03/07/2026
Every now and then as Car Doctors, we have to make one of those hard phone calls. Today’s was especially hard as we’ve known this car its whole life but at just shy of half a million kilometres and 24 years, it’s time to be put to rest.
It got me thinking, there are almost 70 different car brands selling into Australia at the moment. Peugeot’s distributor have announce in the last week that due to a massive drop in sales (on track to be down 87% for this calendar year according to news.com) they will they will not continue to sell into Australia and blame competing brands from China as reason for the slump.
You may have seen photos of the racks of brand new cars lined up ready for delivery in China. It’s quite a mind blowing scale. But where are are all these cars going and how long will they last?
When one petrol Toyota last for 24 years and almost half a million kms with an unopened engine, transmission and diffs, how many new mass produced cars would be needed to do the same time and kms?
Only time will tell but take this as a bit of encouragement from someone that works daily to keep cars alive, to chat with your mechanic about what a good car to own is.
Sure, most cars on the market drive very well now but do you need to keep your Camry as a spare for when your new (inset any number of non Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, brand names ) is on a wait list for a warranty repair? It’s a bit sad to think that the best years of cars might be behind us (as far as longevity goes) but there are still plenty of good cars on the road that will be running when your neighbours new (whatever) is dead in 6 years. On that cheery note, I wish everyone a great weekend and stay safe on the roads 👍
