Racking up the miles: Which cars are driven the most? By Jim Gorzelany The 10 Most-Driven Vehicles
Full-size SUVs top the list, while sportier coupes and convertibles rank lower
Talk about a long-distance runner. In a recent study, the full-size Chevrolet Suburban sport-utility vehicle was found to register the most miles of any vehicle in the U.S. on an annual basis. Suburban owners rack up an average 14,299 miles per year, which is 25.1 percent higher than the norm for all vehicles at 11,518 miles. And that’s given fuel economy rated at a meager 15/22 mpg city/highway.
And the mammoth Suburban isn’t alone. Nine of the 10 “most driven” rides on the road are SUVs, with seven being fullsize models, and most coming from domestic automakers. That’s according to an analysis of more than 1.7 million sales of 10-year-old models sold from 2014 to 2017, conducted by the used-vehicle website iSeeCars. com in Boston.
That’s because big SUVs are often used by large families and see extensive duty on most days dropping off kids here, there, and everywhere. With burly towing capacities, they can pull a boat or trailer to a distant lake or campsite, and are ideal vehicles for taking long road trips. They’re also often used for livery and commercial purposes, which are highmileage enterprises.
And it’s no coincidence that eight of the top 10 models on the most-driven list are also among the vehicles that were found in an earlier study to most often exceed 200,000 miles.
“The vehicles with the highest annual mileage tend to also be the vehicles that last the longest,” says iSeeCars CEO Phong Ly. “People who drive their cars the most are likely to prolong the lives of their vehicles with regular service and maintenance because these vehicles may be a large part of their livelihood.”
At the other end of the spectrum, the vehicles that rack up the fewest miles — no surprise here — are racy sport coupes and convertibles that spend most of their days sitting in the garage. The Chevrolet Corvette convertible is the model most likely to only see service on a sunny summer’s day, with the average openair ’Vette being driven a mere 4,365 miles per year, which is 61.8 percent below average.
We’re featuring the lists of the most- and least-driven vehicles in the U.S. in the accompanying box.
Among passenger cars, owners tend to put the most miles on the midsize Nissan Altima sedan at an average 12,495 a year, which just edges out the fuel-saving Toyota Prius hybrid at 12,279 miles. The
Chevrolet Silverado leads the pack of pickup trucks with 12,514 miles racked up annually, followed closely by its corporate cousin, the GMC Sierra 1500 with 12,360 on the odometer. The sales-leading Ford F-150 came in fifth, only a few hundred miles behind the leaders.