140K mileage for a car - is it worth it?

[tacticalx86]

So I've been driving for a little under 2 years, with a 2010 (59 plate) Honda Civic, bought with like 90-95k miles, now more like 110.

I'm 19, honestly I won't lie I really like BMW cars. The current car I have is very reliable and is built like a tank, I use it for doing deliveries (insured by the company that i work for) and only thing that has gone wrong was the battery died last week. It's been used and abused and does the job but is tired. The gearbox is completely knackered; everytime I go into second gear I get this hideous crunch. The AC is also busted which makes it hard to drive in in summer. The back window heater doesn't work either so the back window gets lots of condensation very quickly.

I've been looking at BMWs. I know they don't necessarily have the reliability of Hondas. I have accumulated some savings. I have been expecting to pay about £10K for a used 13 plate minimum, 3 or 4 series BMW, but saw a 63/13 plate BMW 3 series for sale near me for £5.2K.

The car is in pristine condition. The catch?
It's got 140 miles on the clock.
I've checked the MOT history and its passed every single one. The only issue seems to be its untaxed at the moment, but providing its not on the roads that's probably not an issue.

Is it worth it?
I am not looking to continue my delivery job for much longer, because i'm already weary of the AA raising questions about the extremely high amounts of driving I'm doing. I have a black box. I actually emailed them several weeks ago informing them of the situation (doing the bulk of my driving on my work's insurance policy), but they never got back to me and they say they've stopped offering telematics insurance.

In terms of insurance - it's actually not bad though i'll probably be stuck with a black box. Insurance cost me £750 this year - the quotes so far for the 140k car seem to be be around £800-£900 which is very reasonable IMO considering I'm 19 and have been on the roads for 2 years.

Another alternative I'm looking at is something like a Vauxhall Astra GTR, the 2012-2016 models

 

[HangTime]

So I've been driving for a little under 2 years, with a 2010 (59 plate) Honda Civic, bought with like 90-95k miles, now more like 110... <snip>
...weary of the AA raising questions about the extremely high amounts of driving I'm doing

15-20k miles in nearly 2 years isn't extremely high, that's about 10k/year, and if they aren't doing telematics then all they have to go on is the mileage rather than the fact you are making a large number of short journeys.

 

[Scania]

Have you got a link to the BMW?

It sounds on the face of it cheap tbh and I’d be asking myself why, the one thing you don’t want to do is change from a tired fundamentally reliable relatively cheap to run car to one that’s similar but a “premium“ brand which could potentially sting you in repairs far more than what you have now.

 

[METEORIC]

Depends on if it's motorway miles or not, if so it should be alright providing you check everything else over, very thoroughly.

Honestly, it's just because the parts for BMW are so expensive when something goes wrong, and higher mileage does mean more used so higher chance to have a problem.

In my opinion, I'd probably just save the money, in the meantime you could probably fix up your Honda yourself to make it run nicer.

 

[Haggisman]

Delivery job will knacker pretty much any car (maybe an EV would be better suited), particularly if it has a DPF - if that 3 series is a diesel then it probably does (I don't know that particular model, but most diesels of that age will do I believe).

If that's 140k doing 200 miles a day up and down the motorway then it's probably OK, if that's 140k off deliveries then it's probably knackered.

Either way, you're looking at spending £5k+ on a car which is only a couple of years newer than yours with 40% more mileage, with unknown history, higher servicing/maintenance/running costs (and probably lower fuel economy).

Doesn't seem to be great idea to me

Have you got a link to the BMW?

It sounds on the face of it cheap tbh and I’d be asking myself why, the one thing you don’t want to do is change from a tired fundamentally reliable relatively cheap to run car to one that’s similar but a “premium“ brand which could potentially sting you in repairs far more than what you have now.

I'm guessing it's this one: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202209300268491

If so, then I guess it does look in decent condition for the age/mileage.

 

[sovietspybob]

Tbf if that is the car it might not be that bad of a shout, i don't know a great deal about BMW's but that is probably the least desirable spec as i think ES is the lowest in the tree and it has the 1.6 n/a engine BUT i'd pick that engine over a turbo diesel of that age mileage any day of the week. I know the later 1.6 turbo's that they used in the next BMW had a lot of issues as it was the PSA engine i believe but i don't know anything about that vintage of 1.6 (is it even a 1.6?) BMW engine.

 

[tacticalx86]

15-20k miles in nearly 2 years isn't extremely high, that's about 10k/year, and if they aren't doing telematics then all they have to go on is the mileage rather than the fact you are making a large number of short journeys.

It's more the point I'm down for 6k miles a year and probably doing more like 7-8k. And with the lots of short drives they can probably guess i'm doing deliveries and might ask questions, like i should be okay as i'm doing them on another insurance policy

 

[tacticalx86]

Tbf if that is the car it might not be that bad of a shout, i don't know a great deal about BMW's but that is probably the least desirable spec as i think ES is the lowest in the tree and it has the 1.6 n/a engine BUT i'd pick that engine over a turbo diesel of that age mileage any day of the week. I know the later 1.6 turbo's that they used in the next BMW had a lot of issues as it was the PSA engine i believe but i don't know anything about that vintage of 1.6 (is it even a 1.6?) BMW engine.

Most BMWs I see for sale are diesels, I have no intention of buying one because diesel fuel still has yet to fall and also I reguarly drive in and out of london and the wind is certainly blowing in the direction of diesels being charged to enter at some point.

If it was any other car with 140k miles i wouldn't look twice but as you can see, it appears to be in very good condition.

 

[sovietspybob]

Most BMWs I see for sale are diesels, I have no intention of buying one because diesel fuel still has yet to fall and also I reguarly drive in and out of london and the wind is certainly blowing in the direction of diesels being charged to enter at some point.

If it was any other car with 140k miles i wouldn't look twice but as you can see, it appears to be in very good condition.

Yeah if it was me i'd do a bit of reading up about that engine if there are any know weaknesses as i know a lot of BMW engines like to use plastic bits inside which get brittle with age and cause issues etc. Then you just need to go in with your eyes open as BMW parts are more expensive and they do go wrong more than the car your used to but if your willing to accept that it looks decent to me.

 

[tacticalx86]

Yeah if it was me i'd do a bit of reading up about that engine if there are any know weaknesses as i know a lot of BMW engines like to use plastic bits inside which get brittle with age and cause issues etc. Then you just need to go in with your eyes open as BMW parts are more expensive and they do go wrong more than the car your used to but if your willing to accept that it looks decent to me.

Yeah, I think I am blessed with having a very reliable car, although by its age alone its now getting to the point where things may go wrong.
Rebuilding the gearbox would cost like 1-2k alone

The listing says the miles are "motorway miles"

 

[Rilot]

The listing says the miles are "motorway miles"

The listing could say that the milage was all done with the engine off and it would hold as much weight.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

There's a reason most delivery drivers don't drive prestige cars. I'd keep the ****box you've got now until you've either found alternative work, or it dies / fails an MOT.

I spent many years in my 20's paying off cars that eventually just dwindled all their value away, when in retrospect I'd have been much better saving the money for a deposit.

 

[tacticalx86]

There's a reason most delivery drivers don't drive prestige cars. I'd keep the ******* you've got now until you've either found alternative work, or it dies / fails an MOT.

MOT is in march so we will see. Passed last year more or less other than needing some changes to indicator lights.
Thought it had died the other week but was just a battery.

There's a reason most delivery drivers don't drive prestige cars. I'd keep the ******* you've got now until you've either found alternative work, or it dies / fails an MOT.

I spent many years in my 20's paying off cars that eventually just dwindled all their value away, when in retrospect I'd have been much better saving the money for a deposit.

I don't intend to buy a car with finance. I am very restrained with my spending. The only advantage of really buying a new car now is the current one might be worth something in four figures even if its only a grand rather than a few hundred

 

[Uther]

If you go in with eyes open it doesn't look that bad. It will be more expensive to run though and I certainly wouldn't want to use it as a delivery hack.

 

[tom_nieto]

Don’t try to justify it on anything other than wanting a BMW grounds. The car looks in decent nick and if it drives ok and has a complete service history it’ll probably be ok. The problem is that your current car is getting “old” and has things wearing out as you’d expect. This is likely to happen with the BMW linked as it also is getting “old”. The BMW will be more expensive to put right and might not be worth anything at all if a big ticket item goes on it, so again don’t justify it on future values. Delivery driving will speed up this process and your nice car will soon be less nice mechanically and cosmetically.

In all, I’d buy the car, but only if you want to drive a BMW at the expense of everything else. This is a perfectly good reason to change car! For continuing motorway miles it’d probably be ok, but a similarly priced E class Mercedes would be my choice for a motorway wafter. For delivery driving I’d continue to use your Honda.

 

[tacticalx86]

Don’t try to justify it on anything other than wanting a BMW grounds. The car looks in decent nick and if it drives ok and has a complete service history it’ll probably be ok. The problem is that your current car is getting “old” and has things wearing out as you’d expect. This is likely to happen with the BMW linked as it also is getting “old”. The BMW will be more expensive to put right and might not be worth anything at all if a big ticket item goes on it, so again don’t justify it on future values. Delivery driving will speed up this process and your nice car will soon be less nice mechanically and cosmetically.

In all, I’d buy the car, but only if you want to drive a BMW at the expense of everything else. This is a perfectly good reason to change car! For continuing motorway miles it’d probably be ok, but a similarly priced E class Mercedes would be my choice for a motorway wafter. For delivery driving I’d continue to use your Honda.

Yeah, I mean it's only 3 years newer than my current car.
I can't see any E or even C classes on autotrader post 2013 for a similar price to the BMW

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Don't do it lad, as someone who has made several silly car buying decisions - just sweat your current beasty till it is a pile of rust on the driveway. It is much more fun to have a banger than a polished turd at your age.

 

[Armageus]

The gearbox is completely knackered; everytime I go into second gear I get this hideous crunch.

Every shift or just changing down?

If it's mainly when downshifting then you can likely drive around the problem by double de-clutching:

Top Gear’s guide to driving well: how to double declutch

Everything you wanted to know about driving but were too afraid to ask, vol 5

www.topgear.com

The AC is also busted which makes it hard to drive in in summer.

In all likelihood will be an expensive repair (probably condensor) , but hardly makes it "hard to drive".

The back window heater doesn't work either so the back window gets lots of condensation very quickly.

Could be an easy/chip fix - have you checked the fuse, checked the window for any damage to the heater element (which may be repairable)

 

[Meatball]

Keep the Civic - I regret selling mine as they’re a good car.

FN2 models are prone to water ingress around the sealant for the lower rear window section. Check if the seal is water tight and check the screen heater connections, they made be corroded if you do have water ingress. I had the rear plastic screen removed and refitted by a Honda dealership and if memory serves me it cost about £200.

In regards to your climate control; Halfords will do a free test if you ask nicely, but I would advise you perform a visual check prior. My local shop were able to check the pressure in the aircon lines, which was practically 0. This pretty much confirmed there was a leak. A visual inspection of the condenser showed it was well past it and the cause of the leak.

When was the gearbox oil last changed?

 

[[TW]Fox]

This is absolutely not worth it for that car.

It's the worst model of a 3 Series that wasn't exactly brilliant anyway - it is not worth getting yourself into a world of bills over. It will quickly feel like just another car because there is almost nothing of particular note about it.

It's just a very average car with a nice badge on it missing almost all of the things which make a BMW something that is enjoyable to own.