Age or Mileage for a car

Amp34

Amp34

Amp34

Caporegime
Joined
25 Jul 2005
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Canada
We are looking and for a used car at the moment and I'm trying to work out if a younger vehicle with more miles is likely (general probability) to be more reliable than an older vehicle with less miles.

Specifically with our budget we are looking at something either in the 2009 150k-180k km (fairly low mileage for here - or at least in our budget) or 2012 220k-250k km (usually mostly "highway" miles not town. Both can be had (when looking around) for a similar price.

I like the idea of getting a newer vehicle with higher mileage and part of me thinks if looked after properly it's probably going to be a little more reliable/no less reliable than something 3 years younger with 25% less miles. Especially for anything electrical or prone to rust/aging.
 
My most reliable cars have been the newer high mileage ones. The older low mileage ones have been least reliable. Condition and history first, age second, mileage third
 
Personally i prefer lower mileage older cars. To me an older looked after car with lower mileage always feels less worn and rattly compared to newer high mileage.
I've only had one car with over 100k on and the gearbox, clutch etc all felt worn despite the fact it was only 7 years old compared to my current 9 year old car with 70k on.
 
Dav4 said:
Personally i prefer lower mileage older cars. To me an older looked after car with lower mileage always feels less worn and rattly compared to newer high mileage.
I've only had one car with over 100k on and the gearbox, clutch etc all felt worn despite the fact it was only 7 years old compared to my current 9 year old car with 70k on.
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Go and try a 2 year old car with 70k on it, they normally feel pretty new in my experience. At 7 or 9 years old, neither of your examples are high mileage for the age.
 
Mileage is practically irrelevant so long as whatever you buy has been serviced properly and had replacements fitted at the required intervals e.g. suspension, bushes etc etc etc.

I regularly drive vehicles with 3 - 400k miles on them and they drive absolutely no differently to ones with delivery mileage because they are serviced and maintained regardless of cost.

Unfortunately I'm referring to commercial vehicles where rigorous maintenance is a mandatory legal requirement which alas isn't the case to the same extent with cars, therefore with regard to cars I'd first go by its overall condition paying particular attention to its service and maintenance history then perhaps age and finally mileage.

As a rule of thumb I would rather something relatively new with very high mileage (which predominantly will be less stressful highway usage) rather than old low mileage which will most likely have spent it's life on short stop start journeys which puts a much higher strain on the driveline.
 
The other thing to think about is that age is age - it's just time passing, there's not much variation in that other than where a car has been stored. Age causes certain types of wear - rubber to perish etc.

Mileage, however, is completely variable. 1000 journeys of 1 mile are much harder on a car than 2 500 mile journeys, the odo can't tell you what sort of use it's had so makes it a fairly pointless measure in isolation. One 50,000 mile car could be mint and the other could be completely knackered.

Cars also tend to get improved during their model life, new features added, improvements to quality, faclifts etc.
 
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Bought a 3 year old M135i with 37,000 miles on the clock. Feels like new.

I doubt very much it would feel like that at 10 years old with the same mileage.
 
My 1990 MX5 gave me fewer problems throughout my ownership than any of my other cars :D (except my current one, in fairness... so far..)

It was also (iirc) the lowest mileage to begin with. So in summary, buy a low mileage 1980s Japanese car.
 
iaind said:
Mileage, however, is completely variable. 1000 journeys of 1 mile are much harder on a car than 2 500 mile journeys, the odo can't tell you what sort of use it's had so makes it a fairly pointless measure in isolation. One 50,000 mile car could be mint and the other could be completely knackered.
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This is true, but it's probably more of a concern on low mileage cars (imo).

If you've got a 2 year old car which has done 5000 miles, then that could quite easily be someone who does 50 miles at a weekend, or someone who only drives a couple of miles to the shops every day.

If you've got a 2 year old car which has done 50000 miles, then it's probably not very likely that it's done a lot of short journeys.
 
What do people consider high milage these days? As an example my focus that was nearly 3 years old only had 23k on the clock which I considered extremely low for its age. We have a 6.5 year old corsa (59 plate) which has only done 47k. I tend to try and get a balance and go for low milage with a high spec and as new as possible. I've never been in a position to buy a decent new car but I'm hoping that will change next year.
 
Spikey said:
What do people consider high milage these days? As an example my focus that was nearly 3 years old only had 23k on the clock which I considered extremely low for its age. We have a 6.5 year old corsa (59 plate) which has only done 47k. I tend to try and get a balance and go for low milage with a high spec and as new as possible. I've never been in a position to buy a decent new car but I'm hoping that will change next year.
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23k - 3 years = ~8k/year
47k - 6.5 years = ~ 7k/year

Personally I would class both as low mileage, but not extremely low.

less than 5k I would say was extremely low ("worryingly" low), 10k-12k I would say was a normal annual mileage, with 18k and above being "high mileage"


As with the other posters though - condition should be the most important consideration.
 
The other-halfs Focus is now nearly at 180k, and drives just as badly as when we got it at about 40K.
 
Skillmister said:
My 1998 Corsa has 75k :o
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I raise you 147k on the one I've just bought to hack around in.

It's averaged 11k p/a so its very much average mileage for its year (02)but thankfully it's first owner had it serviced at the same Vauxhall dealer for 12 years, just about every replaceable part has been done - shocks, springs, clutch, brakes, cam belt even wiper blades and mud flaps (!)
When I was looking for a cheap hack after my e39 died, this stood out due to its history and condition so I bought it more on that rather than what the car actually is - a sodding Corsa!

I must admit I'm warming to it! :o
 
Spikey said:
What do people consider high milage these days? As an example my focus that was nearly 3 years old only had 23k on the clock which I considered extremely low for its age. We have a 6.5 year old corsa (59 plate) which has only done 47k. I tend to try and get a balance and go for low milage with a high spec and as new as possible. I've never been in a position to buy a decent new car but I'm hoping that will change next year.
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233's Mondeo taxi @300k is high mileage, Fox's 200k e39 on the other hand isn't relative to its age.

Always makes me smile when browsing Autotrader just how many cars have very low average mileage especially when browsing older cars, the number of 15year old BMW's for example with supposedly ~100k on the clock when in reality the vast vast majority of them would have racked that mileage and more up well within the first 5 years of their lives, 2-300k mile cars advertised are the exception where in reality it should be more of a norm in the older car market!
 
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