High mileage car help?

[Scania]

80k a year? Christ on a bike.

The first registered keeper prior tonits current owner was a Doctor who lived in Inverness yet the cars service invoices are mostly from Chandlers BMW which is not far from Eastbourne, and odd visits to presumably his home dealer in Inverness- one hell of a commute I guess?

 

[lordrobs]

The proof is in the eating as such, this particular 520d would be hard pressed to be described as a 100k miler from how it drives, as would have been the 260k e39 I had a few years back, of course a car will cover short trips to get to & from said motorway, but, ultimately, a high mileage in a short ish space of time will always be less taxing on the driveline than a similar figure over a longer period.

I totally agree with that but you said;

Buy it, a ~3 year old 160k mike car will have far less general wear & tear on it than a similar car that’s covered say 60k, the majority of miles would - most likely - have been motorway use which isn’t any where near as hard on a car as lots of short ish town traffic runs.

I honestly don't think a car that does 20k a year for three years will have more wear and tear than a car that does over 50k a year for three years just because the latter has done additional motorway miles.

 

[Scania]

I honestly don't think a car that does 20k a year for three years will have more wear and tear than a car that does over 50k a year for three years just because the latter has done additional motorway miles.

I would hazard a guess that the lower mileage will be accrued through far more frequent trips of shorter duration, thus far more heat cycles and more general wear on components such as steering & transmission, you’ll make far fewer lock to lock steering inputs on a 200 mile motorway trip than you would covering a tenth of that distance going through a large city, equally the same can be said for gear changes.

Put it this way, not many people would buy a high mileage ex taxi, I don’t mean the type 233 on these very forums runs, I mean one that racks up huge mileage yet rarely if ever escapes the town centre, they have to be vigorously serviced As afaik a legal requirement yet at the end of their time they are usually completely shagged out where 233’s example that’s spent the majority of its time out on the open road isn’t by any stretch.

There are exceptions of course but ultimately it’s down to how and where those miles were acquired and the mechanical sympathy (or lack of) from the driver.

 

[fadetoblack]

So I got the car fingers crossed she a Good one. No smoke on start up engine really quiet gear change really smooth & 68 mpg on a trip to Leeds today.

 

[Semple]

I would hazard a guess that the lower mileage will be accrued through far more frequent trips of shorter duration, thus far more heat cycles and more general wear on components such as steering & transmission, you’ll make far fewer lock to lock steering inputs on a 200 mile motorway trip than you would covering a tenth of that distance going through a large city, equally the same can be said for gear changes.

Component wear on longer journeys is certainly interesting. When i bought my last car i had a new set of tyres all round, and a new set of brake pads. I've done ~40k miles over 18 months and the rear tyres are still around 5-5.5mm in tread. The front's are running around 3.5mm. The pads at the front still have 7-8mm of pad left, and the rears are running around 4mm.

I would estimate that at least 95% of those miles were accrued on the motorway, albeit not always at NSL, plenty of roadworks etc.

 

[Hagar]

Its not so much the miles as the hours driven. As others have said, age is probably a better factor than mileage. It has probably had more time at the optimal operating temperatures and oil pressure than a car driven 10-20 miles a day.

 

[kefkef]

The first registered keeper prior tonits current owner was a Doctor who lived in Inverness yet the cars service invoices are mostly from Chandlers BMW which is not far from Eastbourne, and odd visits to presumably his home dealer in Inverness- one hell of a commute I guess?

I worked for an IT outsourcing company back in 2001-2004. My commute alone to work was 45k miles a year, then as company policy my company car could be used during the day by my minions to go out and about fixing stuff all over Yorkshire, which added another 45k on top. Funny thing was they had a policy of 3yrs/90k miles so when I applied for a replacement car after the first year they were shocked! I got my first replacement but when I had done 30k in the first few months of ownership the fleet manager went off his rocker! I ended up having to stop getting a company car (but they let ken keep the cash) and then I had to hire cars from the local Avis on the company credit card and just swap them every few weeks.

 

[Akagi]

If a car is looked after properly it will far exceed 200K miles. Why do you think there are so many taxi's around on 300K, 400K, or in rare cases even 500K miles?

 

[lordrobs]

Its not so much the miles as the hours driven. As others have said, age is probably a better factor than mileage. It has probably had more time at the optimal operating temperatures and oil pressure than a car driven 10-20 miles a day.

Or to look at it another way, approximately the same time at sub optimal temps and pressure plus a whole load of extra time with less mechanical wear.

You are right though, hours driven is a key thing so 25 miles at 25 mph average is basically the same as 50 miles at 50 mph average in mechanical wear.

Acme - I'd say the answer to that question is in the time that the miles are clocked up. A cumulative factor of age and mileage being what tends to kill a car off, mainly because of the effect both factors have on its value.