle.) A documentarian,who filmed on the country's glaciers, claimed they were far more reliable than Jeeps.

Only in N. America - the country that invented the ghastly "normalcy" in place of *normality* for no compelling reason whatsoever.

Or, my favourite, "burglarised"!

Mike.

Wow! So *that* was how the Americans were able to overtake the British economically over the course of the 1920s? Astounding!