Misc
Infographic: The Longest Lasting Cars, in Miles
Infographic: The Longest Lasting Cars, in Miles
When properly maintained, well-built cars can last an impressive amount of miles.
Consider this 2006 Honda Civic, which hit one million miles on its original engine and transmission. Amusingly, the car’s odometer maxes out at 999,999 miles.
While that case may be an extreme outlier, most modern cars are expected to last 200,000 miles before experiencing some significant failure. That’s roughly double the lifespan of cars from the 1960s and 1970s, which typically lasted about 100,000 miles.
In this infographic, we used data from iSeeCars to determine which cars are the most likely to reach— or even surpass—the 200,000 mile benchmark.
Study Methodology & Data
To come up with their rankings, iSeeCars analyzed over 2 million used cars between January and October 2022. The rankings are based on the mileage that the top 1% of cars within each model obtained. Models with less than 10 years of production, such as the Tesla Model 3, were excluded.
The following tables show an expanded list of the longest lasting cars, by model category. Our infographic only includes the top five from each.
Sedans & Hatchbacks
The only non-Japanese model in the top 10 is the Chevrolet Impala, which is one of the most commonly found rental cars in the U.S.
Rank | Vehicle | Potential Lifespan (miles) |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Avalon | 245,710 |
2 | 🇺🇸 Chevrolet Impala | 230,343 |
3 | 🇯🇵 Honda Accord | 226,168 |
4 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Camry | 223,249 |
5 | 🇯🇵 Lexus GS 350 | 207,794 |
6 | 🇯🇵 Honda Fit | 207,231 |
7 | 🇯🇵 Honda Civic | 205,335 |
8 | 🇯🇵 Lexus ES 350 | 204,642 |
9 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Corolla | 204,266 |
10 | 🇯🇵 Mazda 6 | 203,154 |
Another interesting takeaway is that Lexus is the only luxury brand in this list. This is likely due to the fact that Lexus and Toyota often share drivetrain components.
SUVs
iSeeCars has a larger top 20 list for the SUV category.
Rank | Vehicle | Potential Lifespan |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Sequoia | 296,509 |
2 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Land Cruiser | 280,236 |
3 | 🇺🇸 Chevrolet Suburban | 265,732 |
4 | 🇺🇸 GMC Yukon XL | 252,360 |
5 | 🇺🇸 Chevrolet Tahoe | 250,338 |
6 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Highlander Hybrid | 244,994 |
7 | 🇺🇸 Ford Expedition | 244,682 |
8 | 🇯🇵 Toyota 4Runner | 244,665 |
9 | 🇺🇸 GMC Yukon | 238,956 |
10 | 🇯🇵 Honda Pilot | 236,807 |
11 | 🇯🇵 Acura MDX | 228,472 |
12 | 🇺🇸 Cadillac Escalade ESV | 228,449 |
13 | 🇺🇸 Cadillac Escalade | 224,782 |
14 | 🇺🇸 Lincoln Navigator | 220,319 |
15 | 🇯🇵 Nissan Armada | 220,172 |
16 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Highlander | 218,075 |
17 | 🇯🇵 Honda CR-V | 215,930 |
18 | 🇺🇸 Lincoln Navigator L | 214,341 |
19 | 🇯🇵 Subaru Outback | 208,298 |
20 | 🇰🇷 Hyundai Santa Fe | 206,398 |
This is a more diverse list, with American and Japanese models seemingly on par. The GM family of SUVs (Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, and Yukon XL) are narrowly edged out by Toyota’s full size options (Sequoia and Land Cruiser).
The Land Cruiser was discontinued in the U.S. for 2021, but it remains a very popular model in Middle Eastern countries like Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE.
Pickup Trucks
Once again, Japanese manufacturers hold the top spots. According to Toyota, the Tundra is the only full-size pickup that is currently being built in Texas.
Rank | Vehicle | Potential Lifespan |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Tundra | 256,022 |
2 | 🇯🇵 Honda Ridgeline | 248,669 |
3 | 🇯🇵 Toyota Tacoma | 235,070 |
4 | 🇯🇵 Nissan Titan | 233,295 |
5 | 🇺🇸 Ford F-150 | 232,650 |
6 | 🇺🇸 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 | 230,515 |
7 | 🇺🇸 GMC Sierra 1500 | 222,691 |
8 | 🇺🇸 Ford Ranger | 220,980 |
9 | 🇯🇵 Nissan Frontier | 215,775 |
10 | 🇺🇸 Ram 1500 | 215,521 |
Despite their marginally higher potential lifespans, sales of Japanese trucks come nowhere close to their American counterparts.
Electric Cars
The last category is EVs, which due to the 10 years of production requirement, only includes the Tesla Model S (133,998 miles) and Nissan LEAF (98,081).
These figures are much lower than the gasoline cars discussed above, but it’s not exactly a fair comparison. We probably won’t be able to judge the long-term reliability of EVs until they’ve been around for at least another decade.
In addition to needing more time, another reason is scale—the Model S and LEAF have been sold in relatively limited numbers. The Tesla Model 3, which is the first EV to sell over one million units, will likely become the first reliable benchmark.
History
Mapped: What Did the World Look Like in the Last Ice Age?
A map of the Earth 20,000 years ago, at the peak of the last ice age, when colder temperatures transformed the planet we know so well.

What Did the World Look Like in the Last Ice Age?
What did the world look like during the last ice age? Was it all endless glaciers and frozen ice? The answer is a partial yes—with some interesting caveats.
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), colloquially called the last ice age, was a period in Earth’s history that occurred roughly 26,000 to 19,000 years ago.
This map by cartographer Perrin Remonté offers a snapshot of the Earth from that time, using data of past sea levels and glaciers from research published in 2009, 2014, and 2021, alongside modern-day topographical data.
Let’s dive into the differences between the two Earths below.
The Last Ice Age: Low Seas, Exposed Landmasses
During an ice age, sea levels fall as ocean water that evaporates is stored on land on a large scale (ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers) instead of returning to the ocean.
Earth's Ice Cover | 20,000 Years Ago | Today |
---|---|---|
Surface | 8% | 3% |
Land | 25% | 11% |
At the time of the LGM, the climate was cold and dry with temperatures that were 6 °C (11 °F) lower on average. Water levels in the ocean were more than 400 feet below what they are now, exposing large areas of the continental shelf.
In the map above, these areas are represented as the gray, dry land most noticeable in a few big patches in Southeast Asia and between Russia and Alaska. Here are a few examples of regions of dry land from 20,000 years ago that are now under water:
- A “lost continent” called Sundaland, a southeastern extension of Asia which forms the island regions of Indonesia today. Some scholars see a connection with this location and the mythical site of Atlantis, though there are many other theories.
- The Bering land bridge, now a strait, connecting Asia and North America. It is central to the theory explaining how ancient humans crossed between the two continents.
- Another land bridge connected the island of Great Britain with the rest of continental Europe. The island of Ireland is in turn connected to Great Britain by a giant ice sheet.
- In Japan, the low water level made the Sea of Japan a lake, and a land bridge connected the region to the Asian mainland. The Yellow Sea—famous as a modern-day fishing location—was completely dry.
The cold temperatures also caused the polar parts of continents to be covered by massive ice sheets, with glaciers forming in mountainous areas.
Flora and Fauna in the Last Ice Age
The dry climate during the last ice age brought about the expansion of deserts and the disappearance of rivers, but some areas saw increased precipitation from falling temperatures.
Most of Canada and Northern Europe was covered with large ice sheets. The U.S. was a mix of ice sheets, alpine deserts, snow forests, semi-arid scrubland and temperate grasslands. Areas that are deserts today—like the Mojave—were filled with lakes. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is a remnant from this time.
Africa had a mix of grasslands in its southern half and deserts in the north—the Sahara Desert existed then as well—and Asia was a mix of tropical deserts in the west, alpine deserts in China, and grasslands in the Indian subcontinent.
Several large animals like the woolly mammoth, the mastodon, the giant beaver, and the saber-toothed tiger roamed the world in extremely harsh conditions, but sadly all are extinct today.
However, not all megafauna from the LGM disappeared forever; many species are still alive, including the Bactrian camel, the tapir, the musk ox, and the white rhinoceros—though the latter is now an endangered species.
Will There Be Another Ice Age?
In a technical sense, we’re still in an “ice age” called the Quaternary Glaciation, which began about 2.6 million years ago. That’s because a permanent ice sheet has existed for the entire time, the Antarctic, which makes geologists call this entire period an ice age.
We are currently in a relatively warmer part of that ice age, described as an interglacial period, which began 11,700 years ago. This geological epoch is known as the Holocene.
Over billions of years, the Earth has experienced numerous glacial and interglacial periods and has had five major ice ages:
Major Ice Ages | Name | Time Period (Years Ago) |
---|---|---|
1 | Huronian Glaciation | 2.4 billion - 2.1 billion |
2 | Cryogenian Glaciation | 720 million - 635 million |
3 | Andean-Saharan Glaciation | 450 million - 420 million |
4 | Late Paleozoic ice age | 335 million - 260 million |
5 | Quaternary Glaciation | 2.6 million - present |
It is predicted that temperatures will fall again in a few thousand years, leading to expansion of ice sheets. However there are a dizzying array of factors that are still not understood well enough to say comprehensively what causes (or ends) ice ages.
A popular explanation says the degree of the Earth’s axial tilt, its wobble, and its orbital shape, are the main factors heralding the start and end of this phenomenon.
The variations in all three lead to a change in how much prolonged sunlight parts of the world receive, which in turn can cause the creation or melting of ice sheets. But these take thousands of years to coincide and cause a significant change in climate.
Furthermore, current industrial activities have warmed the climate considerably and may in fact delay the next ice age by 50,000-100,000 years.
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