My 2003 Nissan Altima passed 200,000 miles this morning. I bought it new on April 30, 2003. Not only was it the first new car I ever bought, but it’s survived much longer with far fewer major repairs than any other car I’ve ever owned. It needed a new axle at about 160k, and the O2 sensor is currently complaining about the catalytic converter. But that’s really it.

  • I bought it 2,865 days ago. That's an average of 69.8 miles per day.
  • I've tracked the last 50k miles on Fuelly. I've average 26 mpg, so I've used about 5.1 million 7,800 gallons of gasoline.
  • It costs me about 10 cents of gas to drive this car one mile. That's just under $7 a day.
  • The good news is I haven't spent as much on gas as I spent to buy the car. Yet.
  • The most surprising thing to me is that other than Parking By Braille, this car has never been in an accident, despite my less-than-defensive driving.

M and I are discussing buying a new car this spring. Anyone want an aged workhorse?