re: OT mechanics: Vehicle reliability - Mileage vs Age

quote:

---

Both are easy to overcome if you are pretty handy

---

And moreso if you can get into a habit of preventative maintenance. Somewhat of a "major overhaul" at high miles. Some research into common problems and a decent plan can go a very long ways and even if you pay a shop to do it you can possibly come out ahead.

Put it in the shop to the tune of $4k or $5k for a full suspension and driveline wear parts overhaul at 250k miles and you've barely scratched the down payment on a new vehicle while getting yourself maybe another quarter million miles of rattle-free service.

An unfortunate uncontrollable thing with new vehicles is plastic degradation in electrical connectors and plastics in general. You're going to have to start replacing connectors and possibly wiring harnesses eventually, probably around 20 years of age. That's when it started happening to me. Not insurmountable by any stretch but it does introduce a new problem that is not easy to deal with. Replacing a 58 pin connector isn't practical, and changing wiring harnesses is massively difficult and expensive. Once the keepers on connectors start getting brittle and failing, that's my breaking point. I'm looking to get something else. That's at minimum 20 years into the vehicles life though, and zip ties can extend that time-frame by decades.