What is high mileage for a petrol + diesel when buying a car
Discussion
kambites said:
I don't think the engine is really a major concern when it comes to mileage any more - if properly serviced, there aren't that many wear-related failures on modern car engines. Things like suspension and steering systems are more of a concern for me on high-mileage cars.
Agree with this. My Focus is nearing 130k and the engine is the bit I worry about the least. It uses no oil, sounds good and performs well.It is fairly un-stressed, 2.0l petrol producing less than 130bhp, I'd be confident I could nurse it along to 200k without a major mechanical hiccup, I couldn't say the same about the rest of the car, I live in an area littered with speed bumps and pot holes, the suspension is showing its age and the gear change is feeling a bit sloppy of late!Pontoneer said:
J4CKO said:
I dont think the engines "oily bits" are what goes nowadays, big ends, rings, cams, bearings etc. think most are killed as people get the MOT come up and the car is worth £800 but needs a couple of shock absorbers (£200 fitted), 4 new tyres (£400), brakes (£250), a service (£150) and perhaps a couple of minor faults rectifying (£100), the engine still being ok and the bodywork not crumbling, perhaps just needing a good valet. So the car gets scrapped and the owners sign on the dotted for a new one at £120 a month. So cars get scrapped a lot for purely economic reasons and not major issues, a lot of the time the calculation is skewed due to high garage prices, if DIY'd it would be easily viable.
People nowadays have higher expectations, a new car used to be a dream, now it is a lot easier to attain, ok you never "own" it outright but you avoid the old car agro of MOT's and having to maintain it. Even some 17 year olds feel hard done by if they dont have a new car, far cry from the old sheds we ran, I used to feel like delivering an acceptance speech when my first car was awarded an MOT, and this wasnt that long ago, well, 24 years but it isnt the 1950's !
Think us older chaps (im 41) grew up with more of a "make do and mend" mentality, it is perhaps background related as well, my dad had a blue collar job and not on vast money so perhaps his work to maintain and care for our cars was the fact they were hard won, my inlaws had more money and they arent as fussy as it will be replaced after three years, they dent the car doing something stupid and are not all that bothered. I think the car now is seen as more disposable across the board, not saying it is good or bad, surely keeping old heaps on the road isnt a good thing but neither is thorwing away servicable ones.
Agree with that .People nowadays have higher expectations, a new car used to be a dream, now it is a lot easier to attain, ok you never "own" it outright but you avoid the old car agro of MOT's and having to maintain it. Even some 17 year olds feel hard done by if they dont have a new car, far cry from the old sheds we ran, I used to feel like delivering an acceptance speech when my first car was awarded an MOT, and this wasnt that long ago, well, 24 years but it isnt the 1950's !
Think us older chaps (im 41) grew up with more of a "make do and mend" mentality, it is perhaps background related as well, my dad had a blue collar job and not on vast money so perhaps his work to maintain and care for our cars was the fact they were hard won, my inlaws had more money and they arent as fussy as it will be replaced after three years, they dent the car doing something stupid and are not all that bothered. I think the car now is seen as more disposable across the board, not saying it is good or bad, surely keeping old heaps on the road isnt a good thing but neither is thorwing away servicable ones.
I sometimes buy cars from the breakers , stick them in for MOT and find that it failed on a brake pipe . A job I can do myself for a tenner and half an hour of my time - yet someone scrapped a perfectly good car for that because they are too stupid or too lazy to learn to do the jobs themselves .
Actually , I'm quite glad there are people like that when it means I can pick up a nice car for , say , £150 and get several years use out of it .
My record so far is 30 years for my 1957 Mercedes bought in 1982 for £100 .
Pontoneer said:
kambites said:
"Reasonable" perhaps, but far from "normal". The average lifetime mileage of a car in the UK is something of the order of 100k miles. I doubt more than 1% reach 200k.
Cars can go on a very long time, but the punitive cost of parts combined with our extremely high rates of depreciation means that they very rarely do.
I've seen beyond 200K on pretty much all of my cars , and some considerably more .Cars can go on a very long time, but the punitive cost of parts combined with our extremely high rates of depreciation means that they very rarely do.
I know lots of people with 200K+ cars , of all makes , so would say that notwithstanding accident damage many can and do go well beyond that mileage .
Taxis , rep mobiles , police cars and many others can rack these miles up in surprisingly little time .
According to the government (who knows how accurate this is), the average annual distance for cars in the UK in 2010 was 8500 miles (at least I think that's what it means, it might be saying that the average person travels 8500 miles, it's a bit ambiguous), so the average car will take 12 years to hit 100k miles. Next time you drive, see how many cars from the 90s or earlier you actually see. http://assets.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releases/natio...
I think it's too easy for car-obsessives like us to think that everyone uses cars as much as we do, but from what I can find in the way of statistics, it's simply not the case. Cars can go on for a very long time, but that doesn't mean that they usually do.
Edited by kambites on Thursday 6th September 07:54
Chrisw666 said:
redweapon said:
80k and above you start to replace items.
This is what is wrong with car owners in the UK, summed up in a few short words. They think a car should be low mileage and should just last without needing worn out things replacing, I'm sure some people think their car is unreliable if the cambelt needs changing, the brakes (or breaks if you're illiterate) need replacing, or the headlight bulbs fail, infact I'd bet some people are dumbstruck to learn their tyres wear out eventually and faster than normal on stupidly big wheels. My dad had a fiat coupe with 246,000 on the clock before the bodywork let go.
I've got a mk1 golf with 181,000 and a bora diesel with 167,000 - both run great, and with only routine costs.
Mileage is just a number, preventative maintenance ensures that a car can see infinite miles without breakdown, in theory...
I've got a mk1 golf with 181,000 and a bora diesel with 167,000 - both run great, and with only routine costs.
Mileage is just a number, preventative maintenance ensures that a car can see infinite miles without breakdown, in theory...
Have a look at how some other counties regard milage: In Austalia for example cars with 200-300 thousand Km (why is that not Mm?) Fetch good money! Not unusual to see legacys at 10 years old and 250,000km for £7k ish, and *olden commodores well north of 300,000km for £7k-£10k equivalent.
Engines aren't the bits that kill cars now: Ancillaries, suspension work, bodywork and crashes kill cars. Lets face it, with the state of the UK used market a set of tyres makes most 10+ year old cars uneconomical to keep on the road.
I sold my BMW 328i at 180k miles. It died 2k later when the water pump failed ,and the new owner elected to let the scrappy use it as a gate rather than fix it. It was still a really good car.
Engines aren't the bits that kill cars now: Ancillaries, suspension work, bodywork and crashes kill cars. Lets face it, with the state of the UK used market a set of tyres makes most 10+ year old cars uneconomical to keep on the road.
I sold my BMW 328i at 180k miles. It died 2k later when the water pump failed ,and the new owner elected to let the scrappy use it as a gate rather than fix it. It was still a really good car.
Agree with those who say the that it's suspension body etc that limit the cars life.
We have 2 Toyota Cressidas both 1985 models, the 380,000 car is still used occasionally for towing the horse trailer, the 367,000 one, no longer road registered, is used around the paddocks. Both were starting to rust a couple of years ago.
My elderly widow neighbour is still driving her trouble free 1994 Mazda 323. She rubs it on a gate post, or the shed door quite regularly, but that has not stopped it doing 288,000 quite happily.
We have 2 Toyota Cressidas both 1985 models, the 380,000 car is still used occasionally for towing the horse trailer, the 367,000 one, no longer road registered, is used around the paddocks. Both were starting to rust a couple of years ago.
My elderly widow neighbour is still driving her trouble free 1994 Mazda 323. She rubs it on a gate post, or the shed door quite regularly, but that has not stopped it doing 288,000 quite happily.
Steameh said:
What about a petrol hybrid, there are a few GS450H knocking about with 120k on for sale, would you have any issues buying one from a reliability perspective?
Now that sounds intriguing! I have driven one of these, they are lovely barges. Ridiculously quick, super-smooth and very well equipped. The cooled seats are amazing in summer. Don't expect it to steer and handle like a 5-series, though.In theory, an electric motor should be inherently reliable, with just 1 moving part and no reciprocating masses. The battery packs may have a limited lifespan, however. Is there a Lexus hybrid owner's forum? An extended warranty for the powertrain would probably be worth investigating.
tim0409 said:
bakerstreet said:
How does a London Cab manage 500k in its lifetime then? Same trhing for London Ambulances. 150k of hard abuse before they are moved onto other duties.
He said mini-cabs, not black cabs.Dalto123 said:
The Porsche had 151,000 miles and was going strong until the crash. I reckon if you service and look after the car well, then it'll go on and on. For example I've seen a few 944's with 200k+ miles 
My 944 has nearly 180k miles on it, and still runs well. It was returning more than the standard power output when new when it had 130k miles on the clock. Modern machinery dies from neglect, most commonly; if you look after an engine, service it on time and use decent quality lubricants and do all the preventative stuff (cam belts particularly) then you can get huge mileages out of them. The problem comes when a car is 15 years old and worth very little, people don't bother to spend £200 or so on servicing them and hence problems start to appear ... Oli.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff