engine life and mileage.

You had a Lincoln Town car with a Million miles and it was still good !!!!! I would consider THAT unusual.

Having the Avalon with a million miles, I would not be to surprised.

I have had many toyota's my truck was 275k, my camry and avalon are the same as yours. Both are 2000's, 30 plus or minus a little mpg, look great and drive great, I have absolutely no intention of trading them in any time soon. Maybe another 10 years or so. I havn't even had to have the a/c serviced which is most unsual. I am keenly aware of problems with automobiles and that is rare.

That is why toyota is always on top of the best service and sales list.

Just a suggestion, next time you buy tires, try a set of the Michlien Hydro-egde. It will be the best ride, and in the rain, you will not believe how well they will handle. Have them on both my cars. In Florida we have alot of rain. I have never had the sensation of hydroplanning, tread design does exactly what it is designed to do.

Pat

You didn't say the year model, and that's the more relevant factor as respects your description. New like looks and no corrosion would not be unusual for a car, say, at 5, or even 10 years (depending upon climate, road salting, pavement conditions, garaging, appearance maintenance, miles driven per year, and such. It would be quite unusual for a car of, say, 20 years, no matter the mileage. Also, larger, heavier cars (like Avalon and Lincoln,....) tend to hold up better than lighter (and lower cost) cars. The reasons are self evident.

I am also curious as to how long you have owned the Avalon (assuming you own it or are considering buying it). If the Avalon is a candidate for purchase, keep in mind that detailing can work wonders...but usually doesn't hold up...the luster can wear off pretty quickly if the car has been made to look too good. (When buying used, there's something to be said for car that looks exceptionally good (a cream puff that shows its age well)...something else to be said for a car that looks much too good for its age, namely: buyer be wary.

As long as you keep the Oil changed regularly and the fluid levels up the maintenance should remain low on just about any car.

Japanese made automobiles carry a reputation for being low maintenance vehicles.

Toyota especially for being pioneers in many aspects of quality control.

It's not changing the oil every 5000 miles is what causes the most wear and tear.

Limo's and taxis would have a very good likeliness of having a lot of miles on them because they have not been abused. They aren't driven at high speeds forcing the engines to exert themselves and the companies that employ them would most likely make sure they were serviced regularly.

Also just a note:

Highway miles are easier on wear and tear on a vehicle then in town driving.

Just out of curiosity, how many miles on a typical day for one of the Town Cars?

Let's see: 100 miles / day x 5 days / week = 500 miles, x 50 weeks / year = 25,000 miles, and 1,000,000 miles divided by 25,000 miles / year = 40 years. Or 400 miles per day = 10 years. What kind of service, above and beyond oil and filter changes, was done? Time between spark plug changes? Pt plugs? The manufacturer should replace the Town Cars for free in return for the agency's cars.

Maybe he didn't realize the town cars had 5-digit odometers.

Re-try your cdalculation. Try 500 miiles per day, seven days a week, for 53 weeks a year. This gives you almost 400,000 miles per year, so they could reach the million mark in less than four years. All the cars I drove were over 5 years old. Taxis in Toronto, servicing the airport work 24/7, and change drivers for three shifts.

The 500 per day is easily reached, at an average speed of 50 mph. This would only take 10 hours. The service I was working with had 6 cars, but we liased with an airport location with more than 500 cars, mostly Lincolns, at Toronto airport.

My Avalon is 8 years old. The previous owner looked after it extremely well. There is no oil burning or loss between oil changes, [ minor loss] All belts, hoses, [incl. A/C hose] and other wear items have been replaced. The engine appears to have been shampooed at least once a month. There is absolutely no rust under the hood.

I've seen Ford Crown Vics and service vans with near 1mil on the odometer. Fords old 5.0 and new 4.6 are real good engines. The only weak link I've seen is the automatic transmissions but they are cheap to replace. Their torque converters don't hold up well to lots of heavy towing or abuse.

I just got rid of a 96 Jetta with 210,000 miles. It was mechanically perfect and had perfect compression even with running cheap oil and 10,000 mile change intervals. It had several electrical ghosts that I think were due to failing electrical harnesses and I just couldn't isolate the problem.

the electrical problems on vw's are common throughout the nineties, the corrados were the worst.