10 Cars that Refuse to Die

Kiplinger ^ | 7-2010 | Kiplinger

[Mikey_1962]

10) Olds Cutlass Ciera(GM A-Bodies)1984-1996

9)Geo Prizm 1989-2002 The what? Here’s the story, in short: It’s a Toyota Corolla with a different nameplate, and everyone knows Corollas last forever.

8)Subaru Wagons(All of Them) 1990-Present If all of these failed to start tomorrow, thousands of college professors in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest would have to walk to class.

7)Volvos (Rear-Wheel-Drive Ones)Dawn of Man-1996 To some extent, these are the Subaru wagons’ spiritual and actual predecessors. Volvo's secret? It basically built one car for 25 years under a variety of nameplates.

6)Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Marquis 1992 - 2011 If these can handle police pursuit and taxi duty, they can handle you.

5)Fiat 500 (in Europe) 1957 - 1975 basically, a lawnmower with a roof. Only a handful made it to the states since they top out around 50 mph.

4) Mercedes 300D/300TD 1975-1985

3)Honda Accord 1976 - Present

2) BMW 3-Series 1982 - 1990

1) Jeep Cherokee 1987 - 2001 We’re going to make an exception to our ‘no-trucks’ rule for the Jeep Cherokee. For one thing, it’s not really a truck — the first small crossover SUV, it did not have the traditional body-on-frame construction. But it did have plenty of the Jeep toughness (and a straight-6 engine) built in, and many of these are still roaming America’s secondary roads — and Europe as well, in a turbodiesel variant. Interestingly, even as Jeep came up with the upmarket Grand Cherokee (somewhat less reliable, natch), it kept cranking out the old model, basically due to consumer demand. Oh, one more truck exception? The original Toyota 4-Runner.

[jwalsh07]

My 1998 with 150,000 on it is doing the death rattle from the catalytic converter.

Is it the cat rattling or the heat shield? Heat shield rattle is easy. Cat harder but a good opportunity to put a nice inexpensive catback exhaust with a nice bass tone to it.

[afraidfortherepublic]

That’s handy. Back when we were first married and my husband was still in school, we did that with Plymouths. Used one for parts to fix the other!

[Mike Darancette]

Toyota 2-WD Pickup 199?-2000. Whether it is your local gardener of questionable citizenship or Middle Eastern and third world thugs using one as an assault vehicle/troop carrier, those little trucks will fill the bill.

My little red 1994 was rear ended and declared totaled by the insurance company. I took the money and kept the truck. Total cost of repairs $2.95.

[jwalsh07]

I love my Jeep, beart up as it is. I’ll be sorry when we have to junk it

:-{ I understand my wife is in crisis. The bed and part of uniframe is so rusted I can't find anything to weld to.

[tcrlaf]

Bought a New Grand Cherokee Limited V8 in 1996, and had 250K on it when I traded it in 2002 for a Suburban. Wish I still had it.

NOTHING could stop that truck, from Ontario snow banks to I-65 Snowdrifts.

[OB1kNOb]

Nothing about Buicks?

Ditto. My 2001 Century has 175K and counting and I drive a 100 mile round trip commute to work. Very dependable.

[Califreak]

Nissan trucks will last forever if you just do the basic maintenance.

[wordsofearnest]

I agree. We had a 1990’s Bonneville with that engine, I loved that car.

[Ribeye]

I still have my ‘89 XJ w/280K+ miles and use it to commute from Coeur d’Alene to Spokane every day. It gets much better mileage that my Hemi RAM gas sucker.

The Jeep’s been a work horse. I just replaced the rear main seal last month for the first time.

All I have ever done is change fluids & filters, add a set of Ford Mustang 5.0 fuel injectors and a 4” spring lift. I did have to rebuild the Peugeot 5 speed @ 220K miles but that’s not a surprise considering all of the trail use and abuse it’s seen..

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

I clicked the link to see if the Toyota Corolla was on there. We have a 96 Corolla and have been driving it payment free for 13 years. It still runs great and we have NEVER put any money into repairing anything. Just your standard oil changes and such.

[5thGenTexan]

nobody drives a Crown Vic anymore EXCEPT cops using them as unmarked cars for speed traps

We have a lot of purple, green, yellow, etc. ones on 24" rims here in the DFW area.

[martin_fierro]

1979 - 2001, 197,000 miles, and still running pretty well when I donated it.

[PieterCasparzen]

IMHO...

‘92-’99 S-class, the S320 straight six if you’re smart.

Had a ‘95 S320 with multiple overheats that finally stopped at 267k, i just bought another because I didn’t have time to deal with it.

Have a (nearly identical) ‘99 S320 w/ a little over 100k, running fine. If you do regular maint of plugs/wires/coils, oil/filter change, tires and rotation, air filter, viscous fan clutch, brakes (last a long time), belt, hoses, trans filter fluid (every 100k) and only use recommended premium gas - you won’t need many of these cars to last a lifetime. If you do this work yourself it’s no more expensive than any other car.

They’re in the $5k to $15k price range at this point; they will last a normal 20k miles per year driver 10 to 20 years easily.

Weigh 4,200 lbs, gets 20-22 mpg. Safest cars on the road - I ran one off a highway into the woods and it was just towed out and ran.

I must really like FReepers to give them this info !

[Fresh Wind]

I had a 900 turbo. Bulletproof engine, and you could get an amazing amount of stuff in it, but the rest of the car sucked. Had to totally rebuild the transmission, had lots of trouble with the cooling system, the hydraulics, and the terrible English-made front calipers. The dashboard was a disaster area and that damn transmission lock jammed up on me. It was about ready for a new steering rack when I got rid of it and the body was rotting out. It didn’t handle very well, and it was a chore to drive because of the turbo lag.

I’ll never buy another Saab.

[Hotmetal]

Here in north Mississippi a lot of Amish youts buy used cop cars and put on NASCAR plates(does not have the county on them). They also like Crown Vics to put the crazy large wheels on.

[Jack Hammer]

Still driving my ‘89 Toyota Corolla; runs like a top.

[Utah Binger]

[redangus]

My sister and b-i-l owned a Toyota Previa minivan they put 250K+ on without much service. He used to joke that when you met another Previa owner at the gas pump the first question was always how many miles?

[SoCal Pubbie]

That’s why he had two of them! A I recall, he paid $50 each. I saw a nice 500 a few years ago for sale for $10,000.

[Gena Bukin]

Cannot forget the Toyota pickup truck ! I own one with 194,000 miles ! It is 20 years old now and still keeps on going and don’t plan to get rid of it anytime soon !

Yep. Had an old SR-5 with one of those 22R four-bangers in it. That thing truly refused to die. I wound up just giving it away. Kinda wish I still had it.

No surprise you still see those all over Mogadishu with Soviet-era DShK guns bolted to the beds.