Second hand car with low mileage or high mileage

devils_vixen

Still car hunting and found a hyundai i10 with less than 6k miles on the clock. Is this a good purchase? The car is 3 years old. And will be financed over 5 years and I estimate I'll probably only do about 4k miles per year.
I also saw a similar spec car with higher mileage (20k). I'm confused when it comes to mileage. Is it better buying a high mileage or low mileage car?

tykesi

Most people on here would advise against a car that has only done 2k miles per year. It's no good for the car.

BeenThroughItAll

6K on a 3yo car? Wouldn't touch that with *your* bargepole.

devils_vixen

Can I ask why people wouldn't buy a car with such low mileage?

BeenThroughItAll

devils_vixen wrote: »

Can I ask why people wouldn't buy a car with such low mileage?

Because I can't be bothered to type it all out again:


http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=64997863&postcount=13

System

devils_vixen wrote: »

Can I ask why people wouldn't buy a car with such low mileage?

Its either:

1) Spent long times stood not moving which does not do metal parts which are lubricated by oil or grease any good. It also doesn't do things like tyres any good and brake pads can seize as can brake calipers.

2) Its done lots of short journeys around town where its not likely to have got up to temperature resulting in excess moisture in the engine oil, exhaust etc and the roads are likely to be rougher, there will be more gearchanges, braking etc than on rural/motorway roads.

Low mileage a year actually requires an abnormal service schedule which brings me onto point three, its not likely to have been serviced as it should have been because it hadn't reached the mileage interval for the next service.

devils_vixen

Thanks all. Car has been serviced every year and passed first mot with no advisories?

I did not realise buying a car is so difficult. Will go and look higher mileage cars now.

MataNui

If the 20k miles one is also about 3 years old then thats not exactly high miles either. Its still well below the average of 10k per year.

Very high miles is bad, very low miles is bad. If you wont be doing many miles either then you could go for a higher miles option and it would still be seen as a good low mileage car when you sell it on (providing you service it properly). At cars 3 to 4 years old i would be more worried by things like the number of owners. 3-4 years means just out of a finance or lease so should be one owner. Any more at that age and you would wonder why people are so keen to be offloading the car so quickly.

Strider590

At 3 years old I wouldn't be quite so concerned about the low mileage, if it were 5, 6, 7+ years old with equally low annual mileage then i'd be more worried. Basically the owner hasn't had it long enough to mess it up, unless it's a diesel?

kmb500

If it's been kept in good condition then no reason not to buy a very low mileage car. Yes its true that if you leave a car still for a while it can wear out things like brakes, but if it's been MOT'd and serviced regularly throughout the car's low-mileage life then I can't see the issue. On new modern cars I wouldn't think it is as bad as with some older cars.


At under 20K miles you're basically buying a brand new car. Go for it

tykesi

kmb500 wrote: »

If it's been kept in good condition then no reason not to buy a very low mileage car. Yes its true that if you leave a car still for a while it can wear out things like brakes, but if it's been MOT'd and serviced regularly throughout the car's low-mileage life then I can't see the issue. On new modern cars I wouldn't think it is as bad as with some older cars.


At under 20K miles you're basically buying a brand new car. Go for it

Care to explain how you wear the brakes out on a car standing still? :T

:rotfl: