Old car, low mileage?

ash2008

Im looking to buy my first car, absolutely know nothing about cars im afraid
One thing I keep being told by others is to look for low mileage (nothing over 150,000k for a 10 yr old car).

Ive found a 2000 Honda Civic with 50,000k on it, mainly city driving by an elderly person. They are looking for slightly higher price than I want to pay as they are arguing it has low miles.

My question is if the mileage of a car is a more important consideration than the age? If most cars would clock up that mileage in 5yrs say, is this car the equivalent of a 5yr old car??

php-fox

As stated here many times before, the service history is far more important than the milage. If you're buying a car make sure it was well maintained and on time. Also, get a good mechanic to look at the car before you buy anything.

On a personal note, I've an 08 car with 210k km on the clock. It's still like new

Alanstrainor

If it has no service history i wouldn't be wild on it. How much over the odds are they looking for?

bazz26

Cars with small mileage can be good and equally can be bad. Some owners tend to think that they don't need to be serviced regularly so don't even see a drop of fresh oil in ages. A car that is not serviced regularly can be a poorer buy than a car with twice that mileage but with frequent servicing.

Remember mileage is not an accurate indication of wear or use on a car but for some reason your typical Irish motorist seems to think it is the definitive word on it.

ianobrien

I once bought a car with very low mileage (approx 2k per year). The engine had to be rebuilt and bored out at 50K due to the low annual mileage.

The reason - Most engine wear occurs when the car's cold. This car was always used for short trips and the engine never got up to temperature. The result was accellerated block wear and a +60 thou rebore needed.....

corktina

yeah but a 150k miles car with full service history (which can easily be forged anyway) is very very rare. 150k is too much anyway in my book, the car will be way past it s best

Matt Simis

corktina wrote: »

yeah but a 150k miles car with full service history (which can easily be forged anyway) is very very rare. 150k is too much anyway in my book, the car will be way past it s best

Hmm, depends on the model IMO.

antodeco

My mother had a Honda CRX, which was bought new in 1991 and sold in 2003 with a little over 8k miles! They do exist! She was originally offered €500 for it from the guy in the garage. The owner then runs out and offers €3.5k on it!

I wouldn't be worried about no service history (boards.ie obcesssion :pac: ) but if the car did check out on inspection I still wouldn't pay a premium for the low miles.

Buy on condition at that age and budget, mileage service history etc shouldn't be huge factors in your decision, it should be condition and price imo.

piston

The trouble with low mileage cars owned by elderly people is that they often bump into things (unfair generalisation I know!), short journeys cause more wear and tear on the clutch and engines suffer from short journeys combined with the fact that many older drivers never treat them to the good old "Italian Tune up."

I buy a car on condition, age or mileage doesn't really matter if it's been looked after and drove properly and I would definitely never pay a premium for low mileage. In some ways, you could argue that a high mileage car has been better cared for as it's completed big miles and survived whereas if it was genuinely neglected, it possibly wouldn't.

king_of_inismac

Every car is different so any advice will be general.

Get someone who knows their cars to help you choose, otherwise you may well get burnt.

As a start, look up the model you're interested on the honestjohn website. Print out the list of common faults. Be sure to check all of these before purchasing.

Sam Russell

All things being equal, low mileage cars (less than 50,000 miles) have good suspension and transmission as well as the general condition is better, particularly the interior. However, lots of short journeys without the monthly 'Italian tune up' shortens the life of the engine. Cars are built to be driven and should be up to running temperature for the vast majority of their miles!

However, I would value a 50k car way over a 150k car and I would not even look at higher mileages.

The problem arises when you take clocking into account - is it really 50k?

JohnBoy26

ash2008 wrote: »

Im looking to buy my first car, absolutely know nothing about cars im afraid
One thing I keep being told by others is to look for low mileage (nothing over 150,000k for a 10 yr old car).

Ive found a 2000 Honda Civic with 50,000k on it, mainly city driving by an elderly person. They are looking for slightly higher price than I want to pay as they are arguing it has low miles.

My question is if the mileage of a car is a more important consideration than the age? If most cars would clock up that mileage in 5yrs say, is this car the equivalent of a 5yr old car??

I went to see a 2000 Civic about a year ago with 42k on the clock. I expected it to be good given the mileage but it didnt turn out to be great at all with lots of corrosion underneath. My mates Civic with near 100k miles was in better condition so I wouldn't go by just mileage alone.

By any chance do you have a link for the ad?

wowy

Just jumping in here on this; looking at changing out of the Hyundai Tucson (21mpg is killing me) and saw this: http://www.carsireland.ie/845959

But, am concerned at the mileage. 120K miles/ 190K kms on an 8-year old petrol. Obviously, need to have a look at the service history, but would others be concerned at that?

ash2008

thanks for the replies.

I forgot to mention its an automatic (Im in North America - most cars are automatics here, so dont know if that would mean less wear on the engine with no clutch?).

By any chance do you have a link for the ad?

There's no ad...the car was recommended by a guy who does some maintenance such as oil changes on the car for the owner. He reckons its worth about $2500, but the seller is looking for at least $4000 due to low mileage....hence my question I do have a budget of $4000 anyways, but I dont want to pay over the odds - It would be handy to have some spare for insurance.

sebastianlieken

ash2008 wrote: »

thanks for the replies.

I forgot to mention its an automatic (Im in North America - most cars are automatics here, so dont know if that would mean less wear on the engine with no clutch?).



There's no ad...the car was recommended by a guy who does some maintenance such as oil changes on the car for the owner. He reckons its worth about $2500, but the seller is looking for at least $4000 due to low mileage....hence my question I do have a budget of $4000 anyways, but I dont want to pay over the odds - It would be handy to have some spare for insurance.

auto gear box is a good thing with such little miles. Small miles on an old car means LOTS of gear changing (and no offence but if it's an elderly person i'd be worried). An Auto transmition pretty much removes the human error aspect of gear changing. (riding the clutch, grinding gears, etc.)

the main thing i'd be looking at in your case would be the brakes (and to a lesser extent, the tyres). Just make sure the brakes have recently been serviced. 50,000km of city driving means alot of braking at traffic lights. Idealy you would want new brake pads on it (and disks if they're worn)

sebastianlieken

oh, also: I would most definatly want to see a full service history which confirmes the mileage at each service interval. (make sure the car hasn't been clocked).

and the timing belt will have HAD to be changed in there aswell.

if neither of those things can't be proven. walk away.

anoda_username

I'm not sure whether I should start a new thread but I just wanted to throw out a question about very low mileage. Im looking at an 8 year old focus with only 22 thousand miles. Would it be due timing belt change now? Would I be looking at problems in the future? I do about 20,000p/a. Thanks

Edit to add: it has been sitting up for almost 12 months