envyz06

100k but I would rather have a 100k mile car taken care of then a car with 20k that been beat to **** on.

beboggled

150K is what i'd consider high mileage. My vette has 93k now and my winter daily has 193k.

Phanni

299K if I'm selling 50K if I'm buying

Hombre

Phanni, You are more correct than you know. I am in the market for a 2nd C5, and in looking at adds I am surprised at how many say in the add. 154,000 below average mileage for this year and that was on a 2004.

RS

racebum

depends on what it was used for

a track strip car since new, by 3-10k miles it's high mileage

a freeway cruiser? by 180-200k it's high mileage

a typical daily driver, mmm...depending on the owner and environment 80-140k miles

racebum

hmm.. someone is a little off. average has always been 12k miles per year meaning an 04 should be under 120k to say that, an 02 under 144k etc. low mileage, to most people with most cars is around half that.

SaxyVette

223600 on my '99.. I got it 4 mos ago for a very low price, the deal included a freshly rebuilt a/t by a top shop..the motor sounds very good, smooth and quiet..the car runs real strong, uses no oil, no smoke or leaks. Maybe the motor was rebuilt already IDK ?

..anyway I get the feeling it will last a long time.

Hombre

racebum, Man I was making lite of what some consider low vs high mileage. It's a joke how this is looked at really.

Now with that said you are correct someone is a little off. The average miles driven per year is not 12,000 it is actually: According to the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the average American driver logs 13,476 miles each year. That does not even tell the whole story though, as that average is across all age groups.

American men drive considerably more miles than American women, according to the FHWA. The average man drives 16,550 miles per year, while the average woman drives 10,142 miles. This gender difference holds true across all age groups.

Then taken into account are Teenage Boys and Girls, retired folks both Men and Women as well figure into this "Average".

So I would guess that when you try and figure High vs Low it may just depend on who owned the car. As far as I am concerned miles are miles although one must take into account adult owned vs lets say teen age boys. That would make a big difference in most cases.

Also the area the car came from may make a difference. I once lived out in the country in Wyoming, it was a 97 mile drive one way to get to the closest store, this published Average probably would not apply to folks who had to make a drive like that very often.

It has been quite awhile since I bought my first car. That was a 1940 Ford Coupe, I paid $295 for that old Ford it was 15 years ( that would be 2 years younger than 1997 C5) it had somewhere around 50,000 miles on it and I am here to tell you it had been just about used up. I bought it from a farmer who mainly drove it to church on Sunday's and prayer meetings on Wednesday, and I would bet that it had never been outside of Titus County, Texas in its life, I also doubt if it had ever been driven faster than 50 MPH.

That was then and this is now. Technology has improved our cars in so many ways that old Farmer would never believe. Miles -high or low are a relative thing...

RS

RetiredSFC 97

That depends. The average miles that are driven on a passenger car is 12,500 miles per year.

But be careful with that number. That number represents all cars in the country to include Granny's 1984 Cutlas with 25K on the odo.

I read a few years ago the average miles of a working person is closer to 15K a year. That's about what my wife and I put on our cars a year and have for several years.

Our difference is I have 2 cars and Pick up to put them on where she has one car.

See how those numbers can vary if you're using person, or vehicle?

I bought a Caddie STS in 08 with 71K on it. I just sold it this last feb 14 and it had 112k on it and it was my DD. That is 8200 miles a year, but if you add up all my vehicles I travelled a little over 14K. My wife consistently drives 15K a year.

RetiredSFC 97

In 1922, a group of sociologists went to Munice, Indiana, to study how the average American family lived. Almost everyone, they found, was addicted to their car. "We'd rather do without clothes than give up the car," said one mother of nine children. "I'll go without food before I'll see us give up the car," said another. One researcher reminded a housewife that her family had a car but no bathtub. "Why," said she, "you can't go to town in a bathtub!" The automobile was barely two decades old, and Americans already couldn't imagine living without one.

But a change is taking place that is unprecedented since those sociologists' study nearly a century ago: Americans are driving less.

Miles driven per American peaked in 2005, and have since declined 8.8%. This has never happened before. From 1900 to 2007, vehicle miles driven increased every year except 1932, during the Great Depression, according to data from the Department of Transportation. It's now declined in three of the past five years. From 1971 to 2005, miles driven per person increased every year expect 1975. That figure has now declined in each of the last eight years.

You get some staggering numbers when you add this stuff up. If driving habits merely maintained 2005 levels, Americans would have driven 918 billion more miles than they actually did over the last eight years. That's like driving to Mars and back 13,000 times.

Not only is this decline unprecedented, but it was totally unforeseen. In one amusing display of how off the nation's best traffic forecasters (it's an actual job) have been, Eric Sundquist of the State Smart Transportation Initiative showed the Department of Transpiration's recent forecasts of miles driven compared to what actually occurred:

What's going on?

The most shocking thing about this driving decline is that it doesn't seem to be caused by the weak economy.

U.S. PIRG Education Fund crunched the numbers last and year, looking at how Americans driving habits changed broken out by state. It found plenty of states where driving plunged, yet economies and job markets were healthier than the national average, and states whose economies were ravaged by the recession, but where miles driven actually went up. The researchers looked at it every way they could -- the unemployment rate, changes in employment, etc. There was very little link between the economy and the decline in driving. Of the 10 states where employment fell the fastest during the recession, only two were among the top 10 states with the largest decline in driving. On average, the group found "that declining rates of driving do not correspond with how badly states suffered economically in recent years."

Some say higher gas prices have caused drivers to stay home. It's a nice story, but there's not much evidence backing it up. Gas prices are lower today than they were six and a half years ago. And average fuel efficiency has surged over the last decade, putting the real cost of gasoline usage today no higher than it was a decade ago.

The most compelling argument for why driving is in decline is also one of the scariest, because it might not be temporary. It's demographics.

The most important group of drivers are those age 35 to 54. They're in their prime working years, driving an average of 15,291 miles per year, according to the Department of Transportation. But driving falls off quickly as people move into retirement. Americans age 55 to 64 drive fewer than 12,000 miles per year, on average. And Americans age 65 and older drive an average of only 7,650 miles per year -- half what they drove in their prime working years.

That's a critical difference, because after rising for decades, the number of prime-driving age Americans plunged by 2.8 million over the last eight years as baby boomers age into their 60s. The number of prime-age drivers peaked at the exact time miles driven per capita peaked:

For decades, economists have wondered what will happen to the economy when the baby boomers retire.

Will they spend less money? Will that hurt the economy?

The driving slowdown might be one of our first clear answers.

Things are always more complicated than they seem, and demographics can't explain all of the decline. But it's a big cause, and it'd had a big impact on the economy. Remember, Americans drove 918 billion fewer miles over the last eight years than they would have if 2006 driving trends hadn't changed. If a car has a lifespan of 200,000 miles, that ultimately means demand for vehicles over the last eight years was about half a million cars per year lower than it would have been at old driving rates.

The number of prime-age Americans is about to start growing again, so this trend could ease.

But America is getting older. That's going to make growing the economy over the next 50 years harder than it was over the last 50. "The trick is growing up without growing old," baseball great Casey Stengel once quipped. We'll see if America can.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...iving/5290379/

corvettezman

You really need to get out in it more. What are you saving it for??

Toque

Anything over 10,000 ... its time to trade in..

Toque

racebum

hmm. had no idea how the median was calculated, thanks guys. learned something new today

makes sense though

jdvann

In the old days, say pre 1990, not sure what date to use....a car with a Chevy 350 was smoking , using oil and leaking from the tranny and rear seal by the time they reached 100K. None of my modern (Post 1998) vehicles have done that. Most have never dripped a drop or seen any smoke. I sell most of my dd's by the time they reach 150K and what I said previously about leaks and oil usage is true of those vehicles. So I have to put "High mileage" at 150k+ since that is all I know in my 35 years of driving/owner experience. I have and still have all Chevy vehicles, except I had 1988 Stang for 1 year and an 1968 MGB for twenty years that always leaked and smoked. My 1974 C3 I had for 18 years, followed the rules of old cars...leaked and smoked by 100k.

My 01 Coupe has 51K and looks new all over and under, inside and out...

My wife's 00 Vert shows some age with 110k, but mainly because of these strange electrical issues i.e. Oil Pressure Sensor, Turn signals(fixed with y-harness), lumbar support, and horn. Also a new water pump at 109k, But otherwise, runs and drives/shifts like a new car. I have changed all the fluids, and plan on fixin' the electrical bugs this winter. I hope to take her well past 150k.

darkounet

My 99 A4! Just got 100k miles on it ( Canadian car ), never seen winter ( yes months and months of snow here ) .... I consider it high mileage but it looks better than a lot of other corvettes I see around with way less miles on them.

High mileage well taken care is always better than a beat to #$%# low mileage one IMO.

scarecrowkc5

What do you consider a high mileage C5

It has been and always will be 100,000 miles regardless of what car you are talking about.

Can they run longer but 100,000 miles is the base line.

Hombre

That would be only in your opinion, now wouldn't it? Unless you somehow became qualified to have us all substitute your opinion for our own.

RS

SaxyVette

C5's motors if taken care of seem to last a long time..I'm amazed mine still sounds and runs so good with so many miles on it..

223600+..I cruised tonite, with my new tranny she still felt like a new one to me.

rustyguns

engine is designed to last an average of 300,000 miles. So yours could be above average and go farther!

SaxyVette

for fun I was reading the C7 forum..damn dude those things are blowin' up right and left..