John, that is pretty high mileage for a gasoline engine, and maybe any other
smaller engine. But there is an effort on the part of auto manufacturers to
acheive a very high mileage life. Somewhere in the last few months I saw a small
article in a newspaper or magazine about this. I think the target was 100,000
miles before anything at all had to be done to the vehicle, but most especially
the engine. Maybe they will achieve it.

It is interesting to note that on other fronts in the engine driven world, high
mileages have been achieved. Specifically the trucking industry. My
brother-in-law is an independent trucker and keeps 5 tractor and trailor rigs on
the road. The trucks he buys carry a one million mile warrenty. This has gotten
to be a standard in the trucking industry.

Also witness the revolution that took place in the aviation industry with the
advent of the turbine aircraft engine. The airplanes cover millions of mile,
representing thousands of hours of operating time between engine overhauls, all
because of improving technology.

As the technology improves, so will the life of the vehicle. Unfortunately, as
the vehicles improve the ability of the shade tree mechanic to work on them will
decline. It will simply get more complex, and require more complex and
sophisticated tools.

Just my two centavos.

John Rodgers
Birmingham, AL USA

It is in

John P wrote:

> 300,000 miles, that translates to aprox 480,000 kms,  I do not beleive that
> that is a reasonable mileage to expect from any vehicle engine with out
> major repairs required.
> This would be almost unheard of in New Zealand.

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