Tips for buying a high miler

[RB Will]

Hi all.

I don't do many miles in the daily car (about 6000 a year) and having sold my BM I am looking to upgrade. Now the cars I am looking at have well over 100k miles on them one on 115k another on 180k.

Is there anything I should particularly be aware of buying a high miler, obviously car specific problems are being researched already but what else should I look for/ ask the seller?

[y2blade]

what make/model are you looking at with those miles?

[Boba Fret]

their lowest best price and you come pick car up at Saturday.

[bozmandb9]

My tips would be:

1. Go for it, it's much more likely to be a genuine mileage and you'll get much better value.
2. Just buy on condition. My car has done over 110k in 6 years, and it doesn't show one bit.

It it looks right and feels right you'll just know. Of course having low owners and lots of history, bills etc helps a lot too! I suppose also you could look out for fleet cars which may have been abused by company owners.

You haven't given us much to go on though, what sort of age, and what car?

[Pappa Lurve]

Had a few high mile cars, including a number with almost no history at all. Buy on condition and I tend to find I get a vibe from the owner and so far, touch wood, yet to buy a pup that way!

[stropley]

Boba Fret said:

their lowest best price and you come pick car up at Saturday.

Stop calling me every time I sell a car

[Devil2575]

RB Will said:

Hi all.

I don't do many miles in the daily car (about 6000 a year) and having sold my BM I am looking to upgrade. Now the cars I am looking at have well over 100k miles on them one on 115k another on 180k.

Is there anything I should particularly be aware of buying a high miler, obviously car specific problems are being researched already but what else should I look for/ ask the seller?

I'd avoid cars with 180k on them unless you have a big cash pot put to one side to cover issues. Even the most well made cars will start to suffer failures at that kind of milage.

If you're looking to upgrade but are looking at cars with mega miles is this because that is all you can afford? If so then i'd be tempted to suggest you scale back your expectations.
Buying a higher milage flash car will cost you a decent chunk to run. For example I ran two cars back to back, a BMW 530 Sport and a Focus 2 litre zetec. The BMW was about £2k more to buy and both had a book full of dealer stamps. The 530i was a 2001 Y reg car with 100k on the clock and cost me about about £2000 a year to run in tyres, insurance, tax, servicing etc. The Focus was a 53 plate with 50k on the clock and cost less than half that. Not least because the higher milage BMW had more things go wrong with it.

I'm not saying don't get a nicer higher milage car, just if you do go into it with your eyes open and do your research first so running costs don't bite you on the ass.

Edited by Devil2575 on Thursday 28th April 15:20

[Rammy76]

Like previous posters said, buy on condition.

You do seem to get a feeling if a car's good not. I bought a relatively high mileage Passat and things like being shod with 4 good Dunlop tyres all the same (I hate all different tyres!) and just a general tightness of everything when test driving show it's an unabused example, in my experience anyway.

It only had one owner too.

[djbdjb]

High milers are less likely to have been clocked - which apparently still isnt illegal in this country as yet! so have the rice adjusted. You could buy the same car for £2-3k more if it has. I used to cover 60,000 miles pa in all makes and model of car ... but they were professionally maintained & serviced every few weeks and also looked after by the driver on a daily basis. More recently, my Lexus RX 400 Hybrid covered only that in 3 years upon which I only ever replaced the front tyres at 40k plus a standard service. There was 4mm all round at 60k. Merc & BMW can do >200,000 miles without much other than standard servicing. However, bear in mind that the more sophisticated the car when it was built, the more sophicticated becomes the repairers excuses for servicing and repair charges - unless you can DIY.

[balls-out]

Choose a make/model which can be maintained by a local independent or yourself.
To reduce looking time, give priority to cars which have a small number of owners, or have had the current owner for some time. Generally (obviously there are exceptions) people keeping cars maintain them better and fix thing that are on their way out.
Do your 'net research on the car you target to find out what to look for.
Look what the brand of tyre is on the car. people who maintain cars regardless of cost don't put budget tyres on. I nice matched set of premium brand is a rare but good sign in banger-land

You don't say what sort of car you are looking for...

Edited by balls-out on Thursday 28th April 16:02

[RB Will]

Thanks so far guys.

The car in question is an 04/05 era Subaru Legacy 3.0 Tourer. I have tried research and there dont seem to be any common problems with them.
The 180K miles one I found has 1 owner and 17 Subaru service stamps had a new clutch and flywheel at 165k miles. It looks pretty immaculate and according to the advert is in very good nick and drives well. I presume with that sort of mileage it has been low stress motorway stuff.

[bozmandb9]

Devil2575 said:

I'd avoid cars with 180k on them unless you have a big cash pot put to one side to cover issues. Even the most well made cars will start to suffer failures at that kind of milage.

If

Edited by Devil2575 on Thursday 28th April 15:20

I'd say this is just wrong, I've had cars of 200k miles, 250, 300. I've never found that any more has gone wrong on them then any other car. For example my first E38 7 series had over 200k on the clock, so it needed some suspension work, to be honest for a ten year old barge, it would have needed that with 100k on the clock anyway, other than that it was fine.

I had a 99 Mondeo with 300 k on the clock, bought it for £300, sold it for £300 to a mate, I didn't have to do any work on it, he kept it for two years, and just sold it to his mechanic for £250, since it needed a little work for the MOT, and he felt that he had had his value from it!

Second hand cars need repairs to keep them going, but the correlation between mileage and higher repair bills is just wrong in my experience, most of the repairs 'cycle', so you'll be in for some bills at probably 60k, 120k, 180k, etc etc, and the bills don't get higher every 60k.

[RB Will]

I'm with you on that. When I worked for Merc we had a customer that did airport runs and he had a 3 year old E class with 364,000 miles on it! It was serviced every month or so and the interior was still fine it drove like a 50,000 miler.
The other good thing about this high miler is that it is so cheap compared to average mileage ones that I can afford to fix a few things as long as something like the engine or gearbox don't fall apart.

[andy43]

I've just bought one of these - only the '04 2.5 auto though.
I have seen high mile Legacys, and really other than the odd stonechip and worn drivers seat bolster there wasn't much to suggest starship miles. Some police forces have taken to using them for motorway work. Tells you all you need to know really. If the boot looks well abused, check underneath - farmers do tend to like Subaru estates.
As I've been recently looking around at prices I think the 3.0 6 is good value but I have seen two 3 litres for sale spares or repairs needing engines. Very very unlikely it's a common problem though!! Mpg not exactly wonderful, but I need 4wd/auto/estate, and I'm not buying an Audi for twice the money.
As long as Subaru history is up to date should be a decent buy - I struggled to find any common faults with the Legacy anywhere on the interweb or via main dealer, short of roll bar bushes getting clonky quickly and an appetite for tyres. The earlier design 2.5 Leg had main bearing probs (I think!), seem to have been sorted by 03/04, Foresters of similar age were hungry for clutches and release bearings - not sure if it applies to the Leg - 'yours' has been replaced recently anyway. Parts can be expensive. 3 litre scared me off a bit due to the 6 cyls and it not being used in other Scoobs apart from that jeep monstrosity. 2 and 2.5l are common as anything so if anything engine related breaks hopefully it will be cheapish to fix.
If you have the bottle to go 3 litre try a Spec B if you can find one as they have upgraded (Bilstein?) suspension and are supposed to handle really well.
Enjoooy

[richyb]

Before my introduction to bargain barging a few years a go I was always wary of high miles. That said I took the plunge on a 125k 740il and its done me proud for 3 years and 25k miles. I've spent less than £1k DIY servicing it as well. Do your homework, be willing to travel and, as mentioned, buy on condition. For me 100k minimum miles is where I'd start my search these days.