Average milage

OldmanMondeo

What is it? It used to be 10k miles per year. Has this creeped up? With our traffic flow issues now, should we not be count Hours that the car has spent idle. I read somewhere that Timing belts are not lasting to the manufacture recommended change milage because of the hours put on the belt.

The reason I am asking, is because I am looking to change car, I currently have a 01 petrol with 55k, and am looking at a 02 Diesel with 68k. The only reason I am looking to change is because I am doing at leat 400 miles per week, mainly motorway, and I know a diesel will take the milage better. Is 68k on a diesel high, low or adverage? It works out at 17k per year, compared to 11k on my petrol engine. the reason the petrol is only 55k is because it was very low when I got it, worked out at 5.5k per year.

bazz26

OldmanMondeo wrote:

What is it? It used to be 10k miles per year. Has this creeped up? With our traffic flow issues now, should we not be count Hours that the car has spent idle. I read somewhere that Timing belts are not lasting to the manufacture recommended change milage because of the hours put on the belt.

The reason I am asking, is because I am looking to change car, I currently have a 01 petrol with 55k, and am looking at a 02 Diesel with 68k. The only reason I am looking to change is because I am doing at leat 400 miles per week, mainly motorway, and I know a diesel will take the milage better. Is 68k on a diesel high, low or adverage? It works out at 17k per year, compared to 11k on my petrol engine. the reason the petrol is only 55k is because it was very low when I got it, worked out at 5.5k per year.

The average mileage for a petrol car is around 12k miles per year. The average for a diesel car is around 20k miles and up.

68K on a 5 year old diesel car is unusually low. I would verify this with the service history. Clocking is very common these days.

Also wear on a car is not just judged by the miles on the odometer in my opinion. A hard driver doesn't have to be doing huge miles. It depends how the car was driven, not how far it was driven.

Eoin

bazz26 wrote:

The average mileage for a petrol car is around 12k miles per year. The average for a diesel car is around 20k miles and up.

68K on a 5 year old diesel car is unusually low. I would verify this with the service history. Clocking is very common these days.

Also wear on a car is not just judged by the miles on the odometer in my opinion. A hard driver doesn't have to be doing huge miles. It depends how the car was driven, not how far it was driven.

Could the annual diesel mileage drop slightly now that diesel cars are a lot more refined, so now more desirable to people who may not be doing huge mileage?
I switched to a diesel, even though I was only doing 50 or so miles a day. Since moving house, I will be doing half that but definitely sticking with diesel.

(not that I'm saying that the mileage shouldn't be verified though)

bazz26

eoin_s wrote:

Could the annual diesel mileage drop slightly now that diesel cars are a lot more refined, so now more desirable to people who may not be doing huge mileage?
I switched to a diesel, even though I was only doing 50 or so miles a day. Since moving house, I will be doing half that but definitely sticking with diesel.

(not that I'm saying that the mileage shouldn't be verified though)

There are always exceptions and it is becoming more common these days that some people just prefer diesel to petrol irespective of how many miles they are doing.

But as diesel models cost more initially than petrol models the general conclusion is that you need to be driving more miles to justify the initial premium.