I've owned many, many vehicles in my 55 years of driving and have never owned a vehicle with 100k miles on it. Would you be totally comfortable taking your 100k mi Mazda on a 5,000 mile roadtrip?

 

Just a matter of what you are comfortable with I suppose. I sold my 2011 Tacoma with 95k miles in 9/20, but had no concerns about it going much, much further. It never had an issue in the time I had it. I would have taken it across country if I needed to with no concerns. The only reason I sold it was my wife found the bench seat uncomfortable. I have many friends with cars that have 100's of thousands of miles and they don't seem to worry. If you maintain a car properly, they can go a long, long way.

 

Absolutely, I would. (Drove several thousand miles to get it, when I purchased it out of the area.)

Have had a handful of vehicles with over 100Kmi where I've driven 5000 miles or more on trips, at that mileage. Two of them have been Mazdas (Miata and CX-5). My old Miata was nearly to 150Kmi when I sold it. I don't imagine I'll be selling the CX-5 anytime soon, so no idea what the odo will ultimately get to.

Then again, I am fairly aggressive on maintenance, going after things long before I believe they'll begin to give problems. So, my cars tend to be exceptionally error-free and well-behaved. A bit more expensive to do it that way, up front at least, but in the long run I feel it's about the only way that's likely to avoid vehicle failure or break-downs.

On the CX-5: Have done all the fluids, front brakes, accessory belt and tensioner. Sometime soon, I'll get to the rear brakes. Time to do the throttle body / MAF cleaning. I'll clean/sanitize the AC/heater, possibly track down a "ticking" sound in the blower (possibly just a cleaning, but we'll see). Within the coming year, I'll go through the engine bay and verify (possibly replace) the various "rubber" bits (hoses and whatnot, along with the clips). Just for peace of mind, I'll likely do the tie rods and shocks at some point soon, evaluating each of the suspension components along the way. None of it's truly needed, just yet, other than the brakes coming up. But, at least IMO, it's part of being proactive and simply ensuring nothing's aging to the point of nearing unreliability. I'd much prefer to continue to scan the vehicle, now and then, updating various bits, to ensure few to no surprises occur.

Did much the same approach on the Miata. I did multiple 3000-6000mi trips in the thing. Some years, going through one full set of tires, depending. Kept ahead of everything. Never once failed, aside from an electrical plug under the dash coming loose, which my feet had bumped loose; re-attaching "fixed" it. Included a good number of driving schools and track days, learning how to push the car yet keep it on the right line and on the road.

Of course, every individual vehicle's different. I think that the Miata and the CX-5, specifically, tend to be models that have a very high level of general reliability. And that, so long as maintenance is solid (even aggressive), they can be incredibly reliable for most people.

That said, you never know. An older car's radiator can have a rusty flake let go, internally, which stops up the intake line (to the engine). Or a shock can "blow" ... or a ball joint or bushing can give up the ghost. Still, if proactive and those things are updated ahead of time, there's no reason any of those should be likely to occur for even an older car.

 

You drove several thousand miles (several thousand would mean 3k or more) to purchase a 6 year old Mazda with 80k miles on it?? Was it stolen and they just wanted a couple hundred bucks for it?
No way no how would I take a vehicle with a 100K plus miles that's 8,10, 12 years old on a 5,000 mile roadtrip. I don't care how well you think you've maintained it. There are more than 30,000 components that make up the average car. You can't possibly replace or refurbish everything that can fail. I'd be miserable on a long roadtrip wondering when something is going to crap out on such an old tired vehicle while I'm traveling through the middle of the Nevada or New Mexico desert.

 

Last summer I drove our 2000 Camry with 185k miles over to CA to give it to our granddaughter. 1000 mile drive. Owned the Camry since new and it was meticulously maintained. Absolutely no qualms about driving it that far. That car will run for years. I think the CX-5 will be the same level of reliability. Buti do think it will take more repairs due to more technology to fail.

 

As long as maintenance is up to date, I would be totally comfortable. Cars typically run much, much farther than 100k miles, and a lot of the things that break won't ruin your road trip anyway. Or can be fixed.
Think back to the last 5000 miles. What has broken? How about the 5000 miles before that?

 

I'm not understanding your "Think back to the last 5000 miles" comment. What are you trying to say?

 

No, it was about 18mos ago and supply of any such used CX-5 in my area was tight (to non-existent). This particular one ticked every box correctly and had everything I wanted on a newer vehicle. Lots of highway mileage, but very well-maintained. Had about ~17Kmi/year of mileage on it. Higher than I preferred, sure. But not much more than I, myself, put on a car. Every single other example, at the time, either had no records, or couldn't explain what had been maintained, or had multiple owners and no accounting for the sort of use and mileage the vehicle had.

 

It is interesting to read the varying levels of concern from different folks. It all depends on your level of risk aversion. I fall in the middle I guess. I start thinking about a new car when mine gets around 100k as well but I have never owned one with 100's of thousands of miles either. I have ridden in many cars with that kind of mileage and never had a concern. As others have said, it is about maintenance. It sounds like CEB is quite paranoid about his car failing. Have you had bad experiences in the past to back this up? What I think "kaehlin" was trying to say is if you had a 5k trip lined up on your 150k mile car, what issues did you have between 145k and 150k? If the answer is none then why would you assume it would suddenly have issues between 150 and 155k? If the car has been reliable and you have it maintained religiously, you wouldn't expect it to suddenly start having problems if it has a reliable history, would you?

 

In my 60 years of driving, I have owned quite a few vehicles that passed the 100k mark mileage wise. I've had a couple that have gone 200,000 miles without significant problems. Now, when they start getting at the 200k mark, I might be a bit hesitant to take a long trip, but at 100,000 modern cars are just getting broken in. This isn't the 60's and 70's where you started looking for a junkyard as the century mark approached.