[self_driven]

Personally speaking, I am always eager to hit mileage milestones on my cars. In fact, if the car is a few kilometres short of touching a fancy number on the odometer, I often take detours to cover the additional distance before reaching my destination. My phone is full of odometer pictures, right from the mandatory click every 10,000 km to numbers that are just too good to ignore (say 12,345 km), and what not.

While I don't drive with the thought of an impending breakdown, I agree that an unusually high odometer reading will add to my stress while driving. There will be times when I won't be able to head out without second thoughts on the car's reliability or drive it the way I want, which brings me to the topic of this thread.


(Pic: drhoneycake's Fluidic Verna)

Does a high odometer reading bother you? I'm sure it does at some point, although opinions can differ based on individual tolerances, past experiences, vehicle segments and even brand perceptions. The reasons can be multiple, such as boredom from driving the same car, a drop in resale value, reliability concerns, and so on.

For me, 1,50,000 km seems to be the point where the excitement of having 6 digits on the odometer will soon be overshadowed by the car's decreasing reliability. Beyond this point, it will be very difficult to live without a low-mileage secondary/backup car in the garage.

I'd love to know if/what others think about this. Ending the post with links to some related threads:

• Highest reading on the odometer!
• Used Cars: Your upper limit for the km / odometer reading
• How much do kilometers matter in a used car?
• Poll : The right time to sell a new car

[youknowitbetter]

For me the issue is other way round as well, a 5-6 year old car with couple of thousand kilometres under the belt isn't reassuring either as such cars need more TLC. I am part of this group since my running is very limited so I try to take extra car of my car, the manual of my car says that if the car does not run for atleast 8 to 10 kms one way on a regular basis then I must notify that to the service centre so that they can undertake additional checks. Its a different matter that service centre folks don't care and don't even ask me any details when I give my car and Odo is itself a proof that the car doesn't cover a lot of ground.

Coming back to the topic, according to me 50k and above is something that I will keep a keen eye as there can be multifold issues such as rattling (uneven and potholes contributing a lot here), overall service bit (how much of the money saving as been done there), denting and painting, even the upholstery of the car, electronics, buttons etc. Also, another important aspect to look out is how many people have driven the car since if its driven a lot by various people, the car may be subject to even higher abuse.

[Jeroen]

Doesn't bother me at all. Currently out of our fleet of six cars, the lowest odometer reading is about 112k (Ford Fiesta) and the highest is about 335k (Jeep Cherokee).

All six car are in pretty good nick and run very well and have proven to be reliable!.

No worries!

Jeroen

[Axe77]

On a lighter note, the only time my vehicle's odometer reading would bother me is when it has not moved too much in any meaningful block of time!

Most recently I recall that being the case with my 3GT in the first year of ownership of my Meridian - when I realised this I tried to course correct that to some extent by more equitable rotation of usage between the two vehicles.

[sameerg]

I don't think odometer reading bothers me as such, and I have never tampered with the odo readings.

What I, however, do is decide on the usage of a car based on ODO readings. We are a 3-car household with a total yearly usage of 40-45k

So once a car crosses 70k odd, we prefer not to take it on the highway. Last year, I replaced my SX4, which was 14 years old, with 155k on Odo. It was well taken care of and was running fine but since it was delhi registered I had no option to sell it off.

Just 2 months back, I replaced our 9-year-old Innova with 130k on Odo; again, the car was great, but Delhi has different rules.

My 3rd car is vento with 40K on Odo; this was the highway car for the past few years. I know Innova would have been a better option for highway than vento, but this silly OCD of me about not using a car with 70k plus on highway didn't let me. It's stupid, but I can't help it.

[Geo_Ipe]

More than the number itself, what bothers me is who has driven all those kilometres! For example, if the odo stands at 2 lac km and all of it was driven by me, I'm ok with that.

However of I'm looking for a used car and see one with 2L km on the odo, I'm uneasy - but nothing I can't live with. I've always had competent mechanic friends, and maybe a huge chunk of luck too. My used car purchases so far have included a 1979 Ambassador - noone knew how many km she had run and a 2005 Scorpio with 1.7L+ km under her belt.

[Dr.AD]

The odometer reading does not bother me at all. The condition of the car matters a lot to me, regardless of the odometer reading. For example, my 320d is now nearing 100k km mark, and she is still in top shape. I have taken care of every single maintenance need ahead of time, and have maintained her well enough that even at 100k km mark, nothing bothers me about that car.

Originally Posted by Axe77

On a lighter note, the only time my vehicle's odometer reading would bother me is when it has not moved too much in any meaningful block of time!

Well said, and I agree to this 100%. My daily commute is zero (work from home), and in general, my weekday driving is zero. That means I only drive on the weekends. And if I get busy for a couple of weekends due to work travels etc, my cars get unused for two weeks and that bothers me a lot. I recently did a 400km Sunday afternoon drive in the 320d just for this reason - it was unused for a month and that bothered me a lot.

Most recently I recall that being the case with my 3GT in the first year of ownership of my Meridian - when I realised this I tried to course correct that to some extent by more equitable rotation of usage between the two vehicles.

I am in exactly the same boat. Since I got my Thar 4x4 a year ago, I do plenty of road trips in Thar, and that reduced the usage of the 320d a lot. So now sometimes I purposely plan highway drives just to run the 320d, and then use Thar for the more adventurous or the rural drives. But yes, it does take some purposeful planning to make sure both the cars are used equally, especially given that my weekday driving is zero!

[Vikash Kumawat]

High odometer reading does not bother me at all, infact the more odo running the more satisfaction I will get , because of high running capabilities and reliability I love Toyotas, while registering on Team-BHP there was a section "Which car/brand and why" in this section I wrote the same thing. If my car stays without driving it bothers me, like what if tyres will dried, and I invested my money to drive it not to park it. Just keep maintaining your car, it will never leave stranded on road, no matter how much kilometres it has on the odo. There is a proverb in Hindi -
"Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi"
My odo reading -

[ex-innova-guy]

I would say it depends on which car you have. If it’s a Japanese car, then you won’t have to worry much if you follow the service intervals religiously. Just yesterday, I posted on how my ex-Innova did 2,60,000 km without any problems by just following the maintenance schedule to the T. What surprised me was that, after it got totaled, it was bought by someone from the dealer. Not sure if the odo was tampered with while selling it.

[ohaak]

When the car starts having frequent visits to the workshop is when it starts bothering me. For my personal car, bigger numbers on the odometer just mean that the car is being used well. A well built machine should last a while. Periodic visits to detailing shops will keep the car clean and neat like a new car.

[GTO]

If I've owned the car right from the early days, I am fine with driving a car to 1.5 lakh km. Maybe beyond if it's a beater or a Toyota UV. We have owned an Esteem till 200,000 km, my Classic 4x4 until that number and an Accord in the USA to 110,000 miles.

Now though, I'll sell my cars more due to age (or the upgrade itch) than the odometer reading. My 11-year 530d has just 56,000 km on the odometer. My 1.5-year old Thar has 6000.

I drive a lot, but I put more km on newly launched test-drive media cars than my own. Plus work from home, so no daily commute.

[sharmanova]

Originally Posted by ex-innova-guy

I would say it depends on which car you have.

+1
For me the overall condition of the car matters the most. For example- A 1,00,000 km run Octavia TDI can make upto 2-3L kms given if it's not abused and serviced on time using genuine spares

[arindambasu13]

Does not bother me at all. What is more important is how the car is behaving at that particular odo reading. If the car is running like new, and giving me driving pleasure, I am all for continuing to clock the kms.

In fact, I love seeing the odometer tick over with more and more miles clocked, gives me a strange sense of satisfaction and the knowledge that an expensive bit of kit on which I have plonked a ton of money, is being used and enjoyed well

[charanreddy]

I am particularly proud as my car hits mileage milestones. My philosophy is : Why buy a car if we don’t use it to the fullest possible ? Also cars start making economic sense the more miles we put on them ( Price of car / KMs) . Even a humble Alto when driven for 10K KMs in 5 years cost Rs. 50 per KM (INR 5L / 10K ), while my Nexon costed 13L and is close to 80K KMs ( 13L / 80 K ) = 16 Rs / KM.

However if I am buying a used car, 4 yrs / 50K KMs is my limit.

[Haze]

Ten thousand KMs.

Anything less makes me feel I've not utilized the vehicle enough.

Currently have a motorcycle sitting at 8k Km, and I feel guilty about not using it fully all the time.

Higher limits? Don't care. The more the merrier for me.