My 6 figure car

[MoparMap]

Probably not the 6 figures most people would care about, but I hit the big 100k yesterday on the way home from work in my 04.

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Bought the car about 4 1/2 years ago with 43K on the odometer and have pretty much daily driven it since. A few longer road trips (bringing it home, going to watch a race a few states away, etc.), 2 track days, and plenty of gas and oil later and it still pretty much drives the same.

For an idea of long term reliability for the car for those interested, in the 57k miles I've driven it, I've replaced the oil cooler lines, the power steering main pressure line and fitting, the power steering pump, and the shocks due to failure/poor performance of each component. The shocks were the only really "expensive" fix, but I also wanted to upgrade them anyway, so it worked out. I've also replaced some more general maintenance stuff like a clutch a few thousand miles ago, the plug wires (broke the insulation on one or two installing headers), brake pads, tires, and fluids. I also replaced the diff with a gen 4 unit as I think mine was making a little noise after an "off-road event", but I wouldn't call that a typical replacement issue as it was my own fault.

All told the car has been a joy to drive every mile and is still fun to this day. It never gets old to hop in it to go to work in the morning and miles don't seem to bother it at all. It still puts down nearly 500 hp at the tires with 530 ft-lbs, so age doesn't seem to have dulled its edge any either.

 

[Free2go]

Wow. What a testament to how sturdy these cars are when maintained properly. I hope there are GenV stories like these in the years to come...but it ain't looking pretty right now.

 

[ViperJeff]

Outstanding

 

[pitdad]

Awesomeness!

 

[ViperJohn]

Way to go. The car may have less value, but can you really put a price on all the experiences you enjoyed? Well done. I wish you another 100K miles of enjoyment.

 

[broomrider]

Congratulations.

 

[TalonTSi90]

Yay!! A DD Viper Now i wont feel so lonely when i get mine. Aw shucks... i left that open...

 

[Bonkers]

Very Nice! To me a well maintained 100k car will always have
more value than a 10 miles MSO trophy. Modern motors are
built to last a lifetime - the rubber/electronics, not so much
when you stop using them...

 

[MoparMap]

Way to go. The car may have less value, but can you really put a price on all the experiences you enjoyed? Well done. I wish you another 100K miles of enjoyment.

I figure with a little luck I'll be driving right along the appreciation curve, so every year it gets older and more valuable, I'll have a balance of miles to keep the car the same value from here on out, lol. I bet if I had it professionally detailed it wouldn't look much different than a car with half the miles. It's probably 2/3 highway miles and I'm the only one sitting in it 90% of the time, so the passenger side looks like new.

 

[TalonTSi90]

Very Nice! To me a well maintained 100k car will always have
more value than a 10 miles MSO trophy. Modern motors are
built to last a lifetime - the rubber/electronics, not so much
when you stop using them...

Exactly. When i got my Talon the guy drove it an average of 8k/yr because he was a pilot and lived less than a mile away. Once i started driving it took about a month to kill the CV boots on the front. Things wear out more by NOT being used, who would have thought that?

 

[Bonkers]

Things wear out more by NOT being used, who would have
thought that?

Soft parts do, hard parts dont. Most cars today are built soft
for safety and fuel economy. Id be surprised if even some of
these pampered cars (Enzo, Pagani, ect...) are even drivable
in 100 years while Model Ts are still being driven today...

 

[Free2go]

Most cars today are built soft
for safety and fuel economy.

Don't forget profitability and designed obsolescence.

 

[Bonkers]

Don't forget profitability and designed obsolescence.

You cannot compare design obsolescence of any modern to car
to any other car built after 1930. I have no idea where this
concept popped up, but Id like to kick the guy who coined it
square in the balls for starting numerious fights on other forums.

"Oh, the BA10 in the jeep is pretty much designed to fail after
300,000 miles..."
"The sealed bearings in the Ram are only designed to last
50,000-60,000 miles and then you HAVE to replace them..."
"Its clear the engineers purposely made the timing belt rubber
so you'll be forced to have it serviced after every 100,000
miles..."

The 1968 Plymouth Satelite was designed to last 36,000
miles TOTAL - why? Because 99% of shoppers in 1968 bought
a new car after 3 years. Todays cars, despite their annoying,
padded levels of insane computer interferance are designed
to last 100,000 miles with almost no maintainence at all. Say
what you want, but I do not see this so-called "designed
obsolesence" in any modern automobile - including the Viper...

 

[TalonTSi90]

You cannot compare design obsolescence of any modern to car
to any other car built after 1930. I have no idea where this
concept popped up, but Id like to kick the guy who coined it
square in the balls for starting numerious fights on other forums.

"Oh, the BA10 in the jeep is pretty much designed to fail after
300,000 miles..."
"The sealed bearings in the Ram are only designed to last
50,000-60,000 miles and then you HAVE to replace them..."
"Its clear the engineers purposely made the timing belt rubber
so you'll be forced to have it serviced after every 100,000
miles..."

The 1968 Plymouth Satelite was designed to last 36,000
miles TOTAL - why? Because 99% of shoppers in 1968 bought
a new car after 3 years. Todays cars, despite their annoying,
padded levels of insane computer interferance are designed
to last 100,000 miles with almost no maintainence at all. Say
what you want, but I do not see this so-called "designed
obsolesence" in any modern automobile - including the Viper...

We are getting back to where some cars are designed to last longer, but you have to admit that for a couple decades they were pumping some total hose poop with the expectation they would sell you another one. Look at crash statistics, you crash pretty much any newer model car these days and its totaled. My dads 1973 Dodge Tradesman 200 had 150k on the clock when he got it and when we got rid of it due to what we thought were failing brakes at 393k, it still ran hard enough to smoke a 350 Nova (i was driving, first street race and the guy was pissed he got smoked by a VAN with a 125cfm carb lol), used a qt of oil every day and a qt of tranny fluid every other day. But that 318 would have run for another 200k im sure before anything internal would have failed.

 

[Bonkers]

Up until the Japanese began making 100k-mile cars there was no
logical reason to build a 100k mile car here in the US. It wasnt
about quality - it was about profitability. Why plate the block in
24k gold when the buyer was probably going to scrap it in five
years? When the Datsuns and Hondas stormed the market and
people began... not buying... the marketplace shifted gears to
match demand.

All Im saying is that the biggest **** on the market now is
pretty much guarenteed to run a healthy 100k if you dont
hit anything with it. I dont see where this so-called "designed
obsolensence" affects any car being built in the last decade,
but you can be damned sure people will ***** about it the
second a part fails after "only" 75,000 miles...

(if its not obvious, this is one of my pet-peeve subjects...)

 

[MoparMap]

With good maintenance even old cars will last pretty dang long without issue. To some degree the engineers had to pick some kind of number to design to for the purpose of selecting parts. For instance, as mentioned bearings have specific suggested cycles to failure. That doesn't mean they will instantly stop when they reach that threshold, but they aren't guaranteed to last forever either. Every once in a while a manufacturer will have a design flaw that might "limit" life of a part, but the easiest thing to do at that point is just replace the parts and keep the line moving. Redesigning the entire system to try to truly resolve the problem is often not worth the effort with the short design cycles that seem to be present in modern vehicles.

 

[Rnj1]

Back to the OP, in the 70's, I used to drive to work in Seattle, there was this old codger who had a late 50's or early 60's black vet that was his Daily Driver.
I always thought he looked so cool in that old black vet with add on chrome tear drop mirrors, a couple of bumper stickers, paint deteriorated, every day...the car looked like it had been through hell...
but every day, he was on that highway, doing about 60, rumbling along... (not calling the OP an Old Codger...)

 

[Free2go]

I've only driven a Gen2, and I'll be damned if I could daily drive it. It's my weekend cruiser. I prefer my Durango Citadel with the air conditioned seats these days....

 

[Bonkers]

If I thought my baby would be safe at work (and I didnt have
an unkept dirt road to drive on to get there) there is no
question in my mind that my GTS would be my daily driver.
Id still have my Ram or Jeep for snow/salt though...

If I were to get a new GT2 it would have to be a daily since
I wouldnt be able to keep the Challenger...

 

[MoparMap]

I really have a near perfect commute, so I can't complain. It's about 5 miles across town at 6:00, so no real traffic to speak of, then 20 miles down a nice 70 mph highway with a similar lack of traffic to a smaller town. I've never really worried about parking my car anywhere to begin with, though I typically don't visit really big cities with a "rough side of town". The lot I park in at work probably only holds around 50 cars anyway, so it's not too bad either.