Age or mileage? What's your opinion?

Fann Linn

I'm currently in the market for a second hand car and I've noticed quite a fair few 09/10 cars with sub 50,000/60,000 miles at fairly reasonable prices. Initially I was considering upgrading to a 2013/14 car but I'm beginning to think is the extra premium for a newer car actually any more cost-effective?

I currently drive a 14 year-old high tax car which in fairness costs me nothing, its regularly serviced and last year for the whole of 2017 I did less than 7000 miles as I use a van for work.

My head is saying go for the 4 or 5 year old car whilst my heart and pocket is saying go for the 9 or 10 year old bargain.

I'd be grateful for any advice. Thanks

bazz26

I think you need to be realistic here. A 09/10 car is now 8 or 9 years old, you could be waiting along time trying to find one with below 50k/60k miles and that doesn't guarantee you that it's a good buy. The average annual mileage for a petrol car is about 10k to 12k miles so just going off that a 9 year old example is still going to be approaching near 100k miles at this stage.

I'm not sure where it stemmed from over the years but the Irish seem to have an awful obsession with linking mileage with condition or wear. They seem to think that low mileage automatically means better condition. In many cases it can be the opposite. Some people don't use their cars much and as such don't maintain or service them as often as they should either.

Also some drivers are very hard on their cars despite not driving them very far so mileage is not an accurate gauge of condition. I'd rather a high mileage car that was maintained properly than a low mileage car that hardly ever seen a fresh drop of oil. Yes mileage should be a factor but should not be the defining factor when buying a car.

Heres Johnny

Condition and value the 2 main drivers for me. Don't really care about reg plate or mileage but have to be quite conscious of the fact you will try to sell it on some day and then reg and mileage both become important.
Reg probably more so. I see 2012 5 series with more mileage than my 06 selling for approx 4 times the amount. I normally go with the older car in great condition and average mileage rather than the newer reg plate. Just so much better value.

Atlantic Dawn

Condition and how it was maintained are always my priorities, not really worrried about mileage. I would rather buy a 120k mile car with full history and 4 matching decent brand tyres on it than one same age with 60k miles no history and a mix of Chinese ditchfinders on it as my expectation would be owner was tight with maintenance and only did the very minimum to be road legal.

Fann Linn

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Condition and how it was maintained are always my priorities, not really worrried about mileage. I would rather buy a 120k mile car with full history and 4 matching decent brand tyres on it than one same age with 60k miles no history and a mix of Chinese ditchfinders on it as my expectation would be owner was tight with maintenance and only did the very minimum to be road legal.

Yes, I'm seeing a pattern here in all the above posts and the common denominator appears to be the service history. I never put much thought into it myself when posting here, but even on my own 14 year old I still get it serviced as per manual.

Thats were I'll start so when refining the search details.

Heres Johnny

I normally buy cars at a price where I keep them for 3 years and depreciate to very little value so when I fancy a change I just do it and don't worry about resale as I paid little in first place.
Every now and again I feel like I should have a new car.
Test drove a BMW 330e, 318d from 2016 as well as a 2013 520d one day last week. Decent money and I liked them all so I said I'll think about it over next few days.
Got into my 1080 a year tax sub 30mpg e60 525i sport with 190k kms and drove home thinking they were 30-35 grand cars I was just driving and this is a 3 grand car and it was just as good. If they presented it to me in the dealership and i didnt know what it was i would have bracketed it with the 30k cars.
Honestly. Sure it costs more to run and the infotainment is a bit outdated but I can't reconcile the price difference. And I could afford the dealers cars, any of them.
Reg chasing is expensive. I've had a few 5 series like this now and think I'll stick it out. Can't keep it forever I know but will for a while.
Go for the 09 once it's in good nick if you are happy with an older plate.