I know a few folks on here have some relatively low mileage 430s, 60-80k, and it got me wondering what items would you expect to have issues with solely due to age vs miles.

We know the common miles related items are door lock actuators, front struts, exterior mirror motors and steering wheel motors, which maybe start occurring at 80K miles?

Assuming the car has been driven regularly, garaged and with good maintenance, but has low miles, what would you expect to break after ten years, other than above?

I had a couple of 1990 Acura Legends, awesome cars, but the one I bought used, but with low miles did have issues that I attributed to lack of use, so I’ve experienced that.

Thoughts?

 

I think the things you mention, with the exception of the shocks, are a result of poor quality, not age or miles (I say this because I have another Japanese car that is 21 y.o. and none of those things have broken, purchased new and now over 300k--said car has bad rust now which is again typical Japanese, a German would never rust like that). I will mention the corolla window switches in a flagship car--that's a cheap touch. Window switches are fine, but I think the mirror switch is cheap too. Door actuator likely the same, although the selling dealer fixed it so I did not DIY. But I routinely got under my car looking for a trans drip, and remark at how cheap the entire exhaust looks. I dunno if it rusted from 3 yrs. in the northeast, because I swear it was not rusted like that when I got it as it was a FLA car. My wife's GM is the same--I feel you can judge quality from heat shields. On many cars they will break around a nut, because the shield is so tinny. How about the lower seat cushion, who ever heard of a car's seat sagging in 60k? lol

At the same time a LS430 is not expected to ever leave the driver stranded, so you can't have it all. I would expect starter to fail, valve covers to leak, coolant to evaporate, power steering to whine, and something I hope not, but emissions components to light the light which means a fail at the annual emissions. That is the death knell to me....I still think this car is well above average so it should be able to do 20 yrs before major issues...what do I know? Not that much but it's my opinion...the other thing is in states that don't have safety/emissions cars can really be driven until the wheels do fall off

 

Regardless of miles and maintenance, in my experience, the age will still cause anything plastic or rubber around the engine to get hard/crack/crumble, and possibly cause failure of valve cover gaskets, power steering hoses, radiators (especially!), radiator hoses, alternators, starters, and coils. I base that on personal experience, and also looking at the maintenance history of a bunch of different cars.

Edit: I forgot...blown out rear subwoofer and/or amplifier

 

In reality, age destroys everything. A friend said when you think about it, a human is dying after about 19 years of age. Bleak. Many of us have experienced this with dogs, whose lifespan is accelerated and if you ask me, amazing to see.

But there are certain cars, many of which were built mid 90's to mid 00's, where for whatever reason, they have/had no problem going 20 years. I do not think very many 2019 cars are going to simply go to 2039. They are physically seemingly not heavy duty constructed, and then there is so much computer control.

Totally agree on the parts that are supposed to be flexible which crack and leak...