Buying a high mileage 2014-16 car from UK

Bob_Marley

I think there is value to be had buying a high mileage, proper FSH, from the UK.

Something like a mondeo or superb, that has already had clutch, belt and DMF etc. done, and then just using it for average mileage.

I think the sweet spot in terms of work already done / value for money might be around the 140-160k mark ?

Has anyone direct experience of this ? would a uk auction be the best source or elsewhere ?

Atlantic Dawn

Yes I'd go auction route. Something you need to factor in though is VRT will give a slight discount on a higher mileage car but this might not be reflective of the actual difference the car would fetch on the Irish market compared to one with low miles. Factor in keeping the car a long time as the market will be tiny for it if you should decide to sell it.

Fann Linn

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201802073519461?maximum-mileage=125000&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&

I was just looking at this one today. Are there any negatives I should be aware of on a car like this. Thanks.

wex96

Just watch out for salt damage especially the oil sump. UK cars are notorious for salt damage.ðŸ˜

colm_mcm

Fann Linn wrote: »

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201802073519461?maximum-mileage=125000&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&

I was just looking at this one today. Are there any negatives I should be aware of on a car like this. Thanks.

Link not working here

Bob_Marley

wex96 wrote: »

Just watch out for salt damage especially the oil sump. UK cars are notorious for salt damage.ðŸ˜

will do, but there is just as much rock salt spread on Irish roads now in the winter as the UK.

maidhc

If you are going to the trouble of bringing in a car, why not get a low mileage fresh one???

Bob_Marley

maidhc wrote: »

If you are going to the trouble of bringing in a car, why not get a low mileage fresh one???

Because they are a lot cheaper, and I'm going over to the UK anyway, so there not any extra bother.
Same reason, as instead of a low mileage fresh one, why not just buy a new one ?

GustavoFring

Only thing that might bite you in the backside is if you wanted to offload it in 2-3 years. Very few people will go near a 200k ish mile 5 or 6 year old car unless it's very cheap.

You'll probably have a few more consumables to replace too, timing belts, suspension bits etc over a lower mileage car.

If you plan on keeping it until it drops and you get a well looked after one that has had the likes of dmf/belt done then you could do worse.

Bob_Marley

GustavoFring wrote: »

Only thing that might bite you in the backside is if you wanted to offload it in 2-3 years. Very few people will go near a 200k ish mile 5 or 6 year old car unless it's very cheap.

You'll probably have a few more consumables to replace too, timing belts, suspension bits etc over a lower mileage car.

If you plan on keeping it until it drops and you get a well looked after one that has had the likes of dmf/belt done then you could do worse.

Depreciation is by far the biggest cost of motoring. I don't do huge miles but enough for DPF, and by the time I plan to sell it, the lower mileage cars by then will have more miles and will be not be worth much more that what I'm driving anyway. Yes I'm hoping to buy one that has the bigger bill consumables recently done and out of the way for a while. That's why I'm trying to pick a good mileage range for what I'm planning to do. And as Diesel becomes more and more unpopular there's more value to had.

From personal experience I reckon most big bill stuff is done, for a while, by about 140k. This can vary of course, , so you need to have a careful look at the SH. (and yes something unexpected can still go, that's a chance you have to take) I don't think there is much benefit for what I'm planning to do, by buying one at 110k that might soon need clutch, DMF, belts etc. etc.

GustavoFring

At the same time there's ones going around with 150k still on the original clutch and flywheel too. All depends on how it was treated. If it's clocking up that mileage in a short time chances are it will have spent a lot of time outside of town and the clutch and flywheel is still healthy. It's a risk tbh, I think finding a good one with the work definitely and verifiably done will be an undertaking.

Personally I'd probably budget for doing one and buy the freshest feeling and cleanest one I could for the budget.

maidhc

Bob_Marley wrote: »

Because they are a lot cheaper, and I'm going over to the UK anyway, so there not any extra bother.
Same reason, as instead of a low mileage fresh one, why not just buy a new one ?

Personally I’d get an older lower mileage car first. I think anything with 200k on it is getting tired and anything that has 140k on it was sold before it starts to cost money.

commited

It's a great idea to go for young high mileage cars, they've generally sat on the motorway which is the easiest mileage you'd ever do and nothing that fails with age is any more worn than a low mileage car, and if you find a good one should be pretty much as good as a low mileage car. Mileage just isn't the issue it was 30 years ago!
The only downside generally is that there is little saving in VRT and it needs to be a car that you're willing to keep for a while as offloading it in mileage-obsessed Ireland will be tricky.

UnknownSpecies

Did just this on my latest buy - a 2013. Got an above average mileage highest spec model with full service history for the price of a regular mileage mid spec model. Also saved €480 on VRT due to mileage.

Bob_Marley

Have you the car long, and do you intend to keep it long ? how's the reliability worked out so far ?

maidhc

maidhc wrote: »

.....anything that has 140k on it was sold before it starts to cost money.

Or because it's 2 or 3 years old.

UnknownSpecies

Bob_Marley wrote: »

Have you the car long, and do you intend to keep it long ? how's the reliability worked out so far ?

Only have the car 10 days so too early to say. Just wanted to add how value can be had. I plan to keep it at least 4 years

JohnBoy26

Bob_Marley wrote: »

will do, but there is just as much rock salt spread on Irish roads now in the winter as the UK.

Nope not even close. The uk spreads far more over a longer period of time, especially in the midlands and in northern areas.

Bob_Marley

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Nope not even close. The uk spreads far more over a longer period of time, especially in the midlands and in northern areas.

Sorry but local authorities in Ireland have been spreading rock salt on National Primary's and Secondary for at least 20 years whenever the temps are low all winter.
Years Irish local authorities could old afford to spread only sand on the roads, but those days are long gone from a liability point of view.
I've imported quite a few UK cars for myself over the years, and found the selection choice spec price and condition superior to whats on the Irish market every time, and the dealers are far more professional. yes there as bad / non legit cars in the UK, but no more than what you find in Ireland. Many Irish dealers are also importing from the UK.

JohnBoy26

Bob_Marley wrote: »

Sorry but local authorities in Ireland have been spreading rock salt on National Primary's and Secondary for at least 20 years whenever the temps are low all winter.
Years Irish local authorities could old afford to spread only sand on the roads, but those days are long gone from a liability point of view.
I've imported quite a few UK cars for myself over the years, and found the selection choice spec price and condition superior to whats on the Irish market every time, and the dealers are far more professional. yes there as bad / non legit cars in the UK, but no more than what you find in Ireland. Many Irish dealers are also importing from the UK.

Look under any uk car, they are far worse than their irish equivalent. It usually starts on subframes and suspension components, even on fairly fresh cars there is spots underneath. Cars from the midlands and further north can be very nasty underneath.

Im not disputing that they spread salt here but its on a much smaller scale compared to the uk. In some parts of the uk they are now mixing the salt with water to improve it's effectiveness. The downsude of this is that it's even more corrosive.

Bob_Marley

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

Look under any uk car, they are far worse than their irish equivalent. It usually starts on subframes and suspension components, even on fairly fresh cars there is spots underneath. Cars from the midlands and further north can be very nasty underneath.

Im not disputing that they spread salt here but its on a much smaller scale compared to the uk. In some parts of the uk they are now mixing the salt with water to improve it's effectiveness. The downsude of this is that it's even more corrosive.

All depends, I've seen many an Irish car from any coastal area just as bad.
The trade has been trying to spread every myth possible about UK cars, while importing them themselves.
The salt problem being a UK exclusive is way out of date at this stage.

JohnBoy26

Bob_Marley wrote: »

All depends, I've seen many an Irish car from any coastal area just as bad.
The trade has been trying to spread every myth possible about UK cars, while importing them themselves.
The salt problem being a UK exclusive is way out of date at this stage.

No it's not. Uk cars are definitely a lot worse than here when it comes to rust. You just don't see the same level of rust here, even on coastal cars, unless they are right on the edge of the sea, and even at that it is much slower taking effect than road salt.

I went to see a few uk import corollas a few years back, all of them had more rust than the Irish ones I've seen.

Things like wishbone arms had a nice coating of rust on them, even the bolts holding the engine cover were rusty. My own car at the time was a 6 year older original irish corolla and that had no rust in any of those areas, infact none of the irish ones i've seen had no rust in any of those areas. It was the same story with the underbody.

There are also plenty of uk cars with rusty arches and sills that you just don't see happening on irish cars, even ones by the coast.

The paintwork tends to be in better condition on uk cars though but I guess it's easier to fix swirl marks and scratches than it is to fix rust issues.

Bob_Marley

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

No it's not. Uk cars are definitely a lot worse than here when it comes to rust. You just don't see the same level of rust here, even on coastal cars, unless they are right on the edge of the sea, and even at that it is much slower taking effect than road salt.

I went to see a few uk import corollas a few years back, all of them had more rust than the Irish ones I've seen.

Things like wishbone arms had a nice coating of rust on them, even the bolts holding the engine cover were rusty. My own car at the time was a 6 year older original irish corolla and that had no rust in any of those areas, infact none of the irish ones i've seen had no rust in any of those areas. It was the same story with the underbody.

There are also plenty of uk cars with rusty arches and sills that you just don't see happening on irish cars, even ones by the coast.

The paintwork tends to be in better condition on uk cars though but I guess it's easier to fix swirl marks and scratches than it is to fix rust issues.

My experience says otherwise, I see rust on Irish cars just as bad all the time, and the trade hates and always runs down UK self imports, while at the same time importing them from the UK themselves all the time, so we'll have to agree to disagree.

newmember2

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

No it's not. Uk cars are definitely a lot worse than here when it comes to rust. You just don't see the same level of rust here, even on coastal cars, unless they are right on the edge of the sea, and even at that it is much slower taking effect than road salt.

I went to see a few uk import corollas a few years back, all of them had more rust than the Irish ones I've seen.

Things like wishbone arms had a nice coating of rust on them, even the bolts holding the engine cover were rusty. My own car at the time was a 6 year older original irish corolla and that had no rust in any of those areas, infact none of the irish ones i've seen had no rust in any of those areas. It was the same story with the underbody.

There are also plenty of uk cars with rusty arches and sills that you just don't see happening on irish cars, even ones by the coast.

The paintwork tends to be in better condition on uk cars though but I guess it's easier to fix swirl marks and scratches than it is to fix rust issues.

Was told many moons ago by someone bringing in cars from the UK regularly not to buy Japanese from the UK as they don't stand up to the Winters there. He brought in a lot of BMW and VW.

Bald? er, dash!

I imported a BMW from Scotland. It needed new brake discs shortly after being brought in (vents clogged with rust); issues when getting wheel alignment done; it finally broke my heart with rust causing ongoing wheel speed sensor faults.

JohnBoy26

newmember? wrote: »

Was told many moons ago by someone bringing in cars from the UK regularly not to buy Japanese from the UK as they don't stand up to the Winters there. He brought in a lot of BMW and VW.

What you were told was probably about japanese imports. They don't stand up to rust even here because they are not undersealed. Eu spec japanese cars are undersealed but salt will get the better of even cars with the best rust protection. There's plenty of uk mk5 golfs out there with rusty arches.

JohnBoy26

Bob_Marley wrote: »

My experience says otherwise, I see rust on Irish cars just as bad all the time, and the trade hates and always runs down UK self imports, while at the same time importing them from the UK themselves all the time, so we'll have to agree to disagree.

You experience obviously excludes inspection of the vehicle underbody but as you say we'll agree to disagree.

JohnBoy26

Bald? er, dash! wrote: »

I imported a BMW from Scotland. It needed new brake discs shortly after being brought in (vents clogged with rust); issues when getting wheel alignment done; it finally broke my heart with rust causing ongoing wheel speed sensor faults.

I've seen cars from Scotland in a shocking state underneath. They have been adding water to the salt there for years which has made the problem significantly worse

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/news/new-road-salt-makes-cars-rust-faster-1-770583/amp

Fann Linn

How do all these manufacturers such as Hyundai, Kia which offer 7 year warranties for rust fair out in Britain? Is this corrosion excluded from their guarantees?

nice_guy80

I was always told get a car from the UK south of a line from Bristol
much less gritting of roads

PGE1970

I brought in a BMW from Scotland in 2012 and had it for 5 years until I sold it last year.

Great spec and FSH. Great car and never gave me a moment's trouble. Maybe I got lucky but I'd go back again to get one in a heartbeat.

I did the usual RAC inspections, HPI checks though and rang BMW garage for service history before I went over though.

Bald? er, dash!

PGE1970 wrote: »

I brought in a BMW from Scotland in 2012 and had it for 5 years until I sold it last year.

Great spec and FSH. Great car and never gave me a moment's trouble. Maybe I got lucky but I'd go back again to get one in a heartbeat.

I did the usual RAC inspections, HPI checks though and rang BMW garage for service history before I went over though.

Fair enough, positive experiences are as valuable as negative ones to inform a discussion - YMMV and all that...

I also went through the inspections, but found the language in the resulting report was covering their ass with terms like as far as we could see etc. etc. I'm not bitter about the experience, caveat emptor, just better informed for the next time around

PGE1970

Bald? er, dash! wrote: »

Fair enough, positive experiences are as valuable as negative ones to inform a discussion - YMMV and all that...

I also went through the inspections, but found the language in the resulting report was covering their ass with terms like as far as we could see etc. etc. I'm not bitter about the experience, caveat emptor, just better informed for the next time around

I'm sorry to hear that you had such trouble. I bought from a garage in Airdrie (James Glen) and they were very good to deal with albeit there is very little haggling with UK dealers on price.

The RAC report was very indept and the inspector rang me for about 30 minutes to discuss before I finally pressed the button. For about £250, it was well worth it.

I also brought over a 3 year old Almera in 2008 from a garage in Preston. My wife still drives it to this day (only 80k miles on the clock for a 2005 car does help though).

We live in Louth so handy for either Dublin Port or Larne. I'll go UK again and hope my luck continues. Hopefully, you might have a better experience if you decide to buy UK again.

Bob_Marley

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

You experience obviously excludes inspection of the vehicle underbody but as you say we'll agree to disagree.

No it doesn't - that would be a very false assumption / accusation.

Plenty of main Irish roads have salt spread on them all winter.
I've seen just as many rusty Irish cars.

JohnBoy26

Bob_Marley wrote: »

No it doesn't - that would be a very false assumption / accusation.

Plenty of main Irish roads have salt spread on them all winter.
I've seen just as many rusty Irish cars.

We spread far less here than in the uk. We only spread when the weather gets really cold, usually from november to February and it's not every night the roads are salted. We also only usually spread salt on main routes too. I know this to be true as I have a relative that drives one of those salt trucks.

I have never seen an Irish car with the same level of rust you can see on the uk equivalent. Now not all uk cars are rusty but in general you do seea lot more rust on them than an irish car.

Bob_Marley

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

We spread far less here than in the uk. We only spread when the weather gets really cold, usually from november to February and it's not every night the roads are salted. We also only usually spread salt on main routes too. I know this to be true as I have a relative that drives one of those salt trucks.

I have never seen an Irish car with the same level of rust you can see on the uk equivalent. Now not all uk cars are rusty but in general you do seea lot more rust on them than an irish car.

In both the UK and Ireland the road temperatures dictate salt spreading, not the date, sensors and weather stations are located for this purpose on all national primary roads. Salt must be spread at a standard spread rate per square m or the roads authority will be liable, and that comes from a relative of mine who's a local authority engineer in charge salt spreading in his area and when the lorries are dispatched. Ireland has just as low a temperatures as most of the UK. I've seen plenty of rust on Irish cars. One of the worst rust buckets I had was Irish, and one of the best, no rust after 22 years, spent a considerable number of years in the UK. Generalisations are just that, you inspect each car and treat it on its own merits. I always laugh at some dealers spreading myths about UK cars when people are self importing them, while at the same time importing and selling them whenever it suits them.

California Dreamer

JohnBoy26 wrote: »

I have never seen an Irish car with the same level of rust you can see on the uk equivalent. Now not all uk cars are rusty but in general you do seea lot more rust on them than an irish car.

You seriously must work in the Irish trade and are just spitballing that anyone would go to the UK to buy a car based on the SEVERAL posts about the rock salt blah blah blah. Either that or you are just trolling for the sake of it.

20 years I am buying cars from the UK and have NEVER come across any kind of problem. I have bought all sorts from 10 year old to 18 months old.

So unless you have photographic or engineered proof to back up your claims jog on!!

maidhc

Pound for pound, uk cars have more rust issues. I have owned enough old ones to know. Generally Irish classics tend to be better underneath that uk imports. There are exceptions to everything; I have a 1992 Merc from the Uk that is remarkably good, but I have enough that we’re tatty too.

Bob_Marley

maidhc wrote: »

Pound for pound, uk cars have more rust issues. I have owned enough old ones to know. Generally Irish classics tend to be better underneath that uk imports. There are exceptions to everything; I have a 1992 Merc from the Uk that is remarkably good, but I have enough that we’re tatty too.

Salt spreading became widespread on Irish roads about 20 years ago, so Irish classics before this might be in better shape.
However this thread is about importing a 2-4 year old car.

maidhc

Bob_Marley wrote: »

Salt spreading became widespread on Irish roads about 20 years ago, so Irish classics before this might be in better shape.
However this thread is about importing a 2-4 year old car.

Obviously no 4 year or car should have rust issues. The rusty mercs 2000 -> 2010 faired a lot better in Ireland than in the uk too though!