High Miler 2nd Hand Estate Query
High Miler 2nd Hand Estate Query
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Discussion

Obee72

Original Poster:

264 posts

114 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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Think I've settled on buying a 2nd hand auto estate of some variety and am looking at high milers. I've found 2 such vehicles, a 66 plate Passat GT and a 16 plate Mondeo Titanium both at 100k. Both are at around £11k and fairly local to me in Bradford.

Any experience of these at high mileage and what I should expect in terms of issues running one over the next say 3-4 years ?

I'd be putting around 10k a year on top.

Mark-C

7,577 posts

234 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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At that distance in those years I'd guess both are ex-Taxis so I'd be looking at wear and tear inside and, more importantly, the service history. Assuming they are just about old enough to have had an MOT have a look online at what the MOT inspection turned up.

No direct experience of either car.

Pericoloso

44,044 posts

192 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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If they are ex taxis ,they might have had 3 MOTs already.

Go into this with an open mind and suspect that either car could be clocked ,as a profitable mini cabber will do considerably

more than 30K a year.

Obee72

Original Poster:

264 posts

114 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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Didn't think they could have been taxi's as they've a really good spec, things like Active Info Display, Pano Roof and ACC. To me they are essentially rep mobiles so mostly motorway mileage. Went to see the Passat this afternoon and its not even three years old yet with a full VWSH. Interior and exterior both looked very very good for its mileage. Almost like new if I'm honest.

My money is on them being ex-lease just put through a lot of miles in just under three years.

Fastdruid

9,364 posts

181 months

Tuesday 2nd July 2019
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Obee72 said:
Think I've settled on buying a 2nd hand auto estate of some variety and am looking at high milers. I've found 2 such vehicles, a 66 plate Passat GT and a 16 plate Mondeo Titanium both at 100k. Both are at around £11k and fairly local to me in Bradford.

Any experience of these at high mileage and what I should expect in terms of issues running one over the next say 3-4 years ?

I'd be putting around 10k a year on top.
100k isn't high mileage...Although it is pretty high in 3 years!

I *bought* my last Mondeo Mk2 at 96k and ran it to 174k, the current Mk4 one is on ~130k (bought at 65k) the only thing to have gone *wrong* in 60k apart from accidental damage (stone through the air con condenser, could happen to any car!) and consumables was a cracked air con pipe, radius arm bushes (need doing about every 100k on the Mk4) and the clock spring appears to be dying as the buttons on the wheel are somewhat temperamental.

It depends which one but I think the Mondeo would probably be due the "big ticket" items like cam belt at ~125k.

The one issue you may see is the powerst automatic gearbox. I believe the older ones are due a service/oil+filter change every ~3 years but the newer ones are "sealed for live" with an expectancy of 10 years or ~125-150k, in theory that should mean at 100k you have another 25-50k left but if you intend to keep it longer you'd probably want to get the oil changed at 80-100k. Akin to the BMW "sealed for life" auto boxes where they die at ~140k if you don't change the oil. I don't know which one a ~2016 model would have.







nobrakes

3,782 posts

227 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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What about a more averaged mileage older car? Just suggesting it as a rain check.

There’s value in buying a cheap high miler only to balance the miles and resale out of you only do say 4K or 5k a year.

If you take it to post 150k miles it will be harder to shift.

strath44

1,370 posts

177 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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I would say this is a perfectly good route to go, I'm a big fan of Passat's and really like the newer (B8) shape in the GT format.
I have found them to be incredibly reliable, absolutely huge inside (we have an A6 as well and theres not much in it size wise).

These are not taxis. Well I don't know for sure but its highly unlikely - the taxis I know do more than 30k a year and generally they are kept longer than 3 years.
I would say these are almost certainly either ex lease, ex company or hire cars. I personally do 32k+ miles plus per year and know plenty of people that do more!

Arnold Clark in Scotland seem to have quite a few 100k mile Passat estates last time I looked so they must be coming in from somewhere.

As long as any car of this age has been well serviced you have nothing to worry about, arguably some people would say buying one thats do 15k miles over 3 years and clattered about town on short trips is far worse!

My money would be in the Passat, from experience I find the build quality of the Mondeo to be distinctly lower.

Obee72

Original Poster:

264 posts

114 months

Wednesday 3rd July 2019
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Yes it’s big inside and has lots of kit like the Active Info Display which ticks the tech box. Only issue I see is it’s the 148bhp model and I wanted something faster. Guess I could go for a remap ...

I’ll go see a Mondeo and try to compare.

nobrakes

3,782 posts

227 months

Thursday 4th July 2019
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Obee72 said:
Yes it’s big inside and has lots of kit like the Active Info Display which ticks the tech box. Only issue I see is it’s the 148bhp model and I wanted something faster. Guess I could go for a remap ...

I’ll go see a Mondeo and try to compare.
If you want something faster, get a faster car or get it remapped o/wise you’ll probably not like the car. Remaps these days are well proven.