Mileage on the odometer

[Mark Blue]

Does anyone else besides me just cringe as they watch the miles tick by on their odometer each chase season? Maybe it's because we have a 2009 and already have 32K on the odometer, but it's making me sick to watch the miles rack up so quickly. I have to find a way to offset this insane amount we are putting on our new car!!

I have this vision in my mind like at the beginning of the movie Used Cars from 1980 where Kurt Russell is under the dash with a straightened out clothes hanger rolling it backwards. I don't suppose that works on a digital odometer these days though...

 

[Alex Fisher]

My commute is over 100 miles a day, so chasing doesnt look that bad in comparison.

Back when my commute was shorter and I drove my car 10K miles a year though, it was always shocking to watch the mileage rise.

 

[Nick Nolte]

Sounds about right, my 2008 is approaching 70,000 miles

 

[Mark Blue]

Wow, that commute post is an eye opener as I never thought about it in that respect. My daily commute round trip is roughly 22 miles, so I'm sure it adds up quickly the higher it goes. I kept my old car when we bought the new one, so I might have to start driving it again to save miles during the off season. When I think about having 100K + miles on the new car by the time the title is in my hands it kind of puts chasing in a whole new light!!

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Yeah, I've cringed at my odometer as well, let alone having time to do preventative maintenance (trans servicing, oil changes etc) during chase season. I started the chase season in April with about 32k miles on my 07 F-150, and I'm somewhere closing in on 60k now.

 

[Jeremy Jones]

I'm kind of lucky that my total daily commute to work is less than 10 miles. I chase in an 08' Tiburon, as well as use as my daily transportation and have nearly 65,000 miles on it. My wife has spent the last 4 years selling the FORD brand, and she can't believe how many miles I have put on it. Due to my limited chasing funds, I limit myself to mainly the OK, S.KS, area. And most of those miles were spent chasing non tornadic storms...Mostly all lightning chasing really! I'm glad I always use a synthetic oil...otherwise I'd be spending A LOT on oil changes!!

 

[john.sibley]

I have 214k on a 03 F150 and I'm moving right along just fine. The 01 Rodeo has 164k.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

My 1998 Chevy Lumina has 250k on it...unfortunately the gas line rusted and is now leaking so I just bought a cheap honda civic. I planned on driving my Lumina well past 300k miles as the engine and transmission were still in fantastic shape when the gas started to leak. I still may have it fixed up and use it as a winter driver because I can already tell my tiny civic wont do so well in the snow.

After having such success buying higher-mileage vehicles relatively cheap (I've haven't paid more than $1,800 for either of my last 2 cars) and putting more than 100,000 more miles on each without anything more than routine maintenance, I don't know that I'll ever buy a new or newer vehicle in my life. I can't imagine how many thousands of dollars I saved taking an $1,800 vehicle 100,000 miles and having it depreciate only a few hundred dollars vs. a newer car depreciating thousands of dollars in that same timeframe.

 

[Joshua Nall]

This has been a slow year for me, busy working too much this year. But I do the same thing... never by new. In fact 3 of the four vehicles I've owned (three trucks and a jeep)... have sold them for more than I bought them for. The last truck I sold for less because I really worked it and it had some body damage, hail damage. But as far as putting miles on a vehicle, I don't even think about it, except that every 18 miles or so its a gallon of diesel and diesel is nearly 3 dollars a gallon. My Ford has 170,000 miles, which I bought for 7,500 dollars a couple years ago. I have had to do some expected repairs, but I plan on driving it till the engine goes. That could be a while since the 7.3 liter diesel engines can last 500,000 miles.

 

[Skip Talbot]

The mileage itself doesn't make me cringe. As the seasons pass I keep saying to myself, "I hope this van makes it through this winter", or "I hope this van finishes this chase season." I just brought the "Mudpuppy", a '99 Chrysler Voyager, home from Minnesota with 232,000 miles on it. The front left tower strut is rusting badly and will fail catastrophically sooner or later, it needs a new exhaust system, the windshield is cracked from rocks and hail, but its still hanging in there.

 

[Terrence Cook]

2010 Subaru Outback, started the season with 11,000... now sitting around 26,000. About 5 oil changes and 15 tornadoes later.

 

[Mark Blue]

Hey Ben H. - My wife and I saw you go by on Thursday in Baxter MN. I was watching for you as we were in the same general vicinity after chasing that area all day and I could tell from SN when you were about to go by.

I'll have to ask Roger Hill how many miles his 03 Ford van has now. I see his wife still drives it (saw her twice last week) and it's the original dream ride he built out back then. I'm betting close to 400K. Perhaps Patrick Martin can chime in??

Thanks for chiming in everyone as misery needs company right now and I do feel better knowing I'm not alone!!

My wife and I feel that our max mileage on a given chase day is 650 maybe 700. What is your upper limit for same day chase targets??

 

[Scott Weberpal]

My wife and I feel that our max mileage on a given chase day is 650 maybe 700. What is your upper limit for same day chase targets??

I've done over 1,000 miles on a given day before. Most recently on May 21 when I left Wisconsin around 1am and was watching a tornadic supercell in eastern Wyoming early in the evening. Many moons ago (2002) I did Wisconsin to Throckmorton, TX straight-through...of course that's when I was much younger and had the energy to do such a thing. Today I try not to go much more than 800 miles on a give day, but as noted there are exceptions.

 

[Jason Foster]

Somewhere close to 1000 miles I'm sure. Central Iowa to NE Colorado just to get to the target and START the chase.

I've been missing the last few plains chase seasons so the overall mileage has been low, but a few years there between chasing in the plains, local chases, tropical intercepts, vhf mobile rover ham radio contests commuting, and for a short period a long distance relationship....I was clocking around 45,000 miles per year (personally). I think only in one year was that all put on my personal vehicle...as many years I chased in rental cars.

On the reverse side...when I was first dealt with the kidney issues I had less than 5000 miles for a 12 month period....I didn't go anywhere!

I'm with Scott W. I will never buy a new car...well not for chase duty. My Scoobie (Legacy GT wagon) just turned 100K and I'm doing a boat load of maintenance items and repairs. Subaru cars suck....only last if you maintain them well.

 

[Nick Nolte]

My wife and I feel that our max mileage on a given chase day is 650 maybe 700. What is your upper limit for same day chase targets??

I did 945 to southeastern Iowa and back yesterday. I've done a few of those, one 1,100 mile trip on a non-storm related road trip. After how tired I am after yesterday I might have to actually draw up some boundaries for myself. My brain is a bit too ambitious at times. Why I thought chasing SE Iowa yesterday after leaving Michigan at noon (!) was a good idea, I'll never know.

Being a GIS analyst I can't just say "it didn't look that far on the map" lol