Auto experts caution that the industry may be on the verge of an affordability crisis. According to Kelley Blue Book, the average transaction price for a new vehicle in the U.S. has reached nearly $36,600, which is up by about $1,000 over the last 12 months. Edmunds.com says the average new-vehicle loan payment is now at $556 a month for a 69.4-month term.
Aside from proper care and maintenance, the best way to ensure you'll get your money's worth - and then some - when shopping for your next car, truck or sport-utility vehicle is to choose one that's best suited to deliver many, many years of faithful service. Whether it's stocks, bonds or autos, buy-and-hold is always a sound financial practice.
While it's true that just about any of today's new vehicles can eventually reach the 200,000-mile mark and beyond, some models prove to be inherently easier, cheaper, and more amenable to keep running than others. To help identify them, the automotive data and research company iSeeCars.com looked at more than 13.8 million used-vehicle transactions conducted last year. What they found is that, for the most part, the longest lasting cars on the road are trucks.
Of the 14 vehicles the website determined are most likely to be driven for more than 200,000 miles, nine are SUVs. While most are of the burly truck-based variety, the list does include a hybrid gas/electric-powered crossover model. Also represented are three pickup trucks, a minivan, and a single sedan. We're featuring the complete list in the accompanying slideshow.
Topping the list is the full-size Toyota Sequoia truck-based SUV, with 7.4% of all models trading hands during 2018 having registered more than 200,000 miles, with many more left in the proverbial tank. The industry average among all vehicles is 0.8%. "Full-size SUVs like the Sequoia are built on truck platforms so they have the durability of a truck and the cargo space for up to eight passengers," says iSeeCars.com CEO Phong Ly. "Toyotas are known for their reliability, and our findings show that these capable family haulers are able to go the distance for their owners."
In addition to industry-wide stats, iSeeCars.com lists which models in each vehicle category are most likely to last the longest. For example, the top-selling full-size Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup trucks are slightly above average in this regard, with 1.9% and 1.8% of them, respectively, finding new owners last year with over 200,000 miles on the clock. Among sports cars, the Mazda MX-5 Miata roadster is most likely to be driven into dust, with 0.6% of them trading garages last year with more than 200,000 miles driven.
And that's just the beginning for some vehicles. The study notes that six of the 14 models on the longest-lasting list are twice as likely than the national average (0.2% versus 0.1%) to continue running well in excess of 300,000 miles. Assuming an owner drives 12,000 miles per year, this comes out to at least 25 years of blissful operation, with most of them coming without a car payment. Now that's longevity.
You can read the full report here.
The fine print: iSeeCars.com analyzed over 13.8 million pre-owned cars sold during 2018 from the 1981 through 2018 model years. Vehicles that were not in production as of the 2018 model year, heavy-duty trucks, and low-volume models were not included. For each model, the percentage of the number of cars with at least 200,000 miles on the odometer when sold was calculated.
By: www.forbes.com
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