Buying used

At What Mileage Cars Actually Break

Half of all complaints carry an odometer reading. This is what they say about when each part gives out.

2 min read · 92 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 hours ago

About half of the complaints in the federal file carry an odometer reading — 1,112,109 of them. That is a large enough sample to answer a question owners argue about constantly: when do things actually go wrong?

The answer differs sharply by part. Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance failures are reported at a median of about 40,485 miles; Stability & Traction Control failures at about 69,175. Those are different kinds of problem, and a car at 40,000 miles is exposed to one and not the other.

Every complaint, by mileage at failure

Under 1,000 miles 52,323 4.7%

1,000 – 9,999 miles 92,412 8.3%

10,000 – 24,999 miles 102,863 9.2%

25,000 – 49,999 miles 189,876 17.1%

50,000 – 74,999 miles 214,090 19.3%

75,000 – 99,999 miles 178,407 16.0%

100,000 – 149,999 miles 196,550 17.7%

150,000+ miles 85,588 7.7%

Typical failure mileage, part by part

Part	Typical failure	Complaints
Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance	40,485 mi	36,332
Equipment & Accessories	47,682 mi	15,931
Tires	48,185 mi	32,783
Windows, Mirrors & Wipers	50,582 mi	67,537
Brakes	52,180 mi	179,452
Wheels	53,432 mi	19,944
Acceleration & Cruise Control	54,233 mi	76,625
Transmission & Drivetrain	56,289 mi	204,713
Body & Structure	57,583 mi	93,470
Seats	58,932 mi	22,329
Doors, Latches & Locks	59,658 mi	17,293
Suspension	60,504 mi	80,488
Electrical System	60,512 mi	232,791
Lights	61,091 mi	58,424
Steering	62,398 mi	135,020
Other & Unspecified	62,917 mi	95,744
Engine & Cooling	63,949 mi	274,721
Fuel & Propulsion	64,747 mi	117,255
Seat Belts	67,481 mi	28,385
Airbags	68,741 mi	148,130
Stability & Traction Control	69,175 mi	23,590

Median of the per-model-year medians, so one heavily-complained car cannot drag the figure.

Source — Odometer readings as supplied by complainants to NHTSA.

How this was made. Nobody wrote this article and left it to age. It is generated by a query against the complaint database, and rebuilt every time the data is — so the numbers in the sentences above are the numbers as they stand today, not as they stood when somebody last had time to update them. How the grading works.