30/09/2025
How Many Miles on a Car is Actually Bad?
For years, the magic number was 100,000 miles — once your car hit that, people assumed it was ready for the scrapyard. But that’s an outdated myth.
🚗 Modern cars can easily last 150,000–200,000 miles with proper maintenance. What really matters isn’t just the odometer reading, but:
📘 Service history (Was it cared for?)
🏷 Brand reputation (Toyota vs. BMW = different long-term costs)
🛣 Type of miles (Highway = good, stop-and-go city = tough)
⏳ Mileage-to-age ratio (10k miles per year is “average”)
💡 Example: A 5-year-old car in the USA should have around 67,500 miles. Way above? Heavy use. Way below? It may have sat idle, which also causes problems.
👉 So the real question isn’t “How many miles?” but “How was this car driven and maintained?”
Would you buy a car with 150,000 miles if it had a perfect service record?