Is Buying a car with 164,000 asking for trouble?

renfrew999

Just looking for your collective know how. I have been looking at Grand Voyager's for £15K - £16K, about 4 years old but have seen a 2010 with 164,000 miles and a full dealership service history for £8,500. Is it just a waste of time and money? My thinking is, if it lasts for a couple of years then it doeasn't matter if it's worth virtually nothing, and, if it lasts longer then I'm quids in! It just seems ridiculous to be considering a car with that amount of mileage. It would just mean getting a £3K loan for a year as opposed to a £10K loan over 3 years. What are your thoughts?

JonathanA

It certainly wouldn't put me off. I bought a 4 yr old Galaxy last August with 143k on the clock. I've added another 12 k miles since then. It has a full Ford history and is immaculate but was a fraction of the price of a lower mileage car. I just couldn't justify the expense of a lower mileage car. I haven't regretted it so far and hope it'll last me to well over 200k miles.

If it is in good condition I don't see why you shouldn't buy it. I'd haggle on price a bit though!

jimjames

I don't know about that specific model and how well it handles mileage but if fully serviced then I prefer high mileage cars to low mileage ones.

1) They have depreciated more so I get better value. Every mile I put on a low mileage car will cost me a lot more in depreciation.
2) They have normally been used for motorway/long distance travel so engine always fully warmed up and very little wear to rest of car
3) Often company cars so services done without questioning parts

My current car has 239,000 miles on it, runs fine with no issues but is 2002 model so much older than the one you're looking at.

[Deleted User]

A few years ago, I bought a 2002 Ford Focus Diesel Estate, which had been a Private Hire Taxi.

When I bought it, it had just over 180k on the clock.

I recently scrapped it (still running), when I got my current 07 plate car, and it had almost 250k on it.

During that nearly 70,000 miles, aside from consumables, it needed a set of core plugs, a thermostat, and a pair of front springs.

Total cost, less than £400.

All it needed for the MOTs, was two bulbs and a headlamp alignment tweak.

forgotmyname

If you do a fairly low mileage it maybe a good buy. As long as you can afford to fix anything major or sell as is and buy something else.

Would i spend £8500 on a car with that mileage. Probably not but i can see how tempting it looks. It should have been driven sensibly plenty of longer runs.

I bought a Rover 800 Diesel with over 200,000 miles on it. It was great. But i only paid £600 for it.

Current car has 170,000 miles and doesnt feel like its going to die anytime soon.

Joe_Horner

Mileage in its own right isn't anything like the problem it used to be. Many cars from around the early 90s onwards are more than capable of 300k miles or more if they're looked after properly.

Probably more important than the dealer history in the case you're looking at is that, with that mileage and 4 years old, it was obviously owned by someone who relied on it for big miles - 40k a year is pretty serious mile munching.

That's a far different prospect than something that's clocked up the same mileage over, say, 7 or 8 years because (a) a lot of those miles will almost ceratinly have been motorway and (b) it hasn't had time to clock the miles in its first few years then have second or third owners who've neglected it.

colino

Taxi!
While cars wear very well nowadays, they still wear. It's not just in the engine and gearbox, but every piece of the car, suspension, interior and trim has hurtled over speed bumps and been subject to multiple drivers and users in their accelerated wear.
A car with x times average mileage has x times average wear on every component, they are no bargain compared to fresh, private, serviced stock.

AdrianC

Agree entirely with ColinO. I'd be looking very carefully at the state of it, especially the interior. On a test drive, sit in the back, and listen for squeeks and rattles. Look for odd holes in the trim, where taxi radio/meter may have been fitted, also chafing in the door seals where a roof light or aerial's wiring may have been routed (which also may cause water leaks)

If all that looks good, I'd go for it. Perhaps also look at keeping the budget the same as this leggy one but look at older vehicles, if you'd be taking on that big a loan?

There was a thread here the other week, somebody considering buying a 2009 Astra with 430,000 miles - and still going well. But that was all long-distance document delivery.

arcon5

A lot of people knock buying ex-taxis, but i'd have to agree if you find the right one it can often work out well.

Usually when buying from owner drivers so the owner and possibly one more driver runs it - most councils require an MOT undertaken every 6 months, most have had major works done at some point in the last 12-18 months, most are well kept.

However, you can easily buy a dog of an ex-taxi. Usually from those running massive fleets. A guy I used to work for runs about 40 minicabs, the drivers thrash the hell out of them and when an engine blows they lift one out of one over 10 years old (usually run ragged, but the county don't allow them to be over 10 years old to run county council contracts so they get taken off the road at this point) and keep it going. It's usually the Zafiras that eats engines.
They've often been run low on oil at points until the weekly mechanic checks. Little bits ignored - in some of them the airbag light will be on and this is an issue they don't sort out.
So buying one of these end of life vehicles can be dodgy since you don't know its full history or even if the engine is the original.

High mileague can be hit or miss.

With mileague ops talking about you may well be leading to troubles with things like fuel pumps which can be a pricey job if you can't lift it through the inspection hatch.

If you can afford to pay £8k over 2 years and see a residual value of no more than scrap then it could work --- but personally i'd be buying on the basis if it becomes uneconomical to repair within 12 months would I still buy it.

Smithers37

Mileage is irrelevant when buying a car; it tells you how many miles the car has done, it doesn't tell you about how the car has been looked after or driven.

If the car has been serviced, is maintained, is in good condition and drives good then I would sooner take that, than a 20K car that's been neglected and driven like it's stolen all of its life.

[Deleted User]

colino wrote: »

Taxi!

Yes a taxi.

Ran it for about 3 years, putting over 60k on it.

Purchase and repairs cost less than £1,200 in total.