Older diesels have less to clog up from long periods of idling, but black cab and metrocab drivers still resorted to some unusual methods to keep the things going long term (Talking shoving hosepipes up the exhaust while they’re running and blasting them etc).
As with most things people say about cars there was some truth in it but it's pretty much irrelevant with modern cars as almost all engines will do hundreds of thousands of miles without too much issue.
In the UK most cars are scrapped because of bodywork failure way before the engine has a chance to reach the end of its life.
In places like the Canary Islands where they don't salt the roads you see hundreds of 30 year old Seat Marbellas still being thrashed around the mountain roads with their 800cc petrol engines running perfectly.
Load of BS
There's a couple things.
People who buy diesels are doing mega milage (or should be) so you'll often see them with higher miles, which adds some bias to "they'll last forever"
People who buy petrol cars tend to do shorter trips and a lot of stop start so the cars end up "dying of old age" before they reach big miles, someone might scrap a petrol car at 15 years old with only about 100-125k and claim the car only lasted 100-125k, yes but it was 15 years old and had a lot of short trips. This adds bias in the opposite direction.
Honestly if you took what were considered to be two reliable well proven cars, one petrol and one diesel and drove them identically wracking up big miles over the course of 10 years I reckon they'd fare more or less equally, albeit I'd bet the petrol would fare a bit better (less emissions BS and other diesel bits to go wrong).
This is true for old diesels like Mercedes OM617 and similar , for those engines was common to push 600k miles without rebuild. Not much power but they ran forever. New diesels are alot more fragile way too many things to go wrong : turbo , high pressure pump , dpf , egr , injection valves sensitive to diesel quality , tons of electronics and sensors to go wrong.
Both engines can do over 200k or many more if maintained and looked after. Also remember a turbo diesel is more complex than a NA petrol engine and will have more to look after maintain or repair from wear and tear. I've had 2x Petrol Lexus do over 200k sat in Merc E Classes and BMW 320d's with over 300k. Hell I saw a Prius Hybrid with 650k on, same battery and motors, engine and CVT gearbox.
Load of bollocks, both cars will last for far longer than 100k miles if well looked after. Diesels have a tendancy to hang around longer but that isn't entirely due to more realibility.
A lot of it comes down to how the cars looked after. I have had more than one petrol car going well past 100k, the most being a Volvo 760 that got to over 250k before the head went. The ford Scorpio ( little 2.0l) had 180k before the floor fell out (can't blame petrol for that).
My current V70 is still going strong at 150K.
That being said the VW Scirocco had nothing but problems with the engine and was dead at 90k.
What ever car you go for I would suggest the first thing you do is a service, so you know where you are starting from.
It’s a BS generalisation that completely depends on the engines, but to answer your question yes my car has outlasted several diesel cars mates have had. Old N/A petrol engines are extremely simple and therefore reliable and easy to fix.
I’ve got a 2007 Volkswagen petrol passes it’s MOT with flying colours every year
It’s on about 130k now was about 30k when I bought it.
I imagine it will continue to go for some time yet and as long as it does I will continue to use it - it’s often about how well you look after a car
Diesel cars are usually bought for doing higher miles, motorway journeys etc. so 100k of miles is really not that taxing on a car if it’s motorway miles.
Petrols are for bought by short journey users. Lots of cold starts, acceleration etc. and things like that which put more strain on a car.
However, a well looked after petrol car should last just fine. My 15 year old petrol cayman has 76k miles, never had an issue. My 2020 diesel Audi A4 broke down with 125 miles on the clock on delivery day. It then had constant issues through my three years of ownership.
100K??? Pffft, that's nothing. There are petrols on 250K+. That's just BS to get you to buy a new car.
The idea probably came about because diesel engines are usually a lot less revvy than petrol, meaning less stress on some components.
I'd argue these days it's the reverse with shit like ERG valves and DPF.
Petrols can easily last a hell of a lot longer than 100k miles, I've seen petrols with close to half a million on the clock that run great, my Swift Sport has 122k and has never given me any major engine related issues. Diesels used to be a lot simpler and more agricultural in the past and were a lot better at dealing with neglect, which is probably were the myth came from as most car owners don't know shit about cars and don't maintain them. Modern diesels are complex and fragile due to the abundance of emissions systems they now need, which is usually the cause of most headaches with owners, and they can cost a small fortune to have fixed. Cars are often scrapped because of other things like structural corrosion, which can occur long before the engine is even remotely near the end of its life. The fact that diesels are mostly bought by people who do a lot of miles, due to the better fuel economy, means they will often have a bigger number on the odometer by the time they rust enough to be scrapped.
Also the world record holder for the car with the highest mileage is a Volvo 1800S, which currently has well over 3 million miles on its original engine, which is a petrol.
I don’t. I remember reading it a long time ago in a car magazine.
Taxi driver that lived a few doors away from my parents, used to have a Cavalier 1.8 in the early 2000s and he did mega miles in it , had to change the tyres and brake pads every 6 months . The 1.8 was famous for being understressed
I recall getting in a Cavalier petrol cab in Glasgow that had done over 300k. The driver had it since nearly new and had forgotten how many cambelt and drive shafts it had received.
Several water pumps too but cylinder head never off allegedly.
Have a search around on autotrader. In general, I have rarely seen an average petrol model car sitting at above 150k miles. Most are done by 100k and just clinging onto life by about 125k. Maybe as petrols are more in the domain of private owners throughout their lives and diesel are more likely to start off life being looked after as a business car sort of thing.
The highest mileage cars I've owned were both diesels and were at around 250k miles when I finally called it a day on them. And one of them, I just fancied something else, nowt else wrong with it.
My uncle bought a volvo 340 with a 1.7 petrol engine brand new in 1988, ran it from 1988 to 2002 on his commute from Clacton on sea to Romford....5 days a week, (120 miles a day) often would also visit Yorkshire dales on weekends in summer....speedo stopped at 5/6 years old at 277k miles.....bodywork fell apart, he took the engine and gearbox out and put it another 340 body with a knackered engine and used that car until he retired in 2006.....regular oil changes and cambelts was all it needed....
We have a 1986 2.8i sierra xr4x4, owned for 31 years, manufacturers service intervals are every 6k miles, we halved the oil change intervals to 3k and use 5w30 oil, and genuine ford filters....the oil in that engine is still clean when it's changed, cars done 120k and a compression test on that engine showed that all 6 cylinders are within 5psi of each other and within tollerance for a brand new engine, engines never been apart, but it's done 3 clutches and two gearboxes
Regular oil changes with quality oils and filters are key, even if cars not used regularly....
My own 2016 2.0 tdci mondeo is on 173k and is more economical and responsive now than it was when I bought it, 4 years ago, it has variable servicing, so dash tells me when the oil needs changing, depending on use, it's anything from 5k to 12k intervals, lots of sitting in traffic it's every 5k, lengthy motorway journeys every 10-12k.....
Because as a general statement diesel engines do last longer than petrol ones. But the 100k thing is just wrong.
Only if used as a diesel should be, for lots of long journeys.
all those 300k miles diesel taxis are not a fluke though
Older diesels have less to clog up from long periods of idling, but black cab and metrocab drivers still resorted to some unusual methods to keep the things going long term (Talking shoving hosepipes up the exhaust while they’re running and blasting them etc).
As with most things people say about cars there was some truth in it but it's pretty much irrelevant with modern cars as almost all engines will do hundreds of thousands of miles without too much issue. In the UK most cars are scrapped because of bodywork failure way before the engine has a chance to reach the end of its life. In places like the Canary Islands where they don't salt the roads you see hundreds of 30 year old Seat Marbellas still being thrashed around the mountain roads with their 800cc petrol engines running perfectly.
Load of BS There's a couple things. People who buy diesels are doing mega milage (or should be) so you'll often see them with higher miles, which adds some bias to "they'll last forever" People who buy petrol cars tend to do shorter trips and a lot of stop start so the cars end up "dying of old age" before they reach big miles, someone might scrap a petrol car at 15 years old with only about 100-125k and claim the car only lasted 100-125k, yes but it was 15 years old and had a lot of short trips. This adds bias in the opposite direction. Honestly if you took what were considered to be two reliable well proven cars, one petrol and one diesel and drove them identically wracking up big miles over the course of 10 years I reckon they'd fare more or less equally, albeit I'd bet the petrol would fare a bit better (less emissions BS and other diesel bits to go wrong).
This is true for old diesels like Mercedes OM617 and similar , for those engines was common to push 600k miles without rebuild. Not much power but they ran forever. New diesels are alot more fragile way too many things to go wrong : turbo , high pressure pump , dpf , egr , injection valves sensitive to diesel quality , tons of electronics and sensors to go wrong.
Both engines can do over 200k or many more if maintained and looked after. Also remember a turbo diesel is more complex than a NA petrol engine and will have more to look after maintain or repair from wear and tear. I've had 2x Petrol Lexus do over 200k sat in Merc E Classes and BMW 320d's with over 300k. Hell I saw a Prius Hybrid with 650k on, same battery and motors, engine and CVT gearbox.
Load of bollocks, both cars will last for far longer than 100k miles if well looked after. Diesels have a tendancy to hang around longer but that isn't entirely due to more realibility.
A lot of it comes down to how the cars looked after. I have had more than one petrol car going well past 100k, the most being a Volvo 760 that got to over 250k before the head went. The ford Scorpio ( little 2.0l) had 180k before the floor fell out (can't blame petrol for that). My current V70 is still going strong at 150K. That being said the VW Scirocco had nothing but problems with the engine and was dead at 90k. What ever car you go for I would suggest the first thing you do is a service, so you know where you are starting from.
My current 2003 fiesta, petrol, is on \~130k miles and still going strong.
It’s a BS generalisation that completely depends on the engines, but to answer your question yes my car has outlasted several diesel cars mates have had. Old N/A petrol engines are extremely simple and therefore reliable and easy to fix.
I’ve got a 2007 Volkswagen petrol passes it’s MOT with flying colours every year It’s on about 130k now was about 30k when I bought it. I imagine it will continue to go for some time yet and as long as it does I will continue to use it - it’s often about how well you look after a car
Diesel cars are usually bought for doing higher miles, motorway journeys etc. so 100k of miles is really not that taxing on a car if it’s motorway miles. Petrols are for bought by short journey users. Lots of cold starts, acceleration etc. and things like that which put more strain on a car. However, a well looked after petrol car should last just fine. My 15 year old petrol cayman has 76k miles, never had an issue. My 2020 diesel Audi A4 broke down with 125 miles on the clock on delivery day. It then had constant issues through my three years of ownership.
100K??? Pffft, that's nothing. There are petrols on 250K+. That's just BS to get you to buy a new car. The idea probably came about because diesel engines are usually a lot less revvy than petrol, meaning less stress on some components. I'd argue these days it's the reverse with shit like ERG valves and DPF.
Petrols can easily last a hell of a lot longer than 100k miles, I've seen petrols with close to half a million on the clock that run great, my Swift Sport has 122k and has never given me any major engine related issues. Diesels used to be a lot simpler and more agricultural in the past and were a lot better at dealing with neglect, which is probably were the myth came from as most car owners don't know shit about cars and don't maintain them. Modern diesels are complex and fragile due to the abundance of emissions systems they now need, which is usually the cause of most headaches with owners, and they can cost a small fortune to have fixed. Cars are often scrapped because of other things like structural corrosion, which can occur long before the engine is even remotely near the end of its life. The fact that diesels are mostly bought by people who do a lot of miles, due to the better fuel economy, means they will often have a bigger number on the odometer by the time they rust enough to be scrapped. Also the world record holder for the car with the highest mileage is a Volvo 1800S, which currently has well over 3 million miles on its original engine, which is a petrol.
The UK record is 1.8millon and that’s on a 1.8 petrol Cavalier
Got a link?
I don’t. I remember reading it a long time ago in a car magazine. Taxi driver that lived a few doors away from my parents, used to have a Cavalier 1.8 in the early 2000s and he did mega miles in it , had to change the tyres and brake pads every 6 months . The 1.8 was famous for being understressed
I recall getting in a Cavalier petrol cab in Glasgow that had done over 300k. The driver had it since nearly new and had forgotten how many cambelt and drive shafts it had received. Several water pumps too but cylinder head never off allegedly.
Have a search around on autotrader. In general, I have rarely seen an average petrol model car sitting at above 150k miles. Most are done by 100k and just clinging onto life by about 125k. Maybe as petrols are more in the domain of private owners throughout their lives and diesel are more likely to start off life being looked after as a business car sort of thing. The highest mileage cars I've owned were both diesels and were at around 250k miles when I finally called it a day on them. And one of them, I just fancied something else, nowt else wrong with it.
My uncle bought a volvo 340 with a 1.7 petrol engine brand new in 1988, ran it from 1988 to 2002 on his commute from Clacton on sea to Romford....5 days a week, (120 miles a day) often would also visit Yorkshire dales on weekends in summer....speedo stopped at 5/6 years old at 277k miles.....bodywork fell apart, he took the engine and gearbox out and put it another 340 body with a knackered engine and used that car until he retired in 2006.....regular oil changes and cambelts was all it needed.... We have a 1986 2.8i sierra xr4x4, owned for 31 years, manufacturers service intervals are every 6k miles, we halved the oil change intervals to 3k and use 5w30 oil, and genuine ford filters....the oil in that engine is still clean when it's changed, cars done 120k and a compression test on that engine showed that all 6 cylinders are within 5psi of each other and within tollerance for a brand new engine, engines never been apart, but it's done 3 clutches and two gearboxes Regular oil changes with quality oils and filters are key, even if cars not used regularly.... My own 2016 2.0 tdci mondeo is on 173k and is more economical and responsive now than it was when I bought it, 4 years ago, it has variable servicing, so dash tells me when the oil needs changing, depending on use, it's anything from 5k to 12k intervals, lots of sitting in traffic it's every 5k, lengthy motorway journeys every 10-12k.....