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

facade

Thanks, but they seem to have the decimal point in the wrong place for the price, it is about 10x what I'd expect to pay for a 3 litre auto on an '04 plate.


What I forgot to add was the phrase "at sensible money"

Which gives me an answer for the OP:

One of the negatives is the seller often thinks they are worth stupid money.
Luckily threads like this where people rubbish low mileage cars and point out how they can be a moneypit will help there.

Hoof_Hearted

Well, I'm off to see it shortly. Everything tells me it's genuine so far. Private seller with a large house (Google Earth). 100% MoT record with no advisories, as you would expect. It has a cam chain, not a belt. I will look carefully for oil leaks. Thanks for the tip. HPI OK.

EdGasket

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

It's likely to be more expensive due to the low mileage.

Mileage may be clocked or owner may have left speedo cable disconnected to keep mileage low. Don't believe the clock, use your eyes.

knightstyle

We have in the past bought two very low milage cars, both lasted a long time with no problems.
Check the tyres are all the same make as supplied new as they should not have worn much. Plus budget for replacing the tyres before they wear out as they deteriorate with age.

JamesGreene

The problem is an older one will most likely be starting to rot like mine so it will never be a long term prospect. It really does depend if its been garaged or not etc.

Hoof_Hearted

Well, I bought it. Like a brand new car. Will factor in a full service and check up but delighted to be driving around in an £18,000 car for a quarter of the money.

motorguy

A part of the problem is that often these cars sell for an awful lot more than their average miles counterparts.

All very well, but stick on 12K per year for 3 years and you'll have lost any chance of a decent premium come resale time.

Strider590

Most likely won't have been serviced on schedule, when the MFR recommends 12k or 12 months, that doesn't mean you can service it once in 10 years as long as you do less than 1k per year.

Old fluids, oils, etc tend to go off, oil becomes acidic, coolant can actually form a mild electolyte. See here for a better explanation than I can be bothered to give.

[Deleted User]

Not all pensioner owned ultra low mile cars lack maintenance. A family member did 2000 miles a year from new. Serviced every year at main dealer and it got whatever was needed right up until the car was 10 years old when sold on.

Stigy

My previous car was an Audi A3 1.8T with 50k on the clock on a Y plate. Although not massively low mileage and a faultless car to look at, things started to fail for the first time which had never failed before. With higher mileage cars, or average mileage cars at least, you tend to find that a lot of items that do fail, have already been replaced. What's often overlooked is cam belt intervals. Even at silly mileages, cam belts should be replaced at set year based intervals. I made sure I did the Audi's cam belt and water pump as the owner admitted he hadn't changed it and saw no reason to.