What max mileage for a 3 or 4 yr old used car?

[macnab]

I'm currently driving a 15 year old rust-bucket! I am hoping to upgrade and would obviously like as new and low mileage as possible. But I'm on a budget. So, for example, I could get a 2016 Kia Rio within my budget but its got 30000 miles on it. Is that a lot? I could also get a Ceed but its got 35000 or a 2015 Fiesta with 38000.

How much does mileage matter? I'll be doing around 8,000 miles per year and would hope to keep this car for some years too.

I'm so confused! Car sales people are telling me its fine. I'm looking at mostly 1.2 litre petrol engines, the odd 1.4 has appealed too.

Around 10K miles a year is normal so 30K on a 2016 while not low mileage is not high mileage.

I'm more concerned about what sort of miles they were. Lots of short runs are much worse for an engine than a few long runs as the oil hasn't warmed up and there's more wear on the engine.

Mileage isn't the sole factor to look at. I bought a Yaris at 50K miles and took it to 160K miles (gearbox issue) and my current car has 105K on it.

A well maintained car engine will easily go to very high mileages (150K+) and it's usually other parts wearing out that makes it uneconomical to repair e.g. suspension components.

So buying a car at 30K miles and planning on 8K a year could last you 10 years without it going to a silly mileage.

Thank you, that makes sense.

I've managed to go over my budget a little but have got a 16 reg fiesta with just over 10K miles on it so am happy with that

Nooooooo! 16k in 3 years is terrible!

Low mileage should ring warning bells nowadays. Cars need to be driven!

@macnab - I bought a similar mileage fiesta in 2013 - it was an ex-motobility vehicle. It was like having a brand new car for peanuts. It's never given us any bother - gets serviced annually - passes it's MOT first time. It was garaged for almost 2years and came out of retirement with no issues. A quick service and MOT and it was good to go.

Ignore the naysaying and wailing of some - enjoy your car and may you rack up many years of happy driving.

I average 15k a year in my Landy and DP has racked up almost that in the fiesta in a year. From August it will be used for DD to practice driving in once she starts lessons - it won't matter if it gets a scratch or two!!!

I’d say 15k a year maximum.

Report out today says that at 60k miles, Fiestas are the most reliable car. I’d go for the fiesta without hesitation.

@Boobiliboobiliboo

Absolute rubbish. I have always had and maintained low mileage cars. I know many people who have done the same and nothing has gone wrong with their cars.

We borrowed a 9 year old car from a family member whilst ours was having work done. It has done 16k in 9 years. Don’t think the bloody thing had ever been on the motorway - the injectors certainly started complaining very soon after we started putting 10-20 miles a day on it.

Thanks for all the feedback. It's from a TrustFord dealership, was bought new from them and has been serviced etc plus it come with a 12 month warranty so fingers crossed it will be ok!! I'm going to take a chance on it, it will certainly be driven a lot more by me

I bought a 3.5 year old ex-Motability Ford with less than 2000 miles on the clock. 4 years later, it's probably the most reliable car we've had. I would happily buy another very low mileage car, as long as it's been serviced to schedule.

Modern cars if looked after (oil change every 3-5k) will last 250k miles easy.

I bought a car that was 18 months old, it had over 30k on the clock. I sold it 6 years later with 77k onnthe clock.
Some of us don’t drive far. It was in brilliant condition, and passed ever MOT.

Ex Motability cars are good cars to buy, they are usually well looked after & often very low mileage. I've just sent my old one back at 3 years old & it's got less than 12k on the clock, been serviced every year, no marks or scratches. It would have cost £23000 brand new & will probably be on sale for £12-14k

Mileage really shouldn't be an issue if the car has been serviced properly. a 3-year-old car with 100,000 miles likely to be mostly Motorway and ex-company so serviced well.

I wouldn't touch a low mileage diesel or anything without a full service history

As long as the car had been maintained properly, service schedule adhered to etc, mileage doesn't bother me at all. Although, if it's a modern diesel, I'd ask what kind of journeys it was used for to work out any possible dpf issues.