- A study looking at America’s longest-lasting cars, SUVs and light trucks found that Toyotas are most likely to reach 250,000 miles.
- The Tundra was ranked toughest of all light vehicles, with a 37 percent chance of hitting 250k, closely followed by the Sequoia and 4Runner.
- Toyota dominated the light vehicle list, but Ram’s heavy-duty 3500 truck is even more likely to achieve 250,000 miles.
Want a vehicle that might actually live longer than you? Buy a Toyota, and don’t buy anything from a European or Korean automaker. That’s the clear message from a new study that looked at the longest lasting cars, trucks and SUVs in America to see which is most likely to reach 250,000 miles (402,000 km).
Analysts at iSeeCars crunched the data from 402 million vehicles for this year’s Longest-Lasting Cars study, coming up with a computer model that determined most cars have almost no chance of hitting that milestone. Only 8.6 percent will ever see a quarter million miles roll over on their odometers. But certain Toyota models are four times as likely to achieve the feat.
Related: Discover The Cars, SUVs, And Trucks Most Likely To Last For Over 250,000 Miles
King of the light passenger vehicles that can’t be killed is the Toyota Tundra, which has a 36.6 percent chance of reaching 250k, closely followed by its Sequoia brother at 36.4 percent. But they’re far from the only Toyotas on the list, which is dominated by the Japanese automaker, with a little help from its Lexus luxury division.
Toyota occupies all of the top five positions on the longest-lasting table, the 4Runner, Tacoma and Highlander following the Tundra and Sequoia in that order, and all having at least a 26 percent likelihood of reaching 250,000 miles. The automaker’s Avalon and Lexus GX ranked eighth and ninth, the Highlander came in 17th, the Camry placed 21st and the Prius 25th.
That’s a total of 10 out of 30 spots taken by Toyota-built vehicles, a feat no rival automaker can match. But Honda (including Acura) did manage to get seven models in the top 30, and GM snatched six positions in a study that found our cars are capable of traveling huge distances during their lifetimes despite being more complex with each passing year.
“Modern vehicles are getting more durable, with 30 models offering between a 12 and 36 percent chance of reaching a quarter million miles,” said iSeeCars analyst Karl Brauer, whose team had to change the definition of long-lasting from 200,000 miles (322,000 km) to 250,000 miles a couple of years back to adapt to modern vehicles’ staying power.
“Many consumers still consider a car’s usable lifespan to end at 100,000 miles (161,000 km). But the top nine cars on this year’s list have a better than 20 percent chance of hitting 250,000 miles.”
The research found that SUVs don’t just look tough, but are built that way, and have a much greater capability of clocking of big miles than sedans. While SUVs have on average a 7.8 percent chance of reaching 250k, and the top five models all have at least a 20 percent chance, the average sedan only has a 5.4 percent chance of hitting a quarter mil, and only one car out of 11 betters a 22 percent chance. No surprises for guessing it’s a Toyota, though the Avalon wildly outperformed the same company’s Corolla, which scores just 7.8 percent.
But if you really want a vehicle that will still be doing the business when you’re six feet under, you need to get yourself a heavy duty truck, specifically a Ram 3500. The Stellantis pickup has a 42.6 percent chance of lasting 250,000 miles, compared with a segment average of 19.4 percent, and only 11.5 percent for its Ram 1500 brother.
You can scroll down to see the full tables for each segment, and you might notice one shocking detail: there’s not a single car from a European or Korean automaker anywhere on any of the lists.
Top 30 Vehicles Most Likely To Last 250,000+ Miles
Top 7 Brands Most Likely To Last 250,000+ Miles
Top 20 SUVs Most Likely To Last 250,000+ Miles
Top 11 Passenger Cars Most Likely To Last 250,000+ Miles
Trucks Most Likely To Last 250,000+ Miles
