CR’s 10 Most Proven Cars To Make It Over 200,000 Miles

BY Michael Gauthier | Posted on

Drivers looking for a vehicle that can reliably and affordably transport them for hundreds of thousands of miles might want to stick to Japanese brands according to a recent study conducted by Consumer Reports.

As part of the study, the publication collected responses from people who said they have driven their vehicle for more than 200,000 miles (321,868 km). The group then examined how many problems drivers reported in the last year and then determined which ones were the best bets.

Getting into the results, Consumer Reports says the most reliable cars all come from Honda and Toyota.

The Accord and Civic were named long distance champions from Honda, while Toyota’s champs where the Camry, Corolla and Prius. The latter model was the only dedicated hybrid to the make the list and it could save owners who drive it for 200,000 miles a significant amount of fuel.

Crossover buyers looking to go the distance would best be served by the Honda CR-V or Toyota Highlander. Likewise, truck and SUV buyers should opt for the Ford F-150 or Toyota 4Runner. Lastly, the minivan champion was the Toyota Sienna.

The publication notes many other vehicles have surpassed the 200,000 mile mark but they required significant repairs to keep running. The costs can vary greatly depending on the model so Consumer Reports recommends that people by a reliable vehicle in the first place and keep it properly maintained.

It’s also worth noting the vehicles in the study were older models so their long distance chops might not carryover to newer iterations. However, many of the new models also have good reliability ratings so they’re probably not a bad bet.

Consumer Report’s 10 best vehicles to surpass 200,00 miles ranked in descending order by the percentage of with zero claimed problems in the last 12 months

Toyota Camry
Honda Accord
Toyota Prius
Honda CR-V
Toyota Sienna
Honda Civic
Toyota Corolla
Toyota 4Runner
Toyota Highlander
Ford F-150

 

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  • Christian Wimmer

    Pretty much every modern car can go beyond 200,000 miles. This articles makes it sound as if we’re stuck in the Malaise Era and 200,000 miles+ is impossible to achieve! 😀

  • Honda NSX-R

    No luxury or sport cars on this list?

    • Nope…too many complicated things in them to go wrong and be very expensive to fix…

      • Honda NSX-R

        True, but I still think CR should’ve tried to find a relatively reliable sports/luxury car. If they have picked out a reliable minivan, reliable compact sedan, etc., why not try finding reliable cars in other premium segments?

        • Those are probably an Acura or Lexus…

          • Honda NSX-R

            Like a Lexus ES

    • Christian Wimmer

      My two cents; I think it’s harder to get data for such cars since most sports cars are rarely driven to such high mileages and luxury car owners also tend to want the newest vehicles with the latest features so they ditch their rides every 3-5 years for the latest model. Also, these mainstream cars are common and popular, so when it comes to statistics they’ll obviously make up the majority of the results.

      That’s not to say that premium cars don’t reach these mileages. They do. I’m in a Mercedes W210 E-Class Club and a lot of those guys have astronomical mileages on their rides. One guy has 800,000 km on his diesel E-Class. My parents own a W212 E350 CGI from 2010. It’s currently at around 220,000 km – 90,000 km more to go before it makes this list. 😀

      • Honda NSX-R

        Along with what you said about luxury cars, a lot of luxury car owners prefer leasing rather than purchasing

        • Christian Wimmer

          Indeed. Leasing is a financially smart way to enjoy the car while waiting for the replacement model with even more features. One of the downsides to this that I can imagine happens is that owners don’t bother maintaining them well since – WHY? They don’t care about the second owner and they plan on dumping the car in a few years anyway.

          Personally, I prefer buying a well-maintained used car with full history. 😉

    • Christian Wimmer

      Forgot to mention that my dad also has a fully-loaded 1989 Mercedes 500SL R129. It’s his summer fun toy which he’ll tour Europe with. It’s got about 280,000 km+ and works great, Original engine and transmission, no major issues. It’s got pretty much all options which were available in 1989, except the air suspension, which IIRC was optional on the 500s but standard on the 600 V12 which came later.

      In fact it’s never had any issues. Maintenance costs are actually quite low – except fuel and insurance costs. The only component on the car that needs some work is always the mechanism of the folding roof. It just needs some adjusting and calibrating every 50,000 km or so. Not really a big deal but it should be done if you want to enjoy problem-free topless motoring.

      • Honda NSX-R

        That’s awesome, I heard the old Mercedes Benzes were built like tanks before the Daimler-Chrysler merger

  • LWOAP

    All of them are Toyotas and Hondas with only one Ford.

  • chris

    My two cents; I think it’s harder to get data for such cars since most sports cars are rarely driven to such high mileages and luxury car owners also tend to want the newest vehicles with the latest features so they ditch their rides every 3-5 years for the latest model. Also, these mainstream cars are common and popular, so when it comes to statistics they’ll obviously make up the majority of the results

  • Six_Tymes

    I know these are not on the list and maybe too old for the list. But i owned and drove two Jeep grand Cherokees 1999 and a 2002 (straight 6 cylinders) to 222,000 and 248,000. i sold both and both were still running strong at the time I sold them.