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 · 71 figures, all from the federal record · rebuilt 3 weeks ago

About half of the complaints in the federal file carry an odometer reading — 1,113,039 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 40,334 miles; Stability & Traction Control failures at about 69,201. 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 52,356 4.7%

1,000 – 9,999 miles 92,468 8.3%

10,000 – 24,999 miles 102,957 9.3%

25,000 – 49,999 miles 190,004 17.1%

50,000 – 74,999 miles 214,262 19.3%

75,000 – 99,999 miles 178,555 16.0%

100,000 – 149,999 miles 196,728 17.7%

150,000+ miles 85,709 7.7%

Typical failure mileage, part by part

Part	Typical failure	Complaints
Driver Assist & Collision Avoidance	40,334 mi	36,942
Equipment & Accessories	47,703 mi	15,944
Tires	48,195 mi	32,814
Windows, Mirrors & Wipers	50,552 mi	67,631
Brakes	52,247 mi	179,821
Wheels	53,433 mi	19,970
Acceleration & Cruise Control	54,198 mi	76,760
Transmission & Drivetrain	56,280 mi	205,546
Body & Structure	57,554 mi	93,688
Seats	58,917 mi	22,381
Doors, Latches & Locks	59,590 mi	17,334
Suspension	60,489 mi	80,591
Electrical System	60,544 mi	233,774
Lights	61,079 mi	58,558
Steering	62,372 mi	135,320
Other & Unspecified	62,917 mi	96,095
Engine & Cooling	63,957 mi	276,207
Fuel & Propulsion	64,727 mi	117,619
Seat Belts	67,470 mi	28,454
Airbags	68,725 mi	148,289
Stability & Traction Control	69,201 mi	23,594

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.