New car with high milage

Gargled

Hi all,

Thinking buying a 2010 car with 60k miles on the clock. Other than the obvious pitfalls of a car with high mileage, are there any other things to consider with younger cars? Believe it was used in the UK as a fleet car which would hopefully mean regular servicing...

Thanks in advance!

MuppetCheck

60K miles isn't really high mileage to be fair. It's above average for the year but not anything too high imo.

Do the usual history check and also get a copy of the service history. Then see do they match up. If there isn't a service history to back it up walk away.

Merch

not high?

fabsoul

60K miles isn't really high mileage with the history is fine

Gargled

60k miles in 2 years though? Or is that irrelevant

Merch

was that UK fleet car bit in the first post originally??

It depends on the car, engine, what condition its in, was it used on motorways mainly or something else.
It may be due a timing belt by now
or depending on the make/usage it may not be covered by a transferable warranty.

If it was treated right, not just in servicing but not driven like a dog
Depending on the make then 60k could be ok but its still outside the norm on the very high side of what average mileage is.
The price would surely have to reflect that as the mileage on any other car with two years is not going to be 60k so the condition of other 2 year cars is going to have to (more likely to be) be better.

Gargled

It's a Golf 1.6tdi. Didnt really get to check out the car but doing so later today.

Would be a new 6 month warranty on it. Should I only buy with a new timing belt or is there a way to check if it needs one?

Max Power1

60K miles in nearly 3 years on a diesel isnt high milage imo.

Above average but not high.

GavMan

Gargled wrote: »

It's a Golf 1.6tdi. Didnt really get to check out the car but doing so later today.

Would be a new 6 month warranty on it. Should I only buy with a new timing belt or is there a way to check if it needs one?

They only way to check if it needs doing really is to find out when VW recommend it to be changed.

If its near the set limit, I would haggle the price of the car down to reflect what it would cot to get it done, then get it done yourself. There's a chance a dealer might cut a corner to fatten his margin.

bazz26

Afaik the 1.6TDi has a timing chain not a belt.

lifer_sean

60k not high for a car almost 3 yrs old. Some fleet cars would do 60k miles in one year, you often see them coming off lease with 130k-170k in 3 years.

For any UK car, a service history is a must. Without it there is no guarantee that 60k isnt actually 160k.

Remember that mileage is very closely linked to price in UK, so a 170k miles car will be a lot cheaper than a 70k miles car in the auctions.

Idbatterim

is the mileage reflected in price or is it only marginally cheaper than say a car with about average mileage for its age, say 30,000 miles? and how many miles roughly per year will you be doing in it?

Skuxx

OP I wouldn't worry to much about that mileage, especially if it was used as a fleet car in the UK, you could make a reasonable assumption a lot of that was motorway miles! Once it had regular servicing and a history to prove it then it should be fine!
I have my golf 2 years and I've put 45k miles on it, and I work 8-5 everyday so it's parked in the car park most of the time!

OldmanMondeo

30k on a diesel per year, much better than 10k on one. Diesels need to be driven to be trouble free. I have 180k on my car and, touch wood, no problems. Serviced on time, t/belt done.

theoneeyedman

bazz26 wrote: »

Afaik the 1.6TDi has a timing chain not a belt.

AFAIK it has a belt alright, but along with the >2010 1.6 Octavia it is rated/covered for something like 200K Kilometers minumum-(I read somewhere the Octavia was rated for 200K while VW hadn't set a limit to their Continental belt) .....am open to correction on this (check it out yourself). Also 60 K in what is probably 32 months isn't reall high IMO; if I saw a 10 diesel with 25k i'd be more worried/suspicious

Gargled

So turns out that the majority of the milage (45,000 miles in 18 months) was done in Ireland. Didn't even think that was possible! Which is good as there is no winter salting etc, bad because our roads aren't as good as in the UK.

It has a timing chain and the condition of the car is pretty good so leaning towards buying it. The 6 month warranty is a big plus. It is a good bit cheaper than similar models with lower milage

Thanks for the advice