The service life of the car is a purely individual parameter for each vehicle. Therefore, when buying a car, you can’t say exactly how long it will last. It may fail in 10 years, but there have been cases when a new car broke down along the route from a car dealership immediately after purchase.
Resistance classes
Of course, manufacturers when marking models indicate the resistance class and the depreciation period. The first digit in the marking is believed to indicate this. However, everyone understands that this method of determining the life of the car is doubtful. Ideally, you need to look at the real experience of using a car by other drivers, read reviews and get other practical data. It is generally accepted that new cars with the first, second or third class serve from 3 to 5 years, cars of the fourth class will drive 5-7 years, and the fifth - designed for 7-10 years of service.
Useful life - individual parameter
The concept of the useful life of a car does not depend on the vehicle itself. To a greater extent, it is determined by the operating conditions. If you pour cheap oil into the engine and do not change it every 10 thousand kilometers, then any car will not travel for a long time, and here resistance classes do not play any role. However, cars with timely service and low annual mileage will be able to last much longer without causing any problems to the owner.
Many car owners know from personal experience that a second-class car can last more than 20 years in terms of useful life. And then it can even be sold quite expensively. The new owner will also ride for 5-10 years, but only subject to timely maintenance.
What determines the real life of a car?
Standard lifetime calculations for the private owner do not matter. They are taken into account only for the financial statements of companies on whose balance there are cars. The private owner only needs to know that the car will behave normally in different situations on the road and will be able to deliver it from one point to another.
You can derive many criteria that affect the real life of the car, regardless of which class is assigned to it.
- Mileage for the year. Of course, one of the most important factors is one that determines how long the machine will last. If the car will stand in the garage for ten years, then it will only lose its appearance, however, the condition of internal parts and friction pairs will be ideal. Cars of some drivers run 30-40 thousand kilometers per year. Naturally, the life of such vehicles in years will be lower.
- Storage of transport. This is another important factor that plays a role and determines the condition of the car. If the car is always on the street, then there will be corrosion on the body. In garage storage, corrosion can be avoided for many years.
- Timely maintenance of the machine and the replacement of all prescribed "consumables" on time. The manufacturer in the instructions indicates after what mileage or time it is necessary to change the oil, air, gasoline, oil filters, etc.
- Use of original consumables and spare parts for maintenance. Often there are analogues on the market that are cheaper than original parts. Using them is not recommended.
- Quickly resolve problems with the operation of vehicles.
- Driving style, attitude to the car.
- The condition of the roads.Cars in Europe serve much longer than the same brands in Russia. One of the reasons is the quality of the road surface. If the vehicle most of the time will drive on a perfectly flat road without potholes, it will last longer. In Russia and the CIS countries, the condition of roads is noticeably worse, which explains the frequent repairs of running gear of vehicles.
Area of use of transport
To these criteria, you can also add the scope of the transport. For example, if a car carries loads with a lot of weight, then its suspension will fail faster than the suspension of a car that only one person drives. Although engines and suspensions are designed for increased loads in large trucks and trucks, statistics show that such cars have a shorter real life compared to passenger cars.
Also, frequent washing and car body care will extend its life. And in general, the car body is the only thing that cannot be replaced. All other parts, including the engine, can be replaced with new ones. However, if the body metal is damaged, the repair will be expensive.
Average vehicle life
In Russia, the average service life of cars, established by most manufacturers, is 5 years or one hundred thousand kilometers. This means that if a car has traveled 100 thousand kilometers or stood in a garage for 5 years without movement, the owner of such a car is no longer entitled to demand repair from the manufacturer in the event of a breakdown. Even in the case of factory defects, the manufacturer will not eliminate the defect and repair the car. 5 years or 100 thousand kilometers - this is the warranty period for a car most often set by manufacturers.
It is worth noting that such a deadline is set for a reason. After 100 thousand kilometers with many cars, problems begin, so most car owners are trying to sell them as soon as possible. Often on advertising platforms you can see ads for the sale of cars that are only 4-5 years old or their mileage is 100-120 thousand kilometers.
The most reliable cars with long service life
American company J.D. Power and Associates, based on a survey of 80,000 new car owners, rated the reliability of cars. The company’s analysts for each manufacturer determined the number of problems that 100 car owners had during the first 90 days of operation. Concerns whose cars had the least problems got first places.
The second year in a row, the Korean concern Kia won first place. For 100 sold new cars, an average of 72 malfunctions.
Second place - the Korean company Genesis (a subsidiary of Hyundai) with the result of 77 faults per 100 cars.
Third place - Porsche. There are 78 breakdowns per 100 sold Porsche cars.
The remaining places in the ranking receive the following brands:
- Ford
- Chrysler
- BMW.
- Chevrolet.
- Hyundai.
- Lincoln.
- Nissan
Considering the fact that these models are characterized by a smaller number of breakdowns, we can conclude that their service life is longer in comparison with competitors' cars. However, with improper operation, even they will not last long.
How to extend the life of the car?
Each more or less experienced driver knows perfectly well that the car must be serviced in a timely manner and with high quality. If you follow the manufacturer's recommendations, then the service life of the car in years or kilometers can be significantly increased.
Here is a list of recommendations to be followed:
- Strictly undergo technical inspections on time and carry out repairs in accordance with the rules.
- Buy only original spare parts. Non-original counterparts, cheaper in price, can ultimately lead to more serious damage.
- Do not carry loads that exceed the maximum load capacity of the vehicle.
- Stick to speed limits and gear shifting recommendations.
- Do not increase the load on the motor unless absolutely necessary. That is, you do not need to sharply start or accelerate to high speed and then suddenly slow down at traffic lights. It is important to slow down when driving on a bad road. So you can significantly reduce the load on the car's suspension and extend its life.
All these are simple, familiar to all actions that few adhere to. However, if you follow the manufacturer's recommendations, take care of the car and not overload it, then after decades, the iron horse will look like new. Even after the sale, such vehicles will be successfully operated for years and will not cause the new owner any problems. Therefore, you should not save on technical inspection and original spare parts, because all this will allow you to get rid of problems in the future.
Butter
A separate issue is with oil. The fact is that lubrication plays one of the most important roles in the operation of engines. Once you fill in the wrong grease, the motor can be seriously damaged.
It is not enough to adhere to the manufacturer's recommendations regarding the use of oil. It is also necessary to ensure that this product is original. The market is full of fakes, which are not recommended to be filled in strictly. It is also worth monitoring the viscosity of the oil. If the machine is operated somewhere in the North, where the air temperature is low, then the viscosity of the liquid should be appropriate.
As for old engines, their service life can be extended by changing the oil on a synthetic basis to a semi-synthetic. It is confirmed that on older engines, which almost always have microcracks, a semi-synthetic product works better. So in this case, the manufacturer’s recommendations to use only “synthetics” may not be appropriate.
Fuel
If you fill in the 92nd gasoline in a car whose engine is designed to work with low sulfur gasoline, then it will not last long. Many drivers try to save on fuel and lubricants and pour cheaper fuel into the tank, as a result of which the service life of the car is reduced. In engines of Euro-4 and Euro-5 standards, it is necessary to fill only the 95th or 98th gasoline and not experiment with other types.
Conclusion
The standard service life of a car is 5-6 years on average. Many cars do not even live up to this period. Other vehicles have been in use for decades. Old Russian Muscovites of 1974 are still driving on Russian roads. These cars have traveled more than a million kilometers and still confidently drive on domestic roads.
So the service life of a vehicle is a very rough concept. Therefore, no one can say how long your new car will run.