WHAT IS HIGH MILEAGE?

I usually keep my cars between 8-10 years. Although I agree you can keep a car even longer, the new safety and other features new cars are being introduced with does make it attractive to trade up to a more recent model. For example, my 2005 Acura RL which came loaded with AWD, adaptive headlights, bluetooth, memory seats, keyless access and start etc. - I now see these features and more becoming standard on less expensive models.

Hi mark. For me, it's both. I make a lot of short trips, one or two a day, but about once a month or less I go see my 94 year old Dad, a 300+ mile round trip. I do it in one day. I stay all day, but come back home at night. Every single item in my scheduled maintenance has miles/months whatever comes first. Some of the items the mileage will come first, others time elapsed. And I follow it religiously. Even before, NEVER over. My car specs say the transmission fluid is good for the life of the car...and far be it for me to think I know more than the designers of the transmission I find that hard to accept and did a drain-and-fill at 60k something miles anyway. Highway miles are far less wear-and-tear on any car, cruising at 70@2400 rpm. But it's true about gas mileage. At 60 I get 40mpg on a flat no wind stretch. At 70 it's 36.

Oh yeah, that post was not there and I forgot your real question. I intend to keep my Corolla until the wheels fall off. Best car I ever owned.

Preventive maintenance is the best way to keep your car running in top condition, I completely agree with you. Wow, the fuel mileage on your Corolla is outstanding for a non hybrid car. How many miles do you have total on your 2006? I understand that most newer automatic transmission cars today have a sealed system so, they're right, no need to mess with that unless you have a problem. My CVT transmission has no dipstick for even checking the fluid. An engineer told me that the new CVT transmissions can go even further than conventional automatics and they're simpler in design. Yes, everyone says highway miles are less taxing, but, they add up quickly.

And, those highway miles can wear down your tires just as fast with all that friction.

77k and change Mark on my Corolla. It does rival hybrids, and the new Corollas don't get that good mpg. Especially the CVT's. On time I had a strong tail-wind out in the S. Calif desert, and for 120 miles I got 44mpg! @65mph. But that was a direct tailwind, so not valid in real comparisons. It consumes ½ quart of oil in 8,000 miles which is when I do my oil changes with Mobil1 5W30 and a Mobil1 filter. There are other good filters, but I just cringe when I see somebody pay $8/quart for Mobil1 then put a $3 Fram filter on it. And all due respect, I think exclusive city-stop-and-go, accelerating, braking and turning will put more wear on tires. I have no proof, no science behind that, strictly opinion. Not a lot, but measurable. And sure, highway miles add up quickly, but mile for mile, two identical cars with the same tires and same inflation psi one strictly highway and the other city only, the car with the same number of miles driven on highway will have less general wear-and-tear. If I were buying a car, and there were two identical Corollas side by side both 2006 and one had 50,000 city miles and the other 80,000 highway, same price, I would buy the 80k highway car.

Ok, I went surfing and there have been no studies done (that I could find) city vs. highway. There are some graphs about tire wear on properly rotated vs. non rotated and the results are predictable. But after reading several articles the there is some indication of city-being harder on tires...and the reason is road surface. The majority of surface-streets are in worse condition that a freeway or a back-road two-lane road from Podunk to Nowhere. http://www.randomuseless.info/tires/tires.html

vmd99 maybe I'm just old, but I am fairly tech-savvy, not expert but no novice. Not anti-technology. All this new stuff personally I have no use for. FREEDS. Frustrating Ridiculous Expensive Electronic Devices. Toyota eliminated cruise control on new Corollas to add navigation, EnTune, bluetooth, etc and keep costs down. My Phone has GPS and bluetooth and it's not even a 'smart phone' And things like lane assist ans brake assist lead to driver complacency ..."Oh, I don't have to pay attention the car will do it for me" that attitude is far too prevalent. rear-view cameras? No. Before backing up walk around your car, it's a good habit to have anyway, look for bicycles/trash cans TODDLERS then use your mirrors. Again, my opinion Gentlemen

Fordnut, when I got my car last year, the owner prior to me, put almost 30,000 miles in one year, so, the only thing I could conclude is that it was a highway car. All of the scheduled maintenance was taken care of and the car was kept in excellent condition. I'm retired and have the car now and use primarily for longer road trips and tow a small tear drop trailer under one thousand pounds. The Outback has a tow capacity of 2,700 so, it's very easy to do this. My car was completely reconditioned and sold to me as a CPO car and I purchased the extended warranty to 100,000 miles. It does have the standard features you would find on a 2010 car, but, no navigation, no lane assist or back up camera. I agree with you that you should always look around you before backing up, camera or not. I have no experience with lane assist, but, I do think it would be desirable to have pre-collision braking offered on some cars for safety. Subaru has gotten praise for their "Eye Sight" technology. I do have Bluetooth and Sattelite radio and think they're fantastic technologies, in fact, you should use Bluetooth through your car's audio system when talking in the car, highly desirable for safety. That's interesting about the highway vs. City tire wear. My first thought is that the speed of the tires would cause more wear, but, you know, you've raised an excellent point about city streets being in worse condition. Good point. You can purchase Mobil One at Costco and save money. I generally keep my cars to around 125,000 to 150,000 miles give or take. The best reason to purchase a newer car is for safety, fuel mileage and safety features. Cars are terrible investments and they depreciate, so, all you can do is get the best service return on the dollar for the time you own it. Just getting a new one to have the latest "fad" is one of the worst financial moves you can make and in 9 out of 10 cases, its a matter of ego. Finally, CVT transmissions are relatively new in cars again. I say again, because, they were introduced before and had some start up problems. In the past, CVT used "rubber belts", and in the case of the Subaru Lineartronic transmission, they use a "metal belt", a really strong one. Actually, CVT transmissions were originally designed by Leonardo da Vinci, so, idea for this has been around for 500 years! Problem was, it took a long time to get this to fruition in actual use, but, the idea was great. CVT has been used in snow mobiles for years as well. OK, so, maybe you've never been in a car with CVT? Imagine the sensation you feel when a jet aircraft takes off at the airport, the engine revs up to full speed and the plane just takes off, no first, second, third, etc. In the case of the CVT, the engine speed just revs up and the car takes off and changes gears constantly with the speed of the engine as you accelerate. It's so seem less, you don't even know it's happening. There have been countless articles on the Internet about whether CVT or manual shifts get better mileage. Truth is CVT's do get better gas mileage, that's why they're putting them in newer cars. They're trying to comply with the Federal Government standards for better gas mileage. Was it different in the old days with manuals, yes it was! But, the game has changed and changed for the better. There are paddle shifters on my Subaru with six pre-determined steps on the entire range of gearing to emulate shift points and control the speed of the car. So, don't rule out CVT , they are much more versatile than you might think. Who knows, maybe your next car will have CVT if you decide to take one for a test drive, you might actually like it. Incidentally, Subaru's CVT has gotten rave reviews from those who have purchased it. Of course, there will always be a dissenting view on this, but, the resale value on manual shift cars is much less and it's harder to sell a manual shift car. In the last few cars I've owned I had no auto transmission issue at all. Maybe its cause I'm older now and much easier on cars? Good luck with your Corolla, should be good for another ten years.

Here's a picture of my car with the trailer. I've been getting 22 mpg towing my teardrop trailer. The trailer is a fiberglass composite unit, and is 900 pounds fully loaded.

I did a little more research on NADA, that's the National Automobile Dealers Association, a comparable tool for Kelly Blue Book. I discovered that at a certain point in a vehicle's life as they get older, mileage has an almost zero effect on the car's value. In fact, the difference between a car with 200,000 miles and 300,000 miles was about $500. So, if you're the person who loves driving the wheels off your car, this is definitely the best news for you. Condition is everything in a used car.