Generally- what kills a car first, age or miles?
Discussion
I'm asking this as these days, quite a few 3-4 year old cars have 100,000+ miles on them yet are going for small fortunes! Think a4s and most 'premium' metal an they can go for £10k and more with 6 figure mileages. Yet a 10 year old motor with the same miles is considered risky. Why?
in my experience it's not aged or mileage that kills car it's repair costs, I've bought a few cars with failed diesel pumps, ecu problems, dmf clutch issues, injector issues etc that people just can't afford or are not willing to pay to repair especially at the bottom end of the market where I buy my cars from.
I'm happy to pay a few hundred for a car with issues that can be resolved then give me a few months use before selling on.
I'm happy to pay a few hundred for a car with issues that can be resolved then give me a few months use before selling on.
Assuming there's no major failure or collision damage, the vast majority of cars die a "death by a thousand papercuts" - they need a windscreen and and exhaust and some tyres and the cam belt's due and the MOT's up in a few weeks and the engine management light's on and it's only worth a couple of hundred quid with all that lot sorted and your Uncle/mate/neighbour/colleague has just bought a new car so his old car is going cheap...
But the question still remains, is it primarily age or mileage that causes these components to fail?
Other than obvious consumables I suspect it's mainly age. A very low mileage but old car might even need more repairs than a higher mileage car of the same age. I read an article once about running oldish exotics, Ferrari 308s, Porsche 928s etc (this was about 10 years ago). The owners who did 1500 to 3000 miles a year seemed to spend about £1 a mile on maintenance, the one who did 12,000 miles about 50p a mile.
Other than obvious consumables I suspect it's mainly age. A very low mileage but old car might even need more repairs than a higher mileage car of the same age. I read an article once about running oldish exotics, Ferrari 308s, Porsche 928s etc (this was about 10 years ago). The owners who did 1500 to 3000 miles a year seemed to spend about £1 a mile on maintenance, the one who did 12,000 miles about 50p a mile.
Neither. My Disco 3 has 138k miles and feels like it has loads of life left in it. At 100k everything fell off it but I persevered, spent quite a lot of cash and now it's in rude health. No science to it, things wear out but if you stay on top of maintenance, little TLC often pays dividends.
Lots op people these days buy a new car, run it for 3 years and understandably expect nothing to go wrong. At the end of 3 years they swap for another one because it seems the smart thing to do before big bills kick in. Trouble is depreciation is the greatest expense of car ownership so my advice is buy a 3 year old motor with < 60k miles, run it to 200k miles and expect to pay a bit in maintenance.
Cars are now like white goods and so many only seem to care about the cost of the lease to keep their Merc on the drive of their 2 bed Barratt starter home.
Lots op people these days buy a new car, run it for 3 years and understandably expect nothing to go wrong. At the end of 3 years they swap for another one because it seems the smart thing to do before big bills kick in. Trouble is depreciation is the greatest expense of car ownership so my advice is buy a 3 year old motor with < 60k miles, run it to 200k miles and expect to pay a bit in maintenance.
Cars are now like white goods and so many only seem to care about the cost of the lease to keep their Merc on the drive of their 2 bed Barratt starter home.
Rich1973 said:
Value - when they become uneconomical to repair, then they get scrapped generally. I would say that is a function of age rather than mileage
It's almost entirely a question of how the market views their value. Most cars are written off for trivial failures (even things like tyres) simply because the market views them as worthless. wormus said:
Neither. My Disco 3 has 138k miles and feels like it has loads of life left in it. At 100k everything fell off it but I persevered, spent quite a lot of cash and now it's in rude health. No science to it, things wear out but if you stay on top of maintenance, little TLC often pays dividends.
What happens when your Disco is worth £500 and theres a £1000 bill?THATS what kills most cars.
Dr Jekyll said:
But the question still remains, is it primarily age or mileage that causes these components to fail?
I think it tends to be more lack of use or incorrect use.For example, DPFs fail mainly IMHO because the people who buy the car don't go for a 100 mile drive once a month or so to really clean it up. Instead they are using the car for the school and shopping run, sub 10 miles each time.....
A properly used car which is maintained (i.e. cambelt, water pump changed on time and serviced annually) should carry on for hundreds of thousands of miles these days.
BUT, most people see 100k on the clock as being time to throw the car away... Thus prices drops.
daemon said:
wormus said:
Neither. My Disco 3 has 138k miles and feels like it has loads of life left in it. At 100k everything fell off it but I persevered, spent quite a lot of cash and now it's in rude health. No science to it, things wear out but if you stay on top of maintenance, little TLC often pays dividends.
What happens when your Disco is worth £500 and theres a £1000 bill?THATS what kills most cars.
Jasandjules said:
BUT, most people see 100k on the clock as being time to throw the car away... Thus prices drops.
100K+ and you're likely to start facing big bills - thats really peoples perception. And its not totally incorrect.DMFs, DPFs, fuel pumps, turbos, injectors, all become greater risks at that mileage.
I had a Mitsubishi Space star sold it after 5 years.The car had done about 50000 miles.
Excellent condition regular serviced 1.6 Petrol engine.Should have kept it longer just got fed up of the same car,wanted a change.
Neighbour just got a Rover 75 cost him with his part exchange about 700 pounds.
The car is spotless I love the Viking badge>
The car is ten years.Leather seats and it looks good.
Excellent condition regular serviced 1.6 Petrol engine.Should have kept it longer just got fed up of the same car,wanted a change.
Neighbour just got a Rover 75 cost him with his part exchange about 700 pounds.
The car is spotless I love the Viking badge>
The car is ten years.Leather seats and it looks good.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff