Older car with less miles or newer one with more?

[Allloveisbeautiful]

We are looking for a replacement car and have found one that is 11 years old but only has 51,000 miles on the clock. 2 previous owners and a reasonable price. Others that are newer have at least 20000 miles more and are at least £1k more with a smaller engine (we’ll be paying outright). We want this car to last at least 5 years so just trying to work out which would be the best option?

Are you buying from a dealer? My Dh always says less miles on the clock is the most important thing. A fresh test,service and a warranty if you can get one. Not sure on an 11 year old car what warranty you’d get. We’ve just bought an 8 year old car. They offered a 6 month warranty but we ended up getting 12.
Good luck! I found car buying really stressful!

Buy on condition rather than mileage every time. A well cared for higher mileage car is a much better proposition than a lower mileage one that hasn’t been.

What’s the make? I’d say yes if it has a good service history. I’ve just inherited my DFiL’s 16 year old Audi with 24000 miles on the clock. It was immaculate, less so now It’s been under my stewardship…

It’s a Kia Sportage. I have had one for the last few years and so know how it all works! However not impressed by the fact that on webuyanycar.com the car we are looking at buying is valued at £1400 less than the dealer is asking and that’s with a reduction!

Newer one with more miles

It's Parker's you want for independent car valuations.

I’d go older with less miles

How much newer? If it's only a year or 2 newer, go for lower mileage. If it's 5 years newer, go for for newer.

I went for the older car with only 34,000 miles...

Within a couple of years it had to be scrapped as the underneath just steadily rotted away. The previous owner hardly used it but parked it over grass and it absolutely killed it.

I recommend using the app KnowYourCar, it's free to search the first few cars - you put in any number plate and it shows the full MOT history in detail!

Recently I went for older but lower mileage (a 10 year old Yaris with 43,000 miles)

Definitely newer with more miles, but check it's been serviced regularly, etc.

Often high miles means it was a fleet car or did a bunch of motorway miles in the first couple of years. These vehicles are usually lightly used and well maintained.

What are you going to do with the car - lots of miles or fewer?

I think you need to work out what the car is eventually going to die from - high miles or old age.

My next car will be used for pootling about, so I might as well get a high mileage car as I won't then rack up lots more miles.

Of course WBAC will offer a lower price for it.. They are a business who sell the cars on to car dealers for a profit. Those car dealers then add a profit margin of their on when they sell on to the general public.

@Doris86 yes I did think that.