Maximum millage? for buying second hand car ? what should it be ?

Karen_taris

When buying a second hand, what would the maximum mileage be that you would consider?

Prince range is £2000-£2500

car type would be for a hatchback sized car, (size of a Peugeot 306, Vauxhall Astra - style car)

What would you suggest the maximum mileage to be, as a range, from that price range above ?

scheming_gypsy

depends on the car / engine, service history, motorway miles or round town hacks, work done etc.
I'd rather buy a car with 150k on the clock that has a full service history and a folder full of receipts showing that wear and tear / serviceable items had been replaced not too long ago, than buy a car with 70k on the clock with no history and nothing replaced.

Weird_Nev

As many miles as you're comfortable with.

Rightly or wrongly I prioritise like this when buying a second hand car:

Full service history (must have)
Condition
Low number of owners.
Milage

I've bought a car with 162,000 miles on it and it gave good service for 2 years and another 20,000 before I sold if for what I paid for it. Make of that what you will.

Ebe_Scrooge

History is everything. It's an old chestnut, but true - an ex company car that's spent its life cruising on a motorway, serviced regardless of cost, will often be a better bet than a little run-around that's popped to the shops and back once a week. Town driving wears things like clutch, brakes, steering, suspension, gearbox far more than motorway miles, and if the engine rarely gets up to normal operating temperature then expect trouble.

So don't worry *too* much about miles, concentrate more on the car's usage history and service history.

john_white

I bought a car with full history, in the 2 years I had it spent nearly 4k on various repairs.

colino

There are thousands of three year old, ex-lease or company cars sold with shiny bodywork and full service histories that have seen nothing more than brakes and tyres, plus a top up of screenwash and a blob of white grease on the hinges by the "service" departments. Buy on condition alone and you wont go far wrong.

OddballJamie

john_white wrote: »

I bought a car with full history, in the 2 years I had it spent nearly 4k on various repairs.

Blimey, what was it?

OddballJamie

colino wrote: »

There are thousands of three year old, ex-lease or company cars sold with shiny bodywork and full service histories that have seen nothing more than brakes and tyres, plus a top up of screenwash and a blob of white grease on the hinges by the "service" departments. Buy on condition alone and you wont go far wrong.

But are any of them in the OPs budget?

DigForVictory

As I can't afford to be picky about low milage, I want the car's history - full service ideally or whatever's on the computer systyem as a minimum.
Then I want to see how many owners & if possible who they were - better a sales rep with solid fleet maintenance than second car which has been neglected (and teenagers taught on, although the dents are usually are a good clue...)
I want it to *look* clean - inside, outside & under the bonnet. The life I lead, that won't last, but if I'm getting a new-to-me car, I want the freshly washed & polished illusion of new.

I'd rather buy a cheaper car & buy a care package than a more expensive one & have three years of service & MOT bills - but that's perhaps not on topic.

marlot

One place I worked had a chauffeur who's life mostly consisted of driving people to heathrow - about 150 miles round trip. Several times a day. The car was serviced every 6-8 weeks, and sold when it reached 200,000. Whoever bought it got a bargain.

TrickyWicky

See I'm from the "don't worry about the mileage or history" brigade. I'd rather choose a car known for it's solidity and reliability rather than a few bits of paperwork, false stamps, and a counter on the dash that can be reset with a laptop.

I've had 3 volvos... Only one came with semi-full service history. One was pretty much a new car but had no history and the other had stupidly high miles, a V5 and not even the car handbook - just the V5 (6, yes thats right, SIX previous owners) and MOT lol. That one lasted two years and I only broke it because I had nowhere to store it and figured I could use the parts for one of the others.

If you don't like doing research on car reliability (yeah it can be a bit daunting) then high miles and full service history is a good thing these days. Mileage used to be an indicator of how knackered a car was. These days all engines are pretty reliable as manufacturing techniques have changed and advanced. Many petrol engines can easily achieve 500K given the chance but most people let everything else go wrong and then scrap the car.

If you want a lower mileage car then you'll either end up accepting a lack of service history or it'll have another fault or just not be worth much because of it's brand / reliability. Like I said, if you carefully do your research, you can find very good reliable bargains out there that you'll never have any trouble with.