High mileage car advice

Jett

Opinions welcome...

Hi all,

Thinking of buying a bigger / estate car, preferably Audi, Volvo, BMW and the only way i could afford such a luxury model would be to consider high mileage vehicles. High mileage is still frowned upon by many though I've often heard that the German and Japanese cars are good for 250K miles... I assume this is not the case for all new cars or have the other manufacturers like ford and vauxhall caught up?


The reason behind a high mileage motor is that i will be using it for work and currently do around 30K per year hoping to keep the car for 2 - 3 years without too much aggravation and not loosing too much on the car in deterioration.

Is it better to spend £8000 on a high mileage luxury model or the same on a newer low mileage car such as a Ford or vauxhall?

Lemonade_Pockets

They will do high mileage but at 30k a year your going to have some pretty hefty service bills.
Also the ones that tend to last the longest are the vehicles with big lazy engines. These you might find don't give the consumption required to make it cost effective.

Sounds like i'm having a downer on the prestige route i'm not and thats the way i would personally go, but realistically it won't be cheaper imo.

N.b. putting 60-90k on any car worth £8k will mean you lose a packet regardless.

A good halfway house could be something like a Skoda Octavia diesel. Or maybe consider a toyota or Honda.

Jett

Thanks Lemonade.

Taking on board the comment 'loose a packet regardless' does anyone have a calculator / formula that would estimate the costs of owning and running a vehicle against hiring one?

Perhaps that is the way to go, with no maintenance costs ?

Another question is there a way to find out servicing costs of vehicles without phoning around all the different dealers / garages?

Thanks in advance

Hintza

Good post by LP. How much will fuel economy affect your decision?

An 06 plate Chrysler 300C will be just about in your budget has the old Mercedes S Class 3.0 CRD engine and gearbox and is one hell of a lot of car for the money. I had one on lease for a year and loved it to bits. You will also get over 30mpg with a light foot.

Rolandtheroadie

I've a 2.5 diesel grand voyager (newer ones the 2.8) and think it's great (merc engine too). Does around 32 mpg with the wife driving round the doors.

Pssst

It depends how its been maintained. You could have a new car thats half knackered cos its got no/low oil,never had an oil change/whatever.

My car is 17 years old,coming up to 100k and you can barely hear it running when your driving it. It gets new oil and filter every year without fail.

harveybobbles

Go for the newest possible car with the highest miles. That will be THEE best car to own! All it will have done is sat on the outside lane. Low running time compared to the same age car with half the miles.

A friend of mine used to love buyong ex Group4 cars as they were used by the morning shift, the night shift and the inbetween shift! 18 month old and 150k up them!

hewhoisnotintheknow

vw/audi are pretty ropey nowadays, add high mileage and it could get costly

motorguy

i'd be wary of anything exec with starship miles, or the intention of putting starship miles on it. Maintenance and running costs will still be that of a £50K car, even though its been bought for £8K.

Turbos, gearboxes, sat nav units, air con units, electrics all arent as robust as you'd expect on a exec barge.

Personally, i'd buy the best Focus TDI or Astra TDI i could with my budget and drive and drive and drive.

My dad got a new Astra back in 1992 - a 1.7D Merit 5 door in white. Poverty spec model at the time. Put 250,000 miles on it in 9 years. Same clutch, gearbox, exhaust, etc. Great little car....

ariba10

A large car with high mileage tend to be company cars and they also tend to be better serviced.

hewhoisnotintheknow

ariba10 wrote: »

A large car with high mileage tend to be company cars and they also tend to be better serviced.

although some are abused, where i work several are wheel span out of the car park from cold