It has 174,000 miles. I may be commuting to work a 30 minute drive up and down the beltway daily. I just need a reliable car to last me a while until I save up money. How long should this car last me? It has been looked at by a mechanic and appears to be in good shape. Please share your advice and experience with me?

With any cars over 50K miles, the mechanic's inspection is more important than just year and mileage.

My 94 civic also have about 187K miles and it can easily go another 100K miles (WITH GOOD MAINTENANCE).

So it can go well - but do good maintenance.
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There are 4 most important maintenance items in your engine and tranny (the most expensive parts of the car).

(1) engine oil (3k - 5K miles)
(2) tranny oil (30K miles)
(3) coolant (3 years)
(4) timing belt (60K miles)

Just keep those maintenance and your engine and tranny will be problem free. I have a 94 Civic with 187K miles and the engine + tranny + suspension runs like new. I get 41 MPG (doing 72 MPH). I can get even better MPG doing 55.

Good maintenance pays off.


Good Luck...

this car will last you as long as you want, but depending on how good you take care of it ... just check you oil/coolant/steering fluid/brake fluid/transmission fluid level at least once every week or two. just to be safe. check to see if the hoses and belts are not cracked or tearing ... other than that

good luck!

p.s. even though its a reliable car, i would still have that worry in the back of my head that anything could happen to it especially with that many miles and a 30 minute drive to work .. that's my opinion .. good luck