AIBU to consider buying a car that’s done 100k miles?

What was the van previously used for? You can ask AI about issues with the engine, once you know which one it is.

We’re massive Hyundai fans, great cars. We’ve had an i20 and a Tuscon. No problems with either. For a diesel, my sister swears by her VW Passat.

But ford's are cheap to maintain! Not cheap but much easier and far less expensive than some makes.
I find Fords reliable.

But ford's are cheap to maintain! I had a ford edge, needed brakes and pads for mot, bought them off europarts who also booked it into the garage of my choice and it was painless. I advised my daughter to get a ford as a first car for precisely this reason.

Weirdly I was looking at ford transits market price for my upcoming divorce negotiations (his) as long as there's full service history and get a 6 month warranty, you will be fine.

How are you getting on OP? Any progress?

I've not had issues with them other than thigs like loose connections.
None of my cars have had major problems. I try to make sure that the oil is changed regularly.
My current car has a ANNNAAA type number plate.

I know it's a widespread belief about French cars as lots of people seem to have problems, but my experience is the opposite. We've had 9 "French" cars, being 2 Peugeots, 3 Citroens and 4 Renaults and not had any serious issues with any of them. Three were diesels. One got to just short of 200k miles, one is still up and running at 18 years old. None have needed anything more than routine/scheduled servicing, so basically just the odd new battery, new tyres, new brake pads, new spark plugs, timing belts (to schedule), and from memory a couple of times needed new CV joints or the odd suspension arm. Certainly no new clutches, gearboxes, shock absorbers, or other "Big value" costs and none have ever broken down on us. But we've always had them serviced to schedule religiously at the appropriate main dealership garage. (And we're both IAM advanced drivers so don't have a "heavy right foot" and don't bang up/down pavements etc.) In the middle of that, we had one Japanese car, a Nissan, that was a real bugger for things going wrong, breaking down etc even though we'd bought it new and had it serviced to schedule at the Nissan garage.

My French car is ancient but the electrics are something else. It's not my first French car and previous ones were bad too. They go on forever but there are little niggles with the electrics/electronics. The electrics I can usually fix myself.

This car is 7 years old and has 4 services, that’s not good

I think it is going to depend on the vehicle as to whether the service history is good or not as mine is around 18,000 miles or every year which ever comes first so people saying it should have a service at less miles would be wrong for some cars.

My diesel is at around 85,000 mile currently and I expect it to last at least the same again but I do have the benefit of owning it since new so I know the service history.

When ours was having issues in our truck we struggled to find anyone to sort it! Everyone wanted to map it out 🙄

I’ve never bought a car with less than 90k on it, and never bought a car less than 10 years old, and never had any real problems BUT I would say stay away from French or Italian cars at this milesage.
VW, Toyota, Honda, Volvo should be fine. Theres miles and miles- I bought a VW with 125 k on it but it was a lot of motorway miles so no issue.

My husband has bought cars at 90,000 miles before and myself 60,000 miles, but not 100,000. We always buy our cars outright, and due to budget constraints have to go older/ higher mileage than is ideal. Our savings haven't dipped below 3k for last decade so we can always deal with unexpected costs.

Not unreasonable at all, just make sure you check it's had a timing belt change, general check of suspension components and also things like brake disks/ pads will likely be coming to the end of their life if they've not already been changed. Agree with others saying that 100k miles is a big psychological factor to many people. 3 of my best cars have all covered well over 100k miles, and the lowest mileage used car I brought (a Volvo as well!) was an unreliable nightmare! my 2 current cars are on 117k and 97k miles) and neither have had major issues since I've owned them. I also part exchanged my old 06 Ford focus before buying current Seat Leon, that had done 140k miles and still see it driving around now!

My DH car has got 190K miles on the clock,

You are in for £1000 for a DPF. As it could go on any diesel, you should budget for one anyway.

Petrol VW sharan?

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?body-type=&channel=cars&colour=&distance=&fuel-type=Petrol&make=Volkswagen&max-year=2026&maxPrice=&minPrice=&model=Sharan&postcode=CW109HR&price-from=9000&price-to=12000&sort=relevance&transmission=

touran also maybe if you can do without sliding doors?

If you’re doing lots of short drives then diesel isn’t great for your lifestyle and one long drive a month won’t cut it

Garage owner here,20k between service on a diesel is not good.The manufacturers say it’s ok because they think a 5 year old car is scrap.You may be lucky but every one of my technicians say avoid any French car over 8 years old.They drive great and are good on fuel the electrical system will implode like its built in at some point.

Diesels are not great for schools runs, they need to be ran hot, not cold.
Petrol engines, without a turbo, are more suited to that (if hybrid/electric are not in the picture).
Look on Gemini (or your favorite AI) and ask what damages a DPF.
That said, compromises need to be made, and the regular long runs will keep the DPF clean.

So you will be using it to drive about stop start picking up/dropping off dogs for your dog walking business?
If you do buy it, then you would need to increase the oil change frequency due to all the stop start. If it was used primarily as a camper before then it’s most likely ok.

Citroen have had an issue with this engine, no doubt the source of the recall/fix.
https://www.citroen.co.uk/owners/citroen-1-5-diesel-engine-key-information.html

is there any Citroen warranty for the work?
The explanation says the issue comes from poor engine oil/sooty oil. This is caused by infrequent oil changes.
Take a look on some forums or Reddit for the engine issues and see what they say.
Any second hand, 100k van has risk attached. This one sounds like you’d want an independent inspection before buying it.
Is it being sold by a Citroen garage?