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Very cool. It's amazing how complex the combustion engine seems, especially compared to an electric motor. No wonder cars have a limited lifetime of typically some 150-200k miles.

It's going to be really interesting to our purchasing and maintenance patterns for EVs.




Ehh modern engines are pretty reliable. They can easily do over 200k miles. The actual combustion part is basically a solved problem. Modern fuel injection (amongst other things) has done wonders for engine reliability. It's usually other things that cause people to want to ditch cars around 150-200 k. E.g. the automatic transmission failing, timing belt (instead of a chain) failing around 100k, alternator and other electronics, pumps, etc.


A typical car will "last" 200k miles[1].

It's not really still a fair comparison to EVs, because a typical combustion engine will require significant and regular maintenance plus part replacement to make it to 200k.

> E.g. the automatic transmission failing, timing belt (instead of a chain) failing around 100k, alternator and other electronics, pumps, etc.

Exactly why EVs are such a game changer. They literally don't have any of those parts.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/automobiles/as-cars-are-ke...


Batteries in EV cars do need to be replaced at significant expense as well.


Mine's at 291,600 as of a 200-mile trip last night.

Runs like a top!

FYI Chevy trucks sell all the time in my area for good (high) prices with 200k+ miles on them. People don't seem to doubt they'll keep running.

I think many modern engine styles can achieve that, but lack of maintenance does a lot of damage, and most people aren't very good at maintenance. (Me included!)


Just re-commenting from above: my Mazda Protege (with the same engine shown in the video) has 233k and is still going strong, doesn't burn barely a drop of oil. Pretty amazing for a 20-year old car.


>Mazda Protege

I think you misspelled Ford Escort.

Speaking of which, trying to buy a Ford Escort on CList can result in some very ambiguous text messages.

Edit: Thanks for the down-votes. Please read the Wikipedia page on the Escort and Protege. They use the same platform from the 90s onward which was the time when Ford and Mazda collaborated on a lot of stuff. Both flavors of the platform have their pros and cons.




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