[rsuelzer]

Agree with all of this, however, I remember when an American car making it to 100k miles without major problems was nearly unheard of. Or at least, that's how I seem to remember it. My parents had several Dodge / Chrysler's in the 1990's that had catastrophic failure before reaching 100k miles. The exception was our Ford Escort which lasted to 180k miles before the engine needed a rebuild, which likely had something do with a sibling not changing the oil for 25k miles.

It seems like we have more reliable engines, drive trains, and less reliable $2 chips that turns those things on.

[stubybubs]

> Dodge / Chrysler's in the 1990's

Absolute garbage. Made me swear off domestic cars.

> we have more reliable engines

I think one of the best inventions to really come into use in the last 25 years is multi-layered steel (MLS) head gaskets. A lot of cars use to pop head gaskets regularly when they were made of compressed paper and other things. After the switch to MLS, even shitty Dodges could go the life of the car with a blown head gasket. Not blowing a head gasket means a lot less wear on every other part of the engine: no more oil in your coolant, coolant in your oil etc.

https://www.underhoodservice.com/the-evolution-of-mls-gasket...

That and stainless steel exhaust systems are underrated inventions. I remember seeing dropped mufflers on the side of the highway regularly when I was a kid. Then it just kind of... stopped. Didn't find the reason until many years later: the switch to stainless exhausts.

[rodgerd]

Years ago Jeremy Clarkson wrote in a Times column (where he is generally less trollish than his TV shows) that he rejected the idea that Japanese car makers only copy: they were responsible for the great innovation of the idea that a car could be something that you get in, that starts reliably, and that you don't find yourself guessing whether you'll be able to use it on a day-to-day basis.

People who suffered through cars in the 70s and even 80s would be inclined to agree with him; unfortunately, it turns out that Bill Gates was wrong, and when cars are built the way programmers code, it takes us back to that lamentable state of affairs.

[lgleason]

It's definitely more common today, but it did happen even back then. I think part of the issue was that back then more of the population was in the north where the cars would rust before they hit that mileage.

Ironically the private car that holds the world record for the most miles is the Volvo p1800 from the 60's. It wasn't American, but was an interesting feat non the less.

[mathstuf]

I had the trusty 4.0L I-6 in my '89 Cherokee. 160k miles on it when it was sold to the next owner (local garages didn't want to touch it/wanted to fix way more than needed and I was too far for regular visits to my dad's garage; it now does offroading stuff with the new owner).

My dad has seen these go to 285k before the (original) transmission gave up (which retired the engine too). Over 300k was also reported. Of course, upkeep among mechanics is also likely of higher quality too.

Alas, AMC is no more and Chrysler ruined their engines out of jealousy (at least that's my dad's view on it).

[rz2k]

I had a 1984 Cherokee with the four cylinder 2.5L engine. Reliable is the last word I would have ever used with that AMC vehicle.

[refracture]

Depending on the year and trim it could have been one of those escorts with the Mazda ‘b’ engine from the Miata, which unlike the Ford motor in my ‘91 Escort that blew a head gasket at just over 100k miles was a good reliable motor.

[koyote]

> Ford Escort

Interestingly this was a collaboration with the European Ford team as far as I understand (although apparently the end result diverged quite a bit). Maybe they got some hot tips around build quality :)

[donw]

200k+ was common, even in the 80s, if you followed the recommended maintenance schedule.

Lots of people... don't.

[brightlancer]

That was not my experience, nor anything I've ever heard.

As a broad and imprecise statement, American cars in the 80s rarely ran past 100k, while Japanese cars commonly did. I read a few stories of American cars reaching 200k, but I saw a lot of Toyotas sailing past 200k.

And considering how awfully I saw those Toyotas treated, I don't think it had anything to do with maintenance.

[rsuelzer]

Yeah, I haven't seen any actual data. But it seems widely accepted that American automakers in the 80s and 90s lost a lot of market share to foreign makers over (real or perceived) reliability issues.

[csours]

On some vehicles.