What are the negatives about buying an ultra low mileage car?

Hoof_Hearted

Seen a car that looks brand new but 8 years old and less than 1000 miles a year. On the one hand, a brand new car (almost) for a quarter of the new price, on the other there may be snags that I don't know about.

AdrianC

First question would be about the previous use. Who buys a new car to cover 1k miles/year, with the massive per-mile depreciation that goes with that? Was it an elderly driver, who's been touch-parking at 5,000rpm with massive clutch slip? Has it ever been properly up to temperature, or has it had a constant diet of cold starts and short trips? Or has it just spent a lot of time sat there doing nothing?

Second question would be about the maintenance. Has it actually been serviced to time? Has everything that's time-based (brake fluid, cambelt) been changed on schedule? The tyres may be near-new in terms of tread, but they'll be hard and old and due for replacing on age.

JP08

It's still an 8yo car - though probably one in good bodily and interior condition - depending on storage conditions.


As per Adrian C I'd be looking at budgeting for getting every fluid, rubber and service component replaced - belts, hoses, leads, tyres, brake components, maybe even bushes, coolant, oil, gearbox oil, possibly a petrol tank flush, etc - at least a grands worth of work and a chunk of your time. Oh - and a good poke round the exhaust for corrosion from short runs leaving moisture in it. Unless of course there was evidence they'd been done in the last year or two.

AdrianC

I'm not saying it's inherently a bad idea... My current daily is a 19yo car that, when we bought it in January, had 45k on it. Only just over 2k/yr average. Since then, it's covered 5k+ faultlessly. But I've been over it carefully, and caught up where there's no evidence of maintenance having been done. I'm regarding it as a 19yo car, rather than a 50k-from-new car.

What does the MOT history tell you about how the mileage has been distributed?
https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

Hoof_Hearted

MoT pretty evenly distributed but less in last three years due to illness. Been serviced every year, apparently. Elderly owner. And garaged.

AdrianC

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

Been serviced every year, apparently.

Whatever that means. Just an MOT and maybe an oil change?

Exactly the expected demographic - elderly owner, now given up driving... So probably never been up to temperature apart from being left to idle before the MOT.

facade

Could be you've found the holy grail of used cars:

One that really did belong to "the little old man" who learned to drive and maintain trucks properly in The Army, and has vacuumed it out and polished it every Sunday.
One that has never seen corrosive salt on the road, as fresh as the day it left the showroom.

Buy it if the price is right, stick a cambelt on it and watch the tyres and any sign of oil leaks appearing from engine & gearbox.
Then just service it like you would an 8 year old 100,000 miler- new coolant, brake fluid, oil & filters.

I've been looking for that sort of car all my life, seen plenty that pretend to be, and you always know of someone who bought one off the widow for scrap money with no MOT and sold it on for £4000 the next week.

almillar

The battery, alternator, clutch, exhaust, catalytic converter (and others) have worked disproportionately harder on a low mileage car, PER MILE, than a high mileage one. So if that car has a clutch that generally lasts 100,000 miles, don't expect that from this car. Balance that against, presuambly, the excellent cosmetic condition, and how long it'll take to get to 100,000.

bigjl

Low mileage cars that sit a lot tend to have fluid leaks. Due to seals shrinking.

The mega low mileage Berlingo I bought last year has done nearly ten times its usual annual mileage for the first 8 1/2 years of its life.

There was a slight oil leak which I thought was the head gasket. It has now transpired that it is actually the crank seal.

I would rather buy newer with high miles and lots of service history.

bigjl

AdrianC wrote: »

First question would be about the previous use. Who buys a new car to cover 1k miles/year, with the massive per-mile depreciation that goes with that? Was it an elderly driver, who's been touch-parking at 5,000rpm with massive clutch slip? Has it ever been properly up to temperature, or has it had a constant diet of cold starts and short trips? Or has it just spent a lot of time sat there doing nothing?

Second question would be about the maintenance. Has it actually been serviced to time? Has everything that's time-based (brake fluid, cambelt) been changed on schedule? The tyres may be near-new in terms of tread, but they'll be hard and old and due for replacing on age.

Retired people do.

Most people buy a newer car for their retirement.

You have finished your working life so now is the time to enjoy things a little.

It isn't illegal to have a brand new car and only use it sparingly.

Browntoa

I remember seeing a mini in the late 1980's at a mini show that only had 900 odd miles on the clock since it was supplied in the early 1960's. It was the classic old ladies car that she got from new and only drove to the shops where she lived (Guernsey , Jersey , Isle of Man possibly ?? ) .Husband had coated the rear subframe with oil on delivery so it was as delivered condition