Milestone 130,000
Jul. 10th, 2025 08:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerLast week our Nissan Xterra passed 130,000 miles. It was on the last of several days we spent in Oregon, just after we finished hiking at Smith Rock State Park.
Unlike some other times we've passed a big milestone with a car I didn't pull over to take pictures. On the narrow country lane we were driving at the time there wasn't room. Thus I settled for taking a few quick pictures from behind the wheel.
Speaking of other milestones, I don't think I've posted one of these "Milestone xxx,xxx" blog entries since we hit the 100,000 mile mark with this car. And that was nearly five years ago.
Part of the reason it's been five years between posting about milestones is that it took five years to add these 30,000 miles. We don't drive this car as much as we used to. I mean, not that this car really ever saw us packing the miles on, though there was a period of about a year when I used it for a 75 mile/day commute. That packed on the miles. But 30k in the past 5 years is an average of just 6,000 miles/year. That's less half the US average of 12-15k/year.
Why is our mileage so low? Well, it's not from avoiding long car trips. 😅 We drove 1,762 miles in 6 days on this Oregon trip. In fact big trips like this, plus medium trips where we drive 400-500 miles in a couple of days, like the Spring trip we did to the Sierra foothills in March, account for at least half of the mileage overall nowadays. Short trips around town most days of the week are the other half. What's not part of the mileage is commuting to work. That's because I've worked remotely for several years.
This car, a 2011 model, is now nearly 14 years old. We occasionally wish it had some more modern features, like Apple CarPlay, though we bought an inexpensive BlueTooth adapter for it that makes it only slightly fussy to play our tunes from our phones. We're in no rush to have a car payment again. We can imagine keeping this car for a few more years.... or until it requires a costly repair. Yes, sadly, this Nissan has needed a few $1,000+ repairs plus one $2k repair several years ago that actually cost more like $4k when including the towing costs (the car died in a remote small town) and travel costs (we were 1,000 miles from home). Thankfully our most recent spot of car trouble only cost us $150.
Unlike some other times we've passed a big milestone with a car I didn't pull over to take pictures. On the narrow country lane we were driving at the time there wasn't room. Thus I settled for taking a few quick pictures from behind the wheel.
Speaking of other milestones, I don't think I've posted one of these "Milestone xxx,xxx" blog entries since we hit the 100,000 mile mark with this car. And that was nearly five years ago.
Part of the reason it's been five years between posting about milestones is that it took five years to add these 30,000 miles. We don't drive this car as much as we used to. I mean, not that this car really ever saw us packing the miles on, though there was a period of about a year when I used it for a 75 mile/day commute. That packed on the miles. But 30k in the past 5 years is an average of just 6,000 miles/year. That's less half the US average of 12-15k/year.
Why is our mileage so low? Well, it's not from avoiding long car trips. 😅 We drove 1,762 miles in 6 days on this Oregon trip. In fact big trips like this, plus medium trips where we drive 400-500 miles in a couple of days, like the Spring trip we did to the Sierra foothills in March, account for at least half of the mileage overall nowadays. Short trips around town most days of the week are the other half. What's not part of the mileage is commuting to work. That's because I've worked remotely for several years.
This car, a 2011 model, is now nearly 14 years old. We occasionally wish it had some more modern features, like Apple CarPlay, though we bought an inexpensive BlueTooth adapter for it that makes it only slightly fussy to play our tunes from our phones. We're in no rush to have a car payment again. We can imagine keeping this car for a few more years.... or until it requires a costly repair. Yes, sadly, this Nissan has needed a few $1,000+ repairs plus one $2k repair several years ago that actually cost more like $4k when including the towing costs (the car died in a remote small town) and travel costs (we were 1,000 miles from home). Thankfully our most recent spot of car trouble only cost us $150.
