to think most cars have not "been around the clock once or twice"?

[DitaVonCheese]

Arguing with DH. We want to get a new (secondhand) car. He thinks a car that is ten years old with 50-odd thousand miles on the clock will have been around the clock at least once.

MN jury?

I'm car phobic, but DH reckons, depending on what make you get, most cars nowadays, and for the past 20 years, have had clocks that go up to 999,999 before going round the clock.

Ours is on 176,000 (he's such a sad twat to know that ) so it'd be heading for the second time round the clock if it didn't show the actual milage.

Too many commas in the first sentence?

Fuck you pedants

When we bought our car it was 10 years old and had 54,000 miles on it. It also had full service history so it was obvious the milage was genuine. Have the owners of the car been elderly and not driven far? Can the seemingly low milage be explained?

DH said that as long as the MOTs and service history back it up then it should be fine.

His first car was 12 years old with 68k miles, current car is 9 years old and had 90k when it was bought (but it was an ex company car).

My mum's car however is 6 years old with 172k when she bought it! DH says she was taken for a ride (haha) by the bloke who sold her it.

DH's recently deceased Citroen diesel achieved well over 300,000 miles before bleeding to death in the yard. It was an ex airport taxi and cost £950; it lived with us for 18 months.

Mil is entitled to a mobility car. When she got her new one the old one went back to the garage having done 6000 miles at 3 years old.

It is perfectly possible to have only done 50000 at 10 years old.

I have a 12 yo car with under 50k on the clock. It's mostly a toy, but right at the moment it's the only functioning car in the family.

My car is 11 years old with 55k on the clock. One previous owner who drove it for 47k and I've had it for the previous 4 years and clocked up a further 8k.

Perfectly possible if you're just doing city driving/leisure and don't use it for a big commute.

My car is 6 years old bought it 16 months ago with 53,000 on the clock its done almost 91,000 now.

Our car is registered in 96 we got it in april with part saervice history and had 150,000 on the clock! Its not been round the clock. Your dh is talking boloox

Your DH is wrong. My car is 8 yrs old and has 37K. I reckon by the time it is 10 yrs old it still won't have done more than 45k. Perfectly possible for a 10 yr old car to have only 50K-ish

Do some checks. Who owned it? Mine is a second car (we do big trips and holidays in DH's larger car so he gets those miles) Does it have a service history?

I have just bought my SILs car, they have had it from new, it is 10 years old and has done 50k miles.

Cars go for years now - DP has got a banger which he uses and abuses to take labourers to work (he is a builder) - it is a 9 year old Ford Focus and it has 210l miles on the clock, and is still a pleasure to drive.

Actually I would recommend that everyone buys a focus - the most boring car you would believe but they are great to drive, nothing ever goes wrong and they seem to go forever!

It depends who had the car before. My car is 13 years old and has not been round the clock. Now at just over 100,000.

Surely round the clock would now mean over 999,999 miles.. ;)

My car was the Mazda that was replaced by the Ford Focus (originally a Mazda design (I am very sad and loyal to my car. Can vouch for the design. My old car has surpassed many of DH's newer and trendier cars. Drove (220 mile round trip) down to London in it yesterday and it purred like a baby.

5000miles a year is perfectly possible. If the background, service and MOT history backs it up then I would believe it.

Thanks all. It wasn't any one specific car but I was looking at a few on autotrader.co.uk with lowish mileages and DH seemed to think I was mad for thinking they might be genuine. Would obviously check service history etc to make sure they hadn't been clocked.

I think an average mileage per year is around 5000-6000 but he was googling and coming up with 10000-12000 being average so was arguing that 50,000ish was therefore unbelievably unlikely It was a bit of a weird argument tb.

I did mention the 999,999 thing and he kept saying that it was perfectly likely that a car might do over a million miles

Internet has since suggested that actually a well-maintained car with a higher mileage might be better than one with a low mileage anyway

My last car made it to 13 years old and only got up to 63,000 miles.

I once bought a twenty eight year old cat with 25,000 genuine miles on the clock. Had all the mot Certs to back it up.

My van is twenty six years old and has 40,000 miles on the clock. I suspect it may have been round the clock but it has a brand new engine so not bothered.

Average is around 10,000 a year iirc.

I want a car that is good to go for 1million miles. That sounds like a good investment.

We have a 10 year old car that has done 80,000 and a 6 year old car that has done 120,000. The older one had much lower mileage until we moved out of town a couple of years ago.

But if it had gone all the way around and back to 50,000 again, that means it would have done 1,050,000 miles in ten years - or 105,000miles a year. And that is over 280 miles a DAY. Which is possible, but very VERY unlikely. Far more likely to be either clocked or someone who just has low mileage.

I really doubt it ... my dad has always had old cars and kept them a long time, and it is perfectly possible to do only 50,000 miles in ten years. THink about it: the insurance goes sky-high if you're doing over 10, 000 miles a year, so to do much over 100,000 in ten years would surely be very unusual for a normal-use car.

my car is closing on 100k and is 6 years old ...but we use it alot.
i would recommend a Honda Jazz because mine is staggeringly reliable, does not put a foot wrong, no expensive repairs...

although i suspect many cars for sale around the 100k mark is because that is where some cars start wearing out and incurring costs.

50k in a 5yo car = perfectly plausible, though check wear on pedals- shiny, worn pedal = more than 50k miles.

actually my insurer only charged me an additional £20 to up my mileage to 14k from 12..

'around the clock' to my mind would mean clocked, in actual fact. but if there is a service history to match it to...

I thought round the clock meant every hundred thousand miles, as in, will this land rover go round the clock for the fourth time before it needs a new engine. Your husband is being a bit silly I think, or is he a new driver?