Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: How do I work out if a car has too many miles to be worth buying?
morcus

posted on 14/4/12 at 11:35 AM Reply With Quote
How do I work out if a car has too many miles to be worth buying?

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.





In a White Room, With Black Curtains, By the Station.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Ninehigh

posted on 14/4/12 at 11:44 AM Reply With Quote
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






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Slimy38

posted on 14/4/12 at 12:02 PM Reply With Quote
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.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
tegwin

posted on 14/4/12 at 12:46 PM Reply With Quote
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





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Would the last person who leaves the country please switch off the lights and close the door!

www.verticalhorizonsmedia.tv

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
zilspeed

posted on 14/4/12 at 12:51 PM Reply With Quote
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.

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
chrisxr2

posted on 14/4/12 at 12:56 PM Reply With Quote
You dont

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





Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
D Beddows

posted on 14/4/12 at 01:00 PM Reply With Quote
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
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
trextr7monkey

posted on 14/4/12 at 01:02 PM Reply With Quote
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





http://www.flickr.com/photos/14016102@N00/ (cut and paste this dodgey link)

Our most recent pics are here:
http://s129.photobucket.com/albums/p211/trextr7monkey/

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
mookaloid

posted on 14/4/12 at 01:06 PM Reply With Quote
several saab 9-5's with Auto for under £1k on ebay just now.





"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."


View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
stevebubs

posted on 14/4/12 at 01:12 PM Reply With Quote
Loads of v6 Omegas at that price..... Rwd and dead easy to work on
View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
britishtrident

posted on 14/4/12 at 01:57 PM Reply With Quote
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]





[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
D Beddows

posted on 14/4/12 at 02:20 PM Reply With Quote
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.........
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Bare

posted on 14/4/12 at 02:54 PM Reply With Quote
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 $$.

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
40inches

posted on 14/4/12 at 04:13 PM Reply With Quote
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






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
dlatch

posted on 14/4/12 at 05:18 PM Reply With Quote
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]

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
mark chandler

posted on 14/4/12 at 06:38 PM Reply With Quote
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

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
T66

posted on 14/4/12 at 06:46 PM Reply With Quote
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.










View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
gazza285

posted on 15/4/12 at 01:21 AM Reply With Quote
Volvo for me, every time.
Or Saab. Can't beat a good Swede.

Omega? You having a laugh?
Ditto Jaguar.





DO NOT PUT ON KNOB OR BOLLOCKS!

View User's Profile E-Mail User Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.