Consumer Reports has an updated for 2017 list of the 10 vehicles (including cars, SUVs, minivans, and pickup trucks) that reached 200,000+ miles according to their big annual car survey. Here’s the list based on the total number of responses (ignoring model years), with the Toyota Camry the top model.
- Toyota Camry
- Honda Accord
- Toyota Prius
- Honda CR-V
- Toyota Sienna
- Honda Civic
- Toyota Corolla
- Toyota 4Runner
- Toyota Highlander
- Ford F-150
There are a couple of wrinkles to consider:
- This is a raw list based on the number of responses, but the Toyota Camry is already the best-selling model in the US. It would be interesting if they adjusted for the overall number of vehicles sold. You might then find some hidden gems. What if Mitsubishi made a really solid car but nobody noticed since there are so few of them? Also, any new model names like the Buick Encore will not have been around long enough to get to 200,000 miles.
- The demographics or other characteristics of a Toyota Camry or Honda Civic owner may be different. Maybe Toyota and Honda owners tend to be more frugal, more diligent at regular maintenance, and not buy new cars every 3-7 years. That would be a big factor in getting to 200,000 miles as a new car. Perhaps the more often a car is sold, the less likely it will reach 200,000 miles. If you only plan on owning a car for a couple years, why spend a lot of energy taking care of it?
- As noted in the article, a specific car model can go through period of higher or lower reliability, especially when a new generation is released. A specific Toyota or Honda model year may have a known issue with transmission, etc.
I’ve been a participant in the online reliability website TrueDelta for a while. It uses crowd-sourced data, but it often needs additional data points to be accurate enough to be useful. I recommend contributing if you find it useful. To their credit, they do try to make the periodic reporting as quick and easy as possible.
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I was actually looking at this topic recently and found another report with remarkably different results.
The other source :
Top 10 longest-lasting cars and vehicles according to iSeeCars.com study
https://www.today.com/money/top-10-longest-lasting-cars-vehicles-according-iseecars-com-study-t74376
CR seems consistently skewed in favor of Toyota / Honda. They say their results are from a survey. Who is the survey base? CR readers or everyone? I think their base is skewed / biased a bit and it is turning into a feedback loop.
I’m not saying Toyota / Honda aren’t good, but the CR reports seem consistently skewed while other sources aren’t so.
It is definitely a feedback loop. These surveys are only sent to their subscribers.
That link to the iSeeCars.com study is kinda weird. The story states:
” Among cars, the list of winners is a sort of who’s who of popular family haulers, from compact economy cars like the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla to the Dodge Grand Caravan minivan.”
But the table below that doesn’t include any of those. It also says:
“Many are in roughly the same order, though the three Subaru models — the Legacy, Outback and Forester — recorded big declines, though they stayed on the list.”
But once again, none of them are in the table. Looks like the table is almost all trucks, which I think it mentions later in the story.
Yes the Today article is a bit messed up. Here’s a report from the source that makes more sense:
https://blog.iseecars.com/longest-lasting-cars-over-200000-miles/
If this was the only time CR was from another source I might be less likely to trust iSeeCars and trust CR. But it seems CR is consistenly different than other sources as far as Car reliability. JD Power always has signficantly different results in reliability versus CR and CR always favors Japanese makes.
Every car can go 200K if you maintain/repair it. The question is how far before the first repair and how much and how often you need to repair.
Anecdotally.. lot of the folks I talk to like to brag how reliable the H and T’s are, whereas folks who drive domestic cars take it for granted. I personally know of several Fords that have gone 300-400k+ but they are not in the survey.
The iSeeCars.com report seems more realistic.
Agree , most cars made in the last 30 years will last 200k+ with maintenance/repair.