I didn't by the jag in the end. My money came through today but I went for another look at the Jag and it was no good, also after I'd payed off my credit card there was less money left over than I'd thought, and I probably was deluded looking at Jags.

I've dropped down a size and found a few cars I like the look of but I'm looking at alot less money (Keeping half my budget for fixing, replacing ect) which means all the intresting stuff is high mileage. How do you decide what is too high? I've aranged to see a Scooby thats got 166K on it but by the sound of things has been looked after. I've also got my eye on a few late 90's bmw's mostly compacts. Is there anything on either to look out for.

If anyone else has anything simillar for less than £1000 with an auto box let me know.

If you're looking for a throwaway car I guess mileage means nothing really, they're all going to need more maintnenance in general than a much newer car

I've never been worried about mileage, in fact I've seen more low mileage cars that have trouble due to no maintenance, compared to regularly serviced repmobiles with double or triple the average mileage.

If the price and service history is right, I would buy on condition. Mileage is not such an issue really provided everything works, and those bits which are known to fail have been replaced.

I have seen 5 year old cars with 1600 miles on the clock which are totally buggered due to lack of use... My 10 year old polo has nearly 120,000 miles on it and its still reasonably reliable. Just had to replace an alternator that failed me on the M5.... but that is to be expected I guess

Drive it.

A good car is a good car, regardless of mileage.

If it feels worn out, doesn't matter how low the numbers are on the odometer.

There comes apont in time where you buy on condition, not age or mileage.

If you're mot worried by mpg, insurance etc etc then there are lots of very good lowish mileage cars with big engines for under a grand nowadays - people are almost having to give them away For example a guy I work with has a 2.8 Vauxhall Insignia on a 54 plate with about 80k on the clock that he's trying to get rid of and he's struggling to get someone to offer him more than 1100 quid for it

If you are looking at cars that were designed as prestige rather than utility models by the time they reach massive mileages they should have a whole service history and bills etc showing the cars history and so long as it drives fine, looks like it is hasn't ben wrapped round a tree and still sounds Ok the mileage isn't going to be a problem.

Avoid buying from guys wearing sunglasses or with dodgey beads


The old days of rebuilding your Viva engine every 60k are long gone and the guy who used to service our old Saad (165k miles) said he regularly got cars through that had done 300K + miles
Take a look at some Saabs Viglen/hot hatch /turbo they were comfortable and pokey in their day, still give others a run for their money on the motorway and there's enough used spares about to keep you going for the forseeable future.
hth
Mike

several saab 9-5's with Auto for under £1k on ebay just now.

Loads of v6 Omegas at that price..... Rwd and dead easy to work on

Large quanity of sensible pills required while it is fairly easy to a good big luxury petrol car for 1000 quid BUT there is little point if it cost £450 to tax especially with fuel at stupid prices.
Moreover whats the point of buying an awful Vauxhall Omygaud a third rate luxury car at best when you can a Jag for not much more.

[Edited on 14/4/12 by britishtrident]

To be honest I'm entirely with him ^^^ on this, I don't quite understand how you're going to 'win' with what you want to do in this day and age.........

In this day and age of myriad processors and catalytics.. FIRST thing to do when considering a car is to take a casual glance at the tailpipe.
It must a flat grey brown colour.. if black, sooty or oily and it isn't some diesel thing.. simply keep walking and don't even look back.
Simple stupid check.. will... save serious aggro and $$.

We bought a 2001 SAAB 9-3 SE Auto 18 months ago, with 208,000 miles on it, this was a rush purchase after the 9-5 died.
£480 well spent, it was supposed to be a stop gap, but it just passed it's MOT, so will keep it for another year

if it was my money and i wanted a fast reliable auto i would be looking for a tidy E36 328 coupe bmw
if you bide your time you should come up with a very nice one for your money imo
big thirsty petrols are a hard sell these days for obvious reasons

[Edited on 14/4/12 by dlatch]

Cars made before 2001, £240 road tax for a decent sized engine.

So plenty of good stuf, Jags, BMW's etc

1997 JAGUAR XJ6 SPORT AUTO *Only 97000 Miles* | eBay

Perfect

Looks like a straight 6 so bomb proof mechanics

Morcus - The "Saab" word has popped up here twice already, I just sold in September last year for £1300....


95,000 miles, fsh and 300bhp.



Did 30mpg no matter how much you wellied it, and was £210 a year road tax.



9-5 Aeros with the 250bhp engine as stock, can be taken to 300bhp with a software flash, and are cheap as chips.

Volvo for me, every time.
Or Saab. Can't beat a good Swede.

Omega? You having a laugh?
Ditto Jaguar.