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Comment by rconti | Hacker News Reader

Yup. I've got a 20 year old BMW with 150k miles on it, and it's a fantastic car. But things wear out.

Electric or ICE, as you hit 150-200k, you'll have long since worn through all kinds of rubber bushings on virtually every part, you'll be approaching the point where you've had to replace starter or alternator, you'll have (hopefully) replaced your suspension a couple of times, and so on. As the value continues to decline, the 'value' of spending parts+labor money on any of these replacements starts to decline.

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The transmission, especially on an automatic, is the thing that often does them in. I just recently had one go on a 18 year old Chevy Imapla and decided to sell it rather than fixing it. The body and interior are in very good condition. The problem is that other stuff is starting to go. For example the AC has never been serviced and will be an issue in the near future, I live in Atlanta where that is needed. I've gone through two EGR valves, throttle position sensor etc.. The car, working perfectly can sell for up to $4500 with new tires, but it has old tires (-$400), plus the transmission rebuild/replace is going to be between $2100-$2500. The engine itself is in great shape with no problems and if I wanted to dump more money into it I could drive the car to 300 plus thousand miles, but it is starting to need to have things fixed more and more....

It helped that I was able to get a brand new loaded Volt for $9,000 off plus an additional $7500 tax rebate. which in the end means that I have the best of both worlds for $25,000 with a full warranty etc..

Can I ask what parts you're referring to specifically when you say "replace the suspension"? My car is past 100k at this point and I'm looking forward to what might need to be done to keep it reasonably nice.

Usually, you'd be talking dampers (often called shock absorbers in the UK), and often the springs will have broken.

Having said that, I remember that 20 years ago, those kinds of parts would need to be replaced after maybe 60-80k miles. However, everything seems to be better built now - my van has 214k on it, and no sign of needing replacements - same goes for all the cars I've bought and sold (20 or so) in the last 3 years.

Primarily the shocks / dampeners and their rubber bushings.

You at least need to do struts and shocks, probably springs if they're separate. You'll want to check the strut towers are still decent, or if they need reinforcement.

Going a little deeper, probably your tie rods and sway bar links are shot, as are the control arm bushings (which may or may not be integral with the entire control arm).

It's pretty commonly for shocks/struts/dampers to be worn out by 50-80k miles. As early as 30k. Sure, the car will still seem to generally drive fine, but the point is that all of these things get worse over time.

Further on down the mileage line, virtually everything is wearing out. Rubber bushings in control arms. Rubber bushings in all your rear suspension points. There's rubber EVERYWHERE on cars, and it all wears out. Motor mounts, transmission mounts, shock mounts. Again, it'll still go down the road, but it won't drive like new. You might have a lot of slop in steering, slop in cornering. The car might pull one way or another under acceleration. It'll be louder, harsher, clunkier.

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