Used car mileage

EoghanIRL

I will soon be selling a car. The owner bought the car about 10 years ago but due to illness couldn't drive it. As a result there is only a small few thousand miles on the clock. Would this put you off a car if you saw it on an advertising website etc...

Not sure would the low mileage make people too suspicious or not.

bmwguy

There was a 00 Opel Corsa in my extended family which I was given a loan of to drive the width of the country to get to a wedding as my car was booked in for a service.
This was 2013. Apart from thinking back about how useless it was the thing that stood out was it had 10,000 miles on it in 13 years. Never driven at all only to the shops. How low are you talking?

Atlantic Dawn

What might put people off would be lack of scheduled servicing if say it has been serviced once in 10 years or because of lack of use if mould or dampness has built up inside the car. Having the car recently serviced and a fresh NCT will aid the sale.

CiniO

bmwguy wrote: »

There was a 00 Opel Corsa in my extended family which I was given a loan of to drive the width of the country to get to a wedding as my car was booked in for a service.
This was 2013. Apart from thinking back about how useless it was the thing that stood out was it had 10,000 miles on it in 13 years. Never driven at all only to the shops. How low are you talking?

There's a big difference in car doing 10k miles in 13 years being driven daily or even weekly to the shops comparing to car which wasn't driven at all for 10 years.

CiniO

EoghanIRL wrote: »

I will soon be selling a car. The owner bought the car about 10 years ago but due to illness couldn't drive it. As a result there is only a small few thousand miles on the clock. Would this put you off a car if you saw it on an advertising website etc...

Not sure would the low mileage make people too suspicious or not.

Was the car bought new or second hand?
If secondhand, how old is the car now?

If it's a 10 year old car and has really travelled only few thousand miles, it might be interesting offer for some... But definitely not for average joe.

If I was to buy such car, I would check throughly for rust as this might be pretty advanced at that stage, especially if car wasn't kept in indoor garage. And if that becomes fact and it's rusted all around, car might not be worth much at all.

Second consideration, that after purchasing car will need all fluids changed (oil, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid, gearbox oil, etc), as well as probably most rubber bits including timing belt, suspension elements, possibly engine mounts, etc... Maybe some bearings as well.

Issue of mould and cleaning it is another thing to consider.



But if I was to sell one, I wouldn't necessarily advertise that car wasn't used for 10 years.
Just advertise that car has extremely low mileage and looks and drives like new. Put up adequate higher price to comparable cars with higher mileage.
Clean the car thoroughly inside and outside, remove any mould.

EoghanIRL

Car has NTC as it was maintained over the time period. Is in proper working order inside and out.
Has under 5k miles.
I know in reality it's a bonus to get a car with low mileage but I can't help but feel it will make buyers suspicious.

kerten

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Car has NTC as it was maintained over the time period. Is in proper working order inside and out.
Has under 5k miles.
I know in reality it's a bonus to get a car with low mileage but I can't help but feel it will make buyers suspicious.

If you can prove that car wasn't lying in shed for years and was in use(service records, nct mileages, etc), it will be a bonus.

How many service has been done on it so far ? That's the only thing I would check and I am ok to see a service every 2 years for that type of use.

Cee-Jay-Cee

What make/model car is it? The level of interest will depend on what it is, Japanese and it'll probably sell no problem but French or Italian it'll probably not.