High Milage yay or nay?

Nasher said:
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.
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Ok, sure. The rest of us will continue to believe that age and general wear and tear have an adverse effect on an engine's reliability.
 
Nasher said:
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.
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Are you saying that a low mileage engine is likely, on average, (specifically German if you wish) to be less reliable than a high mileage version of that engine?
 
Mileage means absolutely bugger all, service history and condition is everything. In my opinion this also applies to newer cars too, and not just your typical £1k shed. I bought my 26 year old car on 170k, its now close to 200k and runs better now than when I got it.
 
Nasher said:
There are unlikely to be mechanical issues, those mainly appear earlier on in an engine's life. .
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You heard it here first, folks. Engines tend to eat themselves early on in the car's lifetime, and things don't often wear out as they get older and/or into big mileages. That's why pretty much every car that's been on the road for more than about 4 years is probably on its second or third engine by now....
 
I assume most have seen inside an engine?

There's not that much too it, well imo. You have oil pump, crankshaft, main bearings, piston bearings at the bottom then pistons, rings , cylinders in the middle. Then camshaft, lifters, arms and valves at the top. You also have crank and cam oil seals.

A properly oiled car where the oil filter is changed accordingly, none of these parts should wear due to friction. Maybe the lifters may wear but there's nothing that should wear. You should get 1M+ miles out of it.
 
There will be engines out there with 500K in better condition than others out there with 50K.

Depends how well looked after they are.

I'd definitely go for service history and condition over mileage, until the mileage reaches a point where I think re-sale would be difficult.

100K miles, no problem. 150K miles, as long as it has good history and seems to have been looked after. 200K miles, is about where I'd stop considering a car unless it is very cheap, even if it appears to be in good condition, because 200K is the new 100K when it comes to people being scared away from used cars due to mileage.
 
jsmoke said:
I assume most have seen inside an engine?

There's not that much too it, well imo. You have oil pump, crankshaft, main bearings, piston bearings at the bottom then pistons, rings , cylinders in the middle. Then camshaft, lifters, arms and valves at the top. You also have crank and cam oil seals.

A properly oiled car where the oil filter is changed accordingly, none of these parts should wear due to friction. Maybe the lifters may wear but there's nothing that should wear. You should get 1M+ miles out of it.
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Exactly. If there is a defect it's going to be apparent early on.
 
Nasher said:
Exactly. If there is a defect it's going to be apparent early on.
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I see where you're coming from.

I think people are talking about engine wear rather than manufacturing defects though.

Honestly though, if it has been looked after, the engine itself should be the least of your worries when buying a car with a reasonable amount of miles on it. (timing belt and water pump excluded) Its everything else that wears out. Anciliaries, idlers, bushings and other suspension components, etc.

The worst you can really expect from a looked after engine which hasn't got any manufacturing defects, is leaks.
 
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You’ll be wanting proof that the timing belt has been changed according to Honda recommendations and possibly the accessory belt/water pump at that mileage.
 
Terminal_Boy said:
You’ll be wanting proof that the timing belt has been changed according to Honda recommendations and possibly the accessory belt/water pump at that mileage.
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Thanks, honestly info like this helps as Ive not bought used car myself before, wife has but been stung with em in past having issues
 
Terminal_Boy said:
You’ll be wanting proof that the timing belt has been changed according to Honda recommendations and possibly the accessory belt/water pump at that mileage.
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You won't be wanting proof of a timing belt change because it doesn't have one.
 
Really interesting some of the thoughts on here. I’m a bit of a noob with this stuff, so excuse my ignorance, but when you say service history is more important, what exactly would I be looking out for on a, say, 2014 car with 80K miles?

With my current car, I don’t wait until the last possible moment to have stuff changed - I’ll ask my (trusted) mechanic what the situation is and depending how close it is I’ll just get it done with better than the cheapest stuff.

I also only have full services every year, since for me, the difference in cost is practically nothing, and it means I know he has more thoroughly looked over the car.

Would that be the sort of thing you mean when you say service history is important?


Thanks :)
 
Years ago people drove their cars into the ground, Haynes manuals were common. That car is relatively new imo. 80k is not bad at all. As I said before, you could get millions of miles from an engine maybe you'd get metal fatigue before that, maybe a seal would go but that's likely because the engine was overheating, or the oil was low, the coolant was low, the filters were blocked, the gaskets were worn.

Your looking for rust on the car which shouldn't be a problem in a 2014 car, rust on the sills (frame) is the worst then your looking for oil leaks around the engine, then your looking at oil levels, oil filter, air and fuel filter history. And if you have an odbii scanner available (£10) on eBay, you can check the ECU for error codes.

But there shouldn't be anything seriously wrong, unless it's been run low on oil. Also check the clutch for slipping.

The brakes, pads and disks will always need changed every so many miles.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Would that be the sort of thing you mean when you say service history is important?
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As long as it's been done annually or at regular mileage intervals that's really all you can hope for.
For more enthusiast cars, service history from an independent specialist would be ideal, but for normal cars maybe serviced at the same local garage for a number of years is fine (rather than e.g. kwikfit/Halfords auto etc)
 
Armageus said:
As long as it's been done annually or at regular mileage intervals that's really all you can hope for.
For more enthusiast cars, service history from an independent specialist would be ideal, but for normal cars maybe serviced at the same local garage for a number of years is fine (rather than e.g. kwikfit/Halfords auto etc)
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Perfect, thanks. I hope to look into getting a new car in 3-6 months time, and the models I’m looking at (6 cylinder diesels as they seem robust) are typically quite high mileage, which puts me off at first, but I know logically it’s fine to have high mileage if they’re looked after.


Closer to the time I will post a thread on what to look out for :-)
 
Think it's a bit naive suggesting mileage isn't an issue. There are plenty of things which can fail beyond those mentioned. The most recent items I've had to have fixed are an ABS sensor and wheel bearing (I'm on 104k miles). Ok, not expensive items, but it's all hassle and expense. The number of things that can go wrong with time and mileage increases exponentially. The cars wouldn't be so cheap if they were super reliable.
 
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