How much does car mileage matter?

fifomania

Hi
I've seen cars lately with a lot of high mileage like 70, 80, 100k and the dealers were asking 3000 plus for them. Is that right? Just wondering does car mileage really matter?

doOh

lol im just wondering why irish people say 100k m is a lot ... :P

But yeah mileage is matters way more than how old car is ...

fifomania

fifomania wrote: »

Hi
I've seen cars lately with a lot of high mileage like 70, 80, 100k and the dealers were asking 3000 plus for them. Is that right? Just wondering does car mileage really matter?

That's not really too high at all for a car that's 7 or 8 years old, just about average. I've bought a good few cars at those sort of miles and above and they were all fine.

It's the history and condition that are more important really.

mickdw

fifomania wrote: »

Hi
I've seen cars lately with a lot of high mileage like 70, 80, 100k and the dealers were asking 3000 plus for them. Is that right? Just wondering does car mileage really matter?

Well you could pay 40,000 for an S Class merc with 100,000 on it so kinda hard to answer your question.
Anyway, I think 200,000 is the new 100,000

Compton

service history and maintenance is much more important.

-Corkie-

If it has a full service history and was well maintained. I have a 07 with 294k KMS on it but it was serviced every 10k..

R.O.R

I picked up an 08 A4 with 171,000km on the clock on Wednesday and it still drives perfectly - much better than the 09 with 107k on that I picked up last night. The high mileage driver used it mainly on motorways so there is very little stress on the engine. The lower mileage driver lives in the middle of nowhere so does a lot of back road driving, which has taken it's toll a bit.

If a car is looked after and serviced regulaly, mileage isn't a huge issue.

shergar22

-Corkie- wrote: »

If it has a full service history and was well maintained. I have a 07 with 294k KMS on it but it was serviced every 10k..

What was it? How much did you pay?

Daegerty

doOh wrote: »

lol im just wondering why irish people say 100k m is a lot ... :P

But yeah mileage is matters way more than how old car is ...

1) the roads are so bad
2) people generally don't look after their cars here
3) during the celtic tiger people would have said 'im going to change my car, i'll get finance for a new one' in a smug voice before it ever got near 100k

Gael23

High mileage cars that have been serviced properly shouldnt be too much bother, especially if they were used for long distance driving. My mother recently bought an 09 micra with 76k on the clock but its been well maintained and was driven on all long journeys, short trips tend to cause more wear on the engine.

ted1

i've 214Km on a 07 it's got a full service history. And is 99% motor way driving. Has had a new belt clutch and fly wheel. And is still like new. If i was buying i'd rather one like mine over one that has low miles that has done short distance in traffic.

x in the city

fifomania wrote: »

Hi
I've seen cars lately with a lot of high mileage like 70, 80, 100k and the dealers were asking 3000 plus for them. Is that right? Just wondering does car mileage really matter?

Mileage doesnt matter 'too' much if the car is serviced and looked after like a baby.

If the car is not serviced, it matters an awful lot.

bazz26

It's not about how far it has been driven but how it has been driven.

-Corkie-

shergar22 wrote: »

What was it? How much did you pay?

A VW Passat 1.9 PD 105 BHP. I bought it last year of a friend of mine for just over 5K. The car was very well maintained and is driving fine!

knuth

Mileage means everything to the common Joe.

Common Joe is an idiot.

Nadaur

a great deal of people are buying cars showing 55k or 80k despite being a few years old......I recently saw a golf I'd owned and sold on with 95k miles on the clock...it had 62k showing....felt sorry for the lad.

paddylonglegs

finding this a handy thread and now have some questions to ask the seller of a 04 mini one 1.4l diesel,137k miles on the clock. Anything else I should find out apart from service history, how/where it was driven. Should timing belt be a concern at this mileage?

W.Shakes-Beer

To be honest, 70k and 80k isn't that much at all, most cars if maintained will do double that. Even 100k could be doubled.

Mileage tends to mean more to people in Ireland for some reason compared to people in the US or mainland Europe. It's a similar outlook to people who think that the higher the year on a car the better it is.

shergar22

Ta much. I'm looking at an 07 Mondeo, 2.0 diesel, the new model with about 250k (KM) on it. Wondering how much I would have to pay. (private sale).

DublinDilbert

I don't mind high milage too much at all, once it hasn't been driven into the ground. Also once wear and tear items have been replaced.

I kinda look at it as an extended test, cause typically if something hasn't broken by 100,000 miles it's not going to.

When I read threads on here about cars with major issues, not many seem to be related to high milage, in fact the opposite seems to be more the case.

ted1

shergar,

i'd look at a late 08 one, it'll be covered under the new emmisson bases motor taxc rates and shoudl save a couple of hundred a year.
what you save on buying price you'll lose on road tax.

Leonard Hofstadter

I think the big problem in Ireland is general lack of effort made by most people when it comes to vehicle maintenance - we have got to be the worst country in the world after the US for not looking after our cars.

Of course, this is hardly surprising when you see the crappiness of the cars most people buy here.

It is also reflective of our appalling driving standards, our misuse and lack of use of indicators, hogging the middle lane on a three lane dual carriageway/motorway, driving too slowly on main roads and too quickly in towns and villages.

We are the only country in the world that thinks that Corollas and Aurises with no a/c and steel wheels, poverty spec 316ds with a laughable 114 bhp:rolleyes: and miserable 1.6 TDI Passats are a good thing.

I was in the North during the weekend and the difference in cars up there is unbelieveable. It is a pleasure to drive up there compared to here as well. You see plenty of six cylinder 5 series, nice 2.0 TDCi Mondeos rather than the poverty spec 1.8 TDCis that are the norm down here, high spec Insignias, it is nice to see cars bought the way the manufacturers intended them to be.

If you go to Germany, the UK, France, indeed many other countries that are more prosperous than we are you will see much older cars, yet these older cars still are in good condition externally and are in perfect mechanical condition.

In Ireland, it is like an achievement for a car to get beyond 10 years, especially as we have an appalling waste of taxpayers' money being wasted on a scheme which is sending money out of the country and encouraging people to get rid of cars that with a small bit of money are perfectly capable of lasting another four or five years on our roads.

dr.fuzzenstein

fifomania wrote: »

Hi
I've seen cars lately with a lot of high mileage like 70, 80, 100k and the dealers were asking 3000 plus for them. Is that right? Just wondering does car mileage really matter?

300k is high mileage
Bought my Focus (1.8 TDCI) with 130k on it, it now has reached 170k and feels the same as ever.
It just has to be serviced, a car with 100k on it can be in total sh*t if it's driven up and down backroads with no regards for the car, Irish servicing, which means throwing in a pint of oil every now and then without even reading the dipstick.

PaulKK

ted1 wrote: »

i'd look at a late 08 one, it'll be covered under the new emmisson bases motor taxc rates and shoudl save a couple of hundred a year.
what you save on buying price you'll lose on road tax.

Any 08 one will have low road tax.


The last bit about the tax is rubbish.

Antrim_Man

PaulKK wrote: »

Any 08 one will have low road tax.


The last bit about the tax is rubbish.

Cars pre July 08 are charged at the old rates are they not?

bazz26

Antrim_Man wrote: »

Cars pre July 08 are charged at the old rates are they not?

They have the option of which ever is cheaper unless they are second hand imports which automatically went on the new system.

pete4130

I'm in Australia living now and I've been in friends cars with 450KM on the clock from 1990 and still running. Granted, bigger engine sizes and V6's are more common, bigger country etc...

There is less of a car snob/plate year attitude. Everyone needs to drive over here pretty much so there are lots and lots of tatty looking old cars from the late 80's and early 90's still on the roads. It's a different culture I suppose.

I bought a '96 Lancer estate with 161KM on the clock, which seems a bit too low for its year considering the mileage most cars do here but it had an almost complete service history and didn't have excessive signs of wear on the interior showing more miles covered than the clock had said. The spec and interior is sparse but it drives fine and I've been managing to get an average of 39mpg from a 15 year old 1.8 car (which is almost what the spec states it should get) and its got double the mileage of the OP's original question.

ted1

Any 08 one will have low road tax.


The last bit about the tax is rubbish.


how is it rubbish? if you pay 1500 less for an 07 than an 08 you save 1500. however you will lose this savings over 2 or 3 years on road tax.

cantdecide

Mileage with history is the way I go. Having said that, I have a spare car- a 95 316i with 210,000 miles and it just passed the NCT and is running like a sewing machine.

PaulKK

ted1 wrote: »

Any 08 one will have low road tax.


The last bit about the tax is rubbish.


how is it rubbish? if you pay 1500 less for an 07 than an 08 you save 1500. however you will lose this savings over 2 or 3 years on road tax.

You will most likely save a lot more than 1500 on an 07 as opposed to an 08, but regardess, most post 08 2.0 diesels are around 300 to tax, pre 2008 diesels are 600 to tax.

300 extra per year.

so it would be at least 5 years to "lose" these savings alone.

You are one of the many who just see the initial low tax and are willing to spend thousands just to pay less tax every year.

You need to do your sums and see what is actually more expensive over the period of ownership.

LordSutch

Average mileage = 10,000 to 12,000 miles per annum. . . . (or at least, that used to be the way it was) . . .

A lot of confusion these days with miles & kilometres being mixed up, I have even seen some Irish websites with km in the Mileage box, & vice versa! I also think that diesel engines are more robust, and tend to clock up more mileage (than petrol engines) in the car's lifetime.

PaulKK

LordSutch wrote: »

Average mileage = 10,000 to 12,000 miles per annum. . . . (or at least, that used to be the way it was) . . .
.

I thought it was 14k miles for petrol and 25k miles for diesel.

LordSutch

You might very well be right, things have changed since I were a lad

BuzzFish

My 2005 Alfa 156 has just turned 184,000 MILES

It's all about the servicing, how well the car is looked after and how it's driven..... if an alfa can do it, anything can

BuzzFish

BuzzFish wrote: »

My 2005 Alfa 156 has just turned 184,000 MILES

Is she on her 7th timing belt? (just wondering)

BuzzFish

RoverJames wrote: »

Is she on her 7th timing belt? (just wondering)

3rd

hadook

BuzzFish wrote: »

My 2005 Alfa 156 has just turned 184,000 MILES

It's all about the servicing, how well the car is looked after and how it's driven..... if an alfa can do it, anything can

I thought I was doing well with my car but I take my hat off to your Alfa

My 2003 1.2 (3 cylinder) Skoda Fabia happily cruised past 190,000 miles last weekend.

The Guvnor

ted1 wrote: »

i've 214Km on a 07 it's got a full service history. And is 99% motor way driving. Has had a new belt clutch and fly wheel. And is still like new. If i was buying i'd rather one like mine over one that has low miles that has done short distance in traffic.

Agree totally with this - even still I have little voices telling me to go for the lower mileage option!:)

johnos1984

I have to say I'd happily buy a rep mobile with high mileage than one with a low indicated mileage.

I bought a Passat with 112k last nov, its up around 119k now and going well and not showing its age yet but as my mechanic said there is lots like mine in the exact same condition with an indicated 60k driving around with happy owners who paid twice the price for the privilege. One of these being a work colleague who got a very similar car which doesn't feel like it has only 50k kilometres done