Quote Originally Posted by Utahtea View Post
It looks like you add a little over 10,000 miles a year to the Malibu, so this trip is essentially going to take about a year off the life of your car.
I do have to disagree with this a little bit. The problem with saying it would take about a year off the life of the car, is that it assumes that a car comes with a certain number of miles that it is driveable and that all miles are the same.

If you are only driving a car 10k a year, its almost certain that you're doing a lot of short distance, stop and go type trips which are hardest on all the moving parts in the car. Roadtrip miles are far easier, and would put a whole lot less wear and tear than you would over a year.

Even from a resale value, if you look at the difference between a 10 year old car with 110k vs. one with 120k on a site KBB, there's going to be hardly any difference at all.

If you were talking about a car that was relatively new, and you were planning to sell it after just a couple years, it would be something to consider, but I just don't think it is significant when you're talking about a 10 year old car.