For most cars, history suddenly goes patchy over 100k miles. Third party warranties won't cover cars over 100k, most authorized dealers will not sell them from their courtyard. Most advertising pages have it as the last filter - "less than 100k". That's the magical number. Retirement age.
I drove Subaru Outback with 119k on the clock last weekend. Beautiful car. Chain driven boxer 6 pot, pulled like a dream. But the only owner had it serviced for the last time at authorized dealers around 91k. Paid almost £600 to prepare the car for the next 100k and... never returned there again. Suddenly, one day, as he was driving on his way to work, the cars computer clocked 100,000 miles. He heard fanfares, thunderbolt and lightening and the car became banger, right there, in front of his eyes. It turned old car. Don't get me wrong, the car drove fine, it idled fine, it felt fine and I could probably trust it. But the previous owner, the only owner, who never skipped one oil change in eight odd years, one day had a lapse of perception, and the car I sat in, did 28,000 miles pushing the same oil, breathing through the same filters. It became a banger, because its owner believed the clock, not his enjoyment of it or approach to ownership dictated what his car trully was.
I walked away.
And it's not only affecting the "cheap" cars. Two weeks ago, 6 years old 5 series BMW. Advertised with full service history. Stamps go up to 98k, then bunch of oil change receipts from Kwik Fits and Joe Garage's. 30,000k+ done with just basic oil changes. And some shmuck with usb cable resetting service warnings. "Why wasn't it serviced at indie BMW garage?". "As the car got older I couldn't justify the cost of £80 an hour garages". And yet he still wants 7 grand for it. He did £25 oil change and probably paid with local newspaper vouchers, because the meter struck 100k. Well, that's 161k in meterics, what you are going to do now monkey boy, start feeding it with sunflower oil from tesco?
So it's not that I don't trust high mileage cars. I don't trust owners. Anything over 100k without proper, clean, meticulous history, is just not for me. I'd rather go, pick 10 years old Japanese import, with some silly town miles and every panel fresh, clean and garaged. Older with less miles, rather than newer with intergalactic mileage and unknown cam belt interval.
