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Hypothetical vehicle purchase fun

K85 Octane

K85 Octane

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You have 3 options and 1 choice to make.
Let's say the sellers are all asking the same price.
3 identical used 2020 Honda Civics
Wildly different wear
All 3 located in the same city, does climate matter?


1) Dude buys the car, drives it home, parks it idling in the driveway while he runs into the restroom and forgets about it. Somehow it idles for 5 years straight, nonstop outside before it gets posted for sale. Odometer reads 10 miles.


2) Garage kept short commuter car. Husband and wife share 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 5 years. It drives one way to work 2.75 miles through traffic similar to downtown NYC, into a parking garage, every day. The owners don't run the car in the garage cause its stinky so it starts and they leave. Odometer reads 10,000 miles.


3) Garage kept long haul commuter car. Transports the driver but sometimes 3 other adults. 99% cruise control highway miles. Odometer reads 250,000 miles.

All 3 need tires, you guess why.
All 3 had recommended 15k mile oil changes.
Long haul had timing belt changed once and trans serviced 3 times.
No other maintenance was done


I would love to discuss. I think this is a good question but I don't mind editing this as folks bring up better scenarios. I originally thought the short commuter car would take 3 kids to school/sports each day, but 5 years of that might be too much.

:D
 
If the prices are the same its #2 to buy.
If the prices are proportional to the miles I would roll the dice on a super cheap 250,000 mile civic.

I have had some pretty good luck buying 150,000 mile cars, running up another 50,000 and dumping them at 200,000, while basically getting my money back. Buy for a few grand, do fluid changes and a set of tires and then get my few grand back. Fluids and tires cost money regardless of if you keep the car or sell it, after 50,000 its time for that stuff again anyway. My favorites were late model but lots of highway miles.

I also had a tough time discounting a car that needed tires but they would sell quick with new tires at a higher price, even with no name el cheapo tires. I personally would take a deal and then get the tire I want, people didn't seem to think that way.
 
#2 - it’s out of the weather / sun most of its life so the paint and the interior should be in the best shape of the choices. Mechanically, it’s a Honda, I wouldn’t be afraid of any of them unless they showed signs of abuse.
 
Having owned a Honda civic or 2, and have done maintenance on cars:
I would stay away from cars that only do short trips especially in traffic.
To me #2 is probably worse than #3 in regards to engine wear.
Our 2003 Honda civic had 255k when I first changed to timing belt and spark plugs, it was still in good shape and the engine compression was still 210-215psi
Someone loosened the oil filter at my job and lost the oil on the way home and lost the engine at 265k.
Otherwise it would go another 100 or more.
Interior would be another thing to look at but you didn't mention anything about the condition
 
I try to keep the interior a guess, judging by the way it was used. Same with climate. The short trip car in a very cold climate would steer me away. But a cold climate would be better for the one that sat outside idling, it would be at temp and the outside paint/rubber condition would fair better than a southwest climate. Short trip car would have done better in warner climate but still have lots of wear and tear for low miles.

Rock Paper Scissors kinda thing

Maybe it changes if I say this car is the last car you'll own. Stuck with it :D not flipping later.
 
I'd go number 1.
I'll take high idle hrs over road abuse.
We had an 05 Silverado here at work that I know for a fact had over 30,000 hrs on. And I didn't start tracking them till 2013. Only had about 50k on the odometer. But that thing purred like a kitten and ran great.
Still was fine when they decided to replace our whole fleet and it was auctioned off.
 
#1. The entire car is brand new except idle hours. No suspension work, tie rod ends, interior work, wheel bearings, brakes etc, is needed. And only 5 years of sitting in the sun. Plus it did all those idle hours totally in closed loop.
 
Tnsejed said:
#1. The entire car is brand new except idle hours. No suspension work, tie rod ends, interior work, wheel bearings, brakes etc, is needed. And only 5 years of sitting in the sun. Plus it did all those idle hours totally in closed loop.
Click to expand...
This could go the other way, as well. Pads could be rusted to the rotors, wheel bearings frozen and everything underhood chewed by mice. Also, that car went ~44,000 hours without an oil change. Keep in mind 3,000 miles at 60MPH is only 50 hours. A lot of equipment specifies change it at 150 hours. The longest period anyone recommends is probably 1 year (low use). Condensation won't be an issue in this case, but the oil will be like pure acid. So actually, the scenario of it still running is probably not possible. You could modify it that the car was stopped periodically, oil changed and then restarted, so it ran like 99.9% of 5 years. Never mind that somebody filled the tank every 2 days, totaling nearly 11,000 gallons of gas for a car they weren't using (assuming a quart of gas an hour - the exact number isn't important).

But the correct answer is #4 - none of the above. They're all Civics.
 
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Blue85 said:
This could go the other way, as well. Pads could be rusted to the rotors, wheel bearings frozen and everything underhood chewed by mice. Also, that car went ~44,000 hours without an oil change. Keep in mind 3,000 miles at 60MPH is only 50 hours. A lot of equipment specifies change it at 150 hours. The longest period anyone recommends is probably 1 year (low use). Condensation won't be an issue in this case, but the oil will be like pure acid. So actually, the scenario of it still running is probably not possible. You could modify it that the car was stopped periodically, oil changed and then restarted, so it ran like 99.9% of 5 years. Never mind that somebody filled the tank every 2 days, totaling nearly 11,000 gallons of gas for a car they weren't using (assuming a quart of gas an hour - the exact number isn't important).

But the correct answer is #4 - none of the above. They're all Civics.
Click to expand...
In the fine print he mentioned all of them had regular oil changes.....
Which would maybe cause issues if it stayed running :thinking:
But it's hypothetical lol.
 
I suppose you could use a pump down the dipstick tube to suck out of the pan, while pouring new oil in the fill, but changing the filter sounds like a huge mess and severe burns.
 
Although impossible, it's an interesting scenario of a car running for 5 years. If 3000 miles is 50 hours, then that engine has the equivalent of 2.64 million miles on it. Divide that by average driving RPM compared to idle speed and it's ballpark of 1 million miles. How long will plugs last at idle? How much does the coolant anti-corrosion loss depend a lot on run-time vs. age? Is there an environment where the air filter isn't completely plugged before that? What's happened to the valve seats, rocker tips, cylinder bores, bearings and timing chain? Can a front main or rear main seal last that many revolutions? When do the transmission pump and input seals wear through? At what point did the O2 and MAF sensors wear out so the engine started to run like crap and the condition spiral downhill? Is that before the timing set wears out and destroys the valvetrain?

The closest data probably comes from OTR trucks and things like Greyhound busses. Maybe taxis.

In short, the engine never made it that long and is trash.
 
shady said:
In the fine print he mentioned all of them had regular oil changes.....
Which would maybe cause issues if it stayed running :thinking:
But it's hypothetical lol.
Click to expand...

@Blue85 pointed it out that oil changes were done at 15k miles, so yeah my choice of #1 didn't have an oil change...

But still its a civic. I'd slap a junkyard engine it, rock that ****er back and forth until the pads broke free, and then go deliver pizzas.
 
So...

To build on this, to "critically think" about something. (As dumb as it is)

What would you change for each vehicle to make them more even? To make the choice harder between in three.

Does #1 need to be garage kept? If it only idled for 2-3 years, it might become too clear a winner :dunno: If #2 took place in downtown Phoenix, a hot dry climate, does that help or hurt? Helps engine wear...maybe hurts trim/ rubber parts??

What current differences are also making the choice tough. Like...why is one choice SO not the right one.

Better than talking about MN :doah::D
 
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