The Longest-Lasting Car on the American Road

Cars and Drivers

Published: May 8, 2023 11:30 am

The car industry has been through a churning cycle. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, car dealers closed and could not sell a single vehicle. Then a pandemic-induced parts shortage impacted car inventories and new cars became scarce. The prices of both new and used cars skyrocketed. New car prices are above $40,000 on average, outside the budgets of many Americans.
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Fortunately, the average age of a new car on the American road is over 12 years. Cars are built better than just 30 years ago. Repairs are often less expensive than new car down payments. With car prices at historic heights, the average car age could be 13 or 14 years. (These are the best- and worst-built cars in America.)

iSeeCars has a guide to long-lasting cars. Its new longest-lasting car study includes 23 cars with a 20% chance of lasting more than 250,000 miles. The study looked at 260 million cars sold between 2012 and 2022.

iSeeCars.com Executive Analyst Karl Brauer commented:

Vehicle lifespans continue to grow, with more than 20 cars now having a 20 percent or better chance of lasting at least a quarter million miles. For most of the automobile’s history, 100,000 miles was considered the maximum usable lifespan. Over the past 30 years we’ve watched an increasing number of cars reach 200,000-plus miles, and for our tenth Longest-Lasting Cars Study we’ve expanded our analysis to predict which vehicles have the greatest likelihood of reaching 250,000 miles or more.

ALSO READ: 20 Cars That Have Been Completely Redesigned for 2023

The car most likely to last more than 250,000 miles on the road is the Ford F-350 Super Duty, a heavy pickup. Of these, 49.1% have passed the 250,000-mile benchmark.

Ford F-350 Super Duty (49.1%)
Toyota Land Cruiser (47.9%)
Toyota Tundra (47.9%)
Toyota Sequoia (47.1%)
Ford F-250 Super Duty (43.6%)
Honda Pilot (42.7%)
Toyota Tacoma (41.7%)
GMC Sierra 2500HD (41.3%)
Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD (41.2%)
Toyota 4Runner (41.0%)
Toyota Avalon (33.1%)
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (31.0%)
Acura MDX (29.2%)
Honda Element (27.8%)
Honda CR-V (27.5%)
Honda Accord (27.1%)
Chevrolet Avalanche (26.7%)
Ram 2500 (26.3%)
Ram 3500 (24.3%)
Toyota Sienna (23.3%)

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