How many miles is to many miles when buying a car?

[sarah8484]

Im looking for a car and my budget is not the highest. Ive come across loads of cars that tick all the boxes apart the miles! So my question is, how many miles is to many miles? Would over 100000 be a big no for you?

Yes.

Depends on the car, but would and have bought with 100000 or more

I bought a 2009 Ford Galaxy with 108,000 on the clock in late 2016. It now has a mileage of 140,000 and has been a dream car. Just needed tyres, MOT etc. I think it's still got a good bit of life in it! So no, this wouldn't put me off and has worked well for me. I would check if it has had its cambelt done though and if not, ask for this to be done presale if buying from a dealer.

I normally look at 12000 per year as a good indicator, preferably 10000 per year so if it’s over 10 years old then yes I’d say that was ok although not the perfect scenario! I guess you would need to pay closer attention to servicing/maintenance and be prepared for bigger bills as parts come to the end of their life.

If it's petrol then nothing over 100k. Diesel will do twice that and more. My first Galaxy was 10 years old and I bought it with 150k on the clock. It was still going when I part-exed it for another Galaxy at 250k+, but it was never quite the same after the turbo went at c.200k.

The last petrol car I owned gave up at 105k when the cambelt went.

Main thing to look for is timing belt (make sure a new one's been fitted every 60k, 80k on some cars). Also check turbo isn't whistling or blowing. That's in addition to all the usual stuff like braking in a straight line etc.

Diesels generally go on for 200,000+ Peugeot, VW., Citroen are very good.
We have had a Petrol Volvo bought for £70 a wiper and two bulbs later it passed the MOT ran it for 2 years had 250,000 on it when we sold it for more than we paid, Last Peugeot did 226000 then failed the MOT on Rust, Current Picasso has 165000 on it, all cheap cars bought for under £1000 and just serviced and driven until they stopped. Depends what you want from a car ours is an A to B shopping cart, skip, van etc, but we also have a car for best

There's no simple yes or no answer. It depends on age/fuel/make and service history.

At that sort of mileage service history is king. I recently looked at a Honda Civic that had 65k on the clock. Never serviced and the only repairs were stuff to get it through the Mot. Checking the history of the MoT showed it presenting with bald tyres, bulbs gone, windscreen wipers defective that suggested the previous owners hadn't kept on top of even basic maintenance. I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole. It sounded like a bag of spanners on start up and I didn't even bother test driving it.

I ended up getting a higher mileage car with a full main dealer history which passed its MOT first time every time.

You can check the MoT history of a car
here

Also whilst the advice about Cambelts is sound, some cars are chain driven and the chain will normally last the lifetime of the car.

To me service history is far more important than number of miles.

100,000 miles is a completely aribitary number that is special to the UK because we are an island. Go to Europe and people drive petrol and diesel cars over 100k no problem. Maintenance is everything, modern engines both petrol and diesel can easily run to 200k and more if looked after. Check services are done, check to see if the car comes with receipts for work done etc. and that any advisories on MoTs were addressed. Cars are not by default, designed to explode at 100k miles or above ;-)

A car on 50k miles that has had some yob rag it to within an inch of its life is going to be in much worse shape than a similar car on 100k miles that has been meticulously looked after and serviced. The biggest mistake in this country when it comes to car purchasing is solely buying on miles and ignoring maintenance records. Check the higher miler has a nice big folder of work done and you will grab yourself a bargain and many more miles of happy driving.

I would rather have a well maintained and cared for 100k miler than a ragged or barely used 20k miler... Cars are machines that are meant to be used.

one careful lady owner doing about 3000 a year is not the best
cars need reasonable runs just doing 5 miles 2-3 times a week is not good
A 1 year old car that has done 25000 in one year going up and down the M1 with services every 12k may well be a better beat than a 4 year old car with only 12000 on the clock
I have a 2008 Renault Kangoo diesel when I bought it in 2011 it had done 103,000 was used by NHS to collect blood samples from GP surgeries ( so becuase of high mileage had been serviced about every 3 months) it has now done 221,000 and apart from tyres and brake discs/ pads and regualr services it is still good to go
good regular service history is what matters if something had a clutch or gear box replaced at 30K something is wrong a new cam belt at 70 K is what is recommended
as someone above said

Some cars last longer than others, mine is in good condition with 95k on the clock, has new exhaust and new clutch, should be good for a fair few more

I try to keep mileage to under 60,000 when buying a car but that is only because I always plan to have them for a long time so want to know they have plenty of life left in them and still be able to sell them on at the end of it. However, one of mine has just had complete engine failure with 69,000 miles so it really is no indication of life left in the car.
However, if the car was perfect and cheap, I wouldn't say no to a car with 100,000 miles.

Depends on the car....