Would you buy a 10 year old car?

[orangedrizzle]

I know nothing about cars. Is it daft to buy a 10 year old car for a run about? Driving about 5k miles a year.

Yes, IF it had a full service history. Not too high a mileage, and it was German made.

I wouldn’t touch Renault, Peugeot etc makes.

If it’s under £1500 yes, otherwise no because it can become a false economy.

From experience higher mileage can be better because anything that can go wrong will have gone wrong and been replaced at that point.

Middle aged middle mileage cars are the worst imo, with the amount of money I spent on mine over the time I owned it I could have leased a brand new car.

As a main car, probably not (provided I had a choice). As a runaround, absolutely - and I have done. But like others have said, be careful about the make and model, check the service and MOT history and listen/feel for any weird stuff when you test drive it.

My car is a bit older than that but fewer than 60K miles, German, 2 owners (I'm one) and has been lovingly cared for. I've had it for 12 years.

I think you need to take into context previous owners and the condition.

Mine is in VGC with no real scratches or dents etc., no pets, no smokers, no kids spilling food or drink etc.

DH has just bought a 12 year old car to replace his 17 year old car. He wanted a reliable runabout with a large boot capacity but not a 4x4. We're hoping it lasts a few years.

He used to have a saloon version of the car he's now got. He had that from almost new (ex demo. 6 months old) and kept it for over 10 years before selling it in locally, where we saw it around for another 5 or 6 years. It never went wrong and had done about 180k when we sold it. The "new to us" one is 12 years old but has only done 80k and won't be doing that many miles per year, maybe about 6k.

yes absolutely, specially if it was a diesel German one .
you do very low milage too so may e even something else .

Toyota are supposed to be very reliable. I think you'll be fine.

I have a 2014 polo that’s fine. Just hit 58,000 miles
serviced regularly
I’m hoping to keep it for a bit longer

A while ago I bought a German-made 9yr old automatic with 2k on the clock. I sold it on 5 years later.

My experience is that cars are like teenagers- the problems start at age 13.

Mine needed a new alternator at 14, and partial exhaust repairs. A cousin is a car mechanic for that car‘s brand, so we bought it expecting him to need to do repairs for me. He got the alternator from the scrapyard, otherwise that would have been really expensive.He told me how to do small repairs (e.g. fuses) over the phone.

That car was more reliable than the 2-yr old car I replaced it with. But repairs are inevitable at that age.