High Milage yay or nay?

Mark1989

Mark1989

Mark1989

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So potentially a week or two months time could be shorter or longer have to buy a second car.

Budgets less than I'd like but if it ends up being a month away be 2k max. Been speaking to family who say whilst you'll get a nicer older spec car for 2k miles will be high excess 100k so should avoid.

Which is true based on what I've seen on auto trader some older civic spec well for age but high miles.

Is high milage that bad? I mean if it has full service history and looked after should it really matter?

The main car will be my seat Leon, whatever 2nd car we get will be lucky if it hits 2k miles a year. Wife will be using it to pick up son from school, take herself to work and back with odd trip to shop that's it.

Does have to be automatic though which in fairness is plenty of em about
 
Cheap high mile automatics definitely need research - possibly not many miles from expensive bills.

In general high mileage isn't necessarily an issue - as long as it has been reasonably maintained.
 
100K is nothing for cars these days.
Pick a reliable brand, and research the key issues for vehicles you like.
Just need to find something cared for and good service history. If it's been neglected it will let you down.
 
It's irrelevant when you're buying a 2 grand car. Condition is everything, mileage is secondary. It's likely to be 10+ years old anyway which will have as big an effect as mileage.
 
You'll get a decent car for £2k. I remember our old focus (2007 Zetec 1.8 Petrol) had 40k on the clock, full dealer service history, was a great car and that was only worth £1,800 when we traded it in.
I think you'll find something decent to be honest. Unsure about the auto though, I don't know how they are priced these days.
 
Engines don't generally 'die'. Oil seals wear, most important thing is that the oil is at right level. Things your looking at will be, brake discs, pads, tires(get a cheap tread depth gauge), bushings, ball joints, arms. A lot of these rust and wear down. So long as just surface rust at most under the sills, other rusted parts can be replaced. Your clutch also has a shelf life.

They could all last to 150k miles they might go sooner but eventually something will need replaced other than the engine.
 
Thanks for info thus far would I be right in assuming stick to the cars that's easy to get parts for especially when older to make any potential repairs cheaper?

I know due to cost it's in essence a throw away car to some degree but I'd still like to minimise must risk as possible
 
One piece of advice, don't be enticed by the inevitable "amazing deal" of a BMW or other marque that seems too good to be true in this price range. The reason some of them are so cheap to buy is that the other costs of ownership are much higher than vehicles more appropriately in this bracket.
 
Mark1989 said:
Thanks for info thus far would I be right in assuming stick to the cars that's easy to get parts for especially when older to make any potential repairs cheaper?

I know due to cost it's in essence a throw away car to some degree but I'd still like to minimise must risk as possible
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Plenty of parts back to 2005 cars at least.
 
There are unlikely to be mechanical issues, those mainly appear earlier on in an engine's life. The old Honda and Toyota engines last forever.

A friend also had an old Impreza (bought for £100) which did almost 300k miles before rust finally killed it. The engine was still going fine.
 
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If your after a £2k automatic car budget for a transmission service (fluid and filter change) - many are “sealed for life” which basically means the gearboxes are never touched even on cars with a full service history and by the time/age they’re in this price bracket the transmission fluid is way past it’s best and likely to cause the eventual failure of the gearbox, scrapping the car effectively.

Once done - by an automatic transmission specialist - the gearbox should outlast the car instead of being the reason for its demise....
 
Nasher said:
Corrected at what lol?

If you go cheap and high mileage, don't go German unless you have a big budget for repairs. That is pretty much common knowledge.
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And here's where the correction starts...

You said that engines are unlikely to fail the older they get which is categorically untrue, and you made no mention of German cars specifically.
 
thewanted said:
And here's where the correction starts...

You said that engines are unlikely to fail the older they get which is categorically untrue, and you made no mention of German cars specifically.
Click to expand...

Most go bang at quite low mileage if there is an internal problem or defect with the engine's design. Assuming it's serviced properly.
 
My last car I bought with 149k on the clock, it was a 7 year old Mondeo for £1400. I can't remember the exact figures but I put about another 150k on it over the following 7 years, it was pretty trouble free but it had a service history & one owner.

It still ran fine when I took it off the road but unfortunately a 300k mile 14 year old Mondeo is near worthless so I stripped it and sold it all on Ebay & made over a grand more than i'd have made selling it & kept the sat nav, xenons & some of the final facelift chrome bits to fit to my ST220.

Buy on condition, not mileage.
 
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