Who buys nearly new cars with high miles?
Discussion
Browsing the classifieds I came upon this '15 S350 S-Class - former chauffeur car, of which there are plenty it seems, with 238k on it, up for £17,995. I couldn't help but wonder who would buy it?
The reason I'm curious is it seems in such an odd place, where it has big miles but it's still not that old, so hasn't depreciated far enough to be "cheap". I can't help but think if you had to finance 18k for a vehicle, why not go a bit more and get a lower mileage car? And if you're the type of person who has 18k in immediately transferrable funds, also would you not buy something else? Similarly if you're a business, would you not get a lease deal on a lower miles car?
I just can't see who would go "that's the car for me", because even relative to other similar options it's not that cheap.
I know motorway miles are fairly gentle and so on, I'm not saying the car's knackered, it just seems an odd crossroads of heavily used but still expensive. So what happens to them? Do they shift from the first seller (that S350 is private sale) back to a dealer, to another dealer, and so on, until they depreciate enough to be worth a punt as a smoker barge? Or do they just sit on the market for 6 months until the seller gets bored and stuffs it through an auction to go for peanuts to someone.
I happened upon this V90 hybrid too, which makes me ask the same question. It's not that I think nearly 85k is "high miles" on a car, it's that it's a '17 plate so still hasn't really depreciated far enough. You're not going to spend £25k in one lump on it surely, and for over 500 quid a month on finance why would you not go for a lower mileage car?
Idle thoughts on a rainy slow Wednesday afternoon.
The reason I'm curious is it seems in such an odd place, where it has big miles but it's still not that old, so hasn't depreciated far enough to be "cheap". I can't help but think if you had to finance 18k for a vehicle, why not go a bit more and get a lower mileage car? And if you're the type of person who has 18k in immediately transferrable funds, also would you not buy something else? Similarly if you're a business, would you not get a lease deal on a lower miles car?
I just can't see who would go "that's the car for me", because even relative to other similar options it's not that cheap.
I know motorway miles are fairly gentle and so on, I'm not saying the car's knackered, it just seems an odd crossroads of heavily used but still expensive. So what happens to them? Do they shift from the first seller (that S350 is private sale) back to a dealer, to another dealer, and so on, until they depreciate enough to be worth a punt as a smoker barge? Or do they just sit on the market for 6 months until the seller gets bored and stuffs it through an auction to go for peanuts to someone.
I happened upon this V90 hybrid too, which makes me ask the same question. It's not that I think nearly 85k is "high miles" on a car, it's that it's a '17 plate so still hasn't really depreciated far enough. You're not going to spend £25k in one lump on it surely, and for over 500 quid a month on finance why would you not go for a lower mileage car?
Idle thoughts on a rainy slow Wednesday afternoon.
I think the price is staggeringly optimistic, S classes of the same year with less than half the miles are going for the same money.
I don’t disagree with the OP though, it must be a very niche market or the seller is taking a punt that someone who doesn’t know what they are doing turns up.
I don’t disagree with the OP though, it must be a very niche market or the seller is taking a punt that someone who doesn’t know what they are doing turns up.
Wheel_Turned_Out said:
I know motorway miles are fairly gentle and so on, I'm not saying the car's knackered, it just seems an odd crossroads of heavily used but still expensive. So what happens to them? Do they shift from the first seller (that S350 is private sale) back to a dealer, to another dealer, and so on, until they depreciate enough to be worth a punt as a smoker barge? Or do they just sit on the market for 6 months until the seller gets bored and stuffs it through an auction to go for peanuts to someone.
Some of them get a haircut inbetween sitting around and going from one place to the next, and the new lower mileage makes it attractive to someone.I was checking one of my Dad's old cars on the MOT checker recently to see if it was still on the road. He traded it in at Motorpoint, where it will have went to auction. It was high miles but looked decent enough for the age - low and behold the mileage recorded at the next MOT after he traded it was significantly lower than when he traded it in.
I kind of did with my current CA albeit to a much lesser extent.
,2017 fiesta ST3 bought last year with 67k on it. So it had averaged about 22k a year which imo was high especially for a small hot hatch. Before this I'd always bought low mileage which looking back hadn't often turned out that great.
The car was for sale at my local Ford dealer and was offered with a years warranty so that was definitely a plus. It also had just the one owner and full Ford history. But the best thing was the price. It was at least £2k cheaper than any other similar cars with 30-40k on them. So I went for it and so far so good. My mileage is very low especially at the moment so over a few years it'll average out.
,2017 fiesta ST3 bought last year with 67k on it. So it had averaged about 22k a year which imo was high especially for a small hot hatch. Before this I'd always bought low mileage which looking back hadn't often turned out that great.
The car was for sale at my local Ford dealer and was offered with a years warranty so that was definitely a plus. It also had just the one owner and full Ford history. But the best thing was the price. It was at least £2k cheaper than any other similar cars with 30-40k on them. So I went for it and so far so good. My mileage is very low especially at the moment so over a few years it'll average out.
Unfortunately, generally the answer is someone who will then correct the mileage.
There is a decent amount of stock of very high mileage cars coming back at 2-3 years old, many of them showing very little wear.
An example - a 3 year old Golf GT (decent spec) with 245k miles on the clock was disposed off into the trade at £2,450. The car was in relatively clean condition. CAP valuation can't deal with anything approaching this level of mileage (tend to max out at 100-120k for valuation), so they don't even factor it into the price. Let's say the 120k mile value of that car is £5k trade, £6k retail.
So the disposing trade body will apply their own discount on the excess mileage, which can be anything up to 70%, hence why it's on sale at £2,450.
So, somebody either picks up a bargain and runs around in a 3 year old golf for a year or two for bugger all, treating it as disposable.
OR, the dealer that buys it, changes it from 245k miles to 145k miles and it gets snapped up at £5k.
With cars under 3 years this is even more likely as they won't have had an MOT record. I've seen 2 year old Skoda Superbs with 150k miles on the clock which look like they could pass for 50k... again, these end up being incredibly cheap in trade disposals, so whoever picks it up only needs to change the odo to 50k, and job done.
That's the reality for almost all of these nearly-new high mileage outliers...
There is a decent amount of stock of very high mileage cars coming back at 2-3 years old, many of them showing very little wear.
An example - a 3 year old Golf GT (decent spec) with 245k miles on the clock was disposed off into the trade at £2,450. The car was in relatively clean condition. CAP valuation can't deal with anything approaching this level of mileage (tend to max out at 100-120k for valuation), so they don't even factor it into the price. Let's say the 120k mile value of that car is £5k trade, £6k retail.
So the disposing trade body will apply their own discount on the excess mileage, which can be anything up to 70%, hence why it's on sale at £2,450.
So, somebody either picks up a bargain and runs around in a 3 year old golf for a year or two for bugger all, treating it as disposable.
OR, the dealer that buys it, changes it from 245k miles to 145k miles and it gets snapped up at £5k.
With cars under 3 years this is even more likely as they won't have had an MOT record. I've seen 2 year old Skoda Superbs with 150k miles on the clock which look like they could pass for 50k... again, these end up being incredibly cheap in trade disposals, so whoever picks it up only needs to change the odo to 50k, and job done.
That's the reality for almost all of these nearly-new high mileage outliers...
I did realise or rather hoped that it was now not so easy to adjust odometer, or at least there would be a trail of evidence. For example, there is no service book for MBs as it's online and can be updated by main dealers and indies alike.
Whereas, 'm not adverse to buying slightly higher than average mileage newer cars, I can't imagine what the attraction is in something with moon miles unless it was literally being given away. Even then, wouldn't interest me personally as would be like sitting on a time bomb.
(Btw this seems like a regular 'gassing' post to me - mods on here probably work as football video assistant refs as well!)
Whereas, 'm not adverse to buying slightly higher than average mileage newer cars, I can't imagine what the attraction is in something with moon miles unless it was literally being given away. Even then, wouldn't interest me personally as would be like sitting on a time bomb.
(Btw this seems like a regular 'gassing' post to me - mods on here probably work as football video assistant refs as well!)
I buy newish cars for my wife with high miles, because she does very low miles. If I can buy a 9 month old car with 40K miles well below market value as a high miler, I can sell it in 4 years time when it's nearly 5 yrs old, with 50K miles, as a car with average mileage, and get full market value.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I buy newish cars for my wife with high miles, because she does very low miles. If I can buy a 9 month old car with 40K miles well below market value as a high miler, I can sell it in 4 years time when it's nearly 5 yrs old, with 50K miles, as a car with average mileage, and get full market value.
That is entirely sensible and a good way of doing it. Buying at 12-18 month old with excessive miles still keeps you within warranty and as you say the miles average out over a few years to what the market/valuation deems acceptable and average for the age.The problem is it just doesn't work for stuff that's at 150k miles+ which I guess was more the level the OP was referring to. At those mileages buying nearly new with such a high mileage will never get you back to an average value after a few years - The car will always be devalued (even at 5-8 years old) due to the mileage, so the only appeal is to those who don't mind the "ticking timebomb" or those who will clock it to release the eroded value.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I buy newish cars for my wife with high miles, because she does very low miles. If I can buy a 9 month old car with 40K miles well below market value as a high miler, I can sell it in 4 years time when it's nearly 5 yrs old, with 50K miles, as a car with average mileage, and get full market value.
Is it not also true that you could buy a 9 month old car with average miles for market value and then sell 4 years later with say 15k miles for above market value?Fady said:
I did realise or rather hoped that it was now not so easy to adjust odometer, or at least there would be a trail of evidence. For example, there is no service book for MBs as it's online and can be updated by main dealers and indies alike.
Whereas, 'm not adverse to buying slightly higher than average mileage newer cars, I can't imagine what the attraction is in something with moon miles unless it was literally being given away. Even then, wouldn't interest me personally as would be like sitting on a time bomb.
(Btw this seems like a regular 'gassing' post to me - mods on here probably work as football video assistant refs as well!)
Yes, I didn't post it here because I wasn't looking for buying advice or anything, it was more a general question on a random topic so I posted it in general gassing - but it got moved within five minutes. Maybe because I put buying in the title. They're an efficient bunch, I'll give them that! Whereas, 'm not adverse to buying slightly higher than average mileage newer cars, I can't imagine what the attraction is in something with moon miles unless it was literally being given away. Even then, wouldn't interest me personally as would be like sitting on a time bomb.
(Btw this seems like a regular 'gassing' post to me - mods on here probably work as football video assistant refs as well!)
Wheel_Turned_Out said:
Fady said:
I did realise or rather hoped that it was now not so easy to adjust odometer, or at least there would be a trail of evidence. For example, there is no service book for MBs as it's online and can be updated by main dealers and indies alike.
Whereas, 'm not adverse to buying slightly higher than average mileage newer cars, I can't imagine what the attraction is in something with moon miles unless it was literally being given away. Even then, wouldn't interest me personally as would be like sitting on a time bomb.
(Btw this seems like a regular 'gassing' post to me - mods on here probably work as football video assistant refs as well!)
Yes, I didn't post it here because I wasn't looking for buying advice or anything, it was more a general question on a random topic so I posted it in general gassing - but it got moved within five minutes. Maybe because I put buying in the title. They're an efficient bunch, I'll give them that! Whereas, 'm not adverse to buying slightly higher than average mileage newer cars, I can't imagine what the attraction is in something with moon miles unless it was literally being given away. Even then, wouldn't interest me personally as would be like sitting on a time bomb.
(Btw this seems like a regular 'gassing' post to me - mods on here probably work as football video assistant refs as well!)
I bought a couple many years ago.
In early 1995 I bought a 1992 Cavalier SRi ex-company car from my employer for a price I couldn't ignore. A few months later I took it for its 1st MOT with 97K miles recorded!
And sold it in 1996 for a decent profit even with over 100k recorded - but I still wish I had kept it as it was a great car.
Then in early 2003 I bought a late 2000 Seat Leon Cupra ex-company car that had gone past the 50K mile limit in force at the time. It had done over 60K when I got it's first MOT done. I didn't make a profit on that one, but didn't lose much either.
Both had FSH and I knew the employees who had used them, which helped.
In early 1995 I bought a 1992 Cavalier SRi ex-company car from my employer for a price I couldn't ignore. A few months later I took it for its 1st MOT with 97K miles recorded!
And sold it in 1996 for a decent profit even with over 100k recorded - but I still wish I had kept it as it was a great car.
Then in early 2003 I bought a late 2000 Seat Leon Cupra ex-company car that had gone past the 50K mile limit in force at the time. It had done over 60K when I got it's first MOT done. I didn't make a profit on that one, but didn't lose much either.
Both had FSH and I knew the employees who had used them, which helped.
I've only ever bought used cars with mileages in the early-mid 30k's and weirdly had a perception that anything over 50k is 'high miles'.
I will change approach for my next car..as someone who has averaged 4k per yr over the last 10 years it's not like I will be adding much mileage on anyway. There seems to be a lot of bargains out there if willing to be flexible on mileage.
I will change approach for my next car..as someone who has averaged 4k per yr over the last 10 years it's not like I will be adding much mileage on anyway. There seems to be a lot of bargains out there if willing to be flexible on mileage.
I've bought a couple of "top end rep cars" at 18months/2yo with excess of 50k on them. On both occasions there was full dealer service history with no wear on the interior at all. Clearly just been sat at 80 (sorry 70) on the motorway all their short life. Absolute bargains and these are the cars i generally look out for.
PrinceRupert said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I buy newish cars for my wife with high miles, because she does very low miles. If I can buy a 9 month old car with 40K miles well below market value as a high miler, I can sell it in 4 years time when it's nearly 5 yrs old, with 50K miles, as a car with average mileage, and get full market value.
Is it not also true that you could buy a 9 month old car with average miles for market value and then sell 4 years later with say 15k miles for above market value?I bought a 2 year old Disco 4 that was on 130K. Apart from a few extra stone chips it was in great condition.
It came from a dealer with an extra years warranty (so 2 out of the 3 years) and I got it PCP'd over 3 years then handed it back.
3 years of trouble free motoring for around £100 per month less than one on 30K miles.
It came from a dealer with an extra years warranty (so 2 out of the 3 years) and I got it PCP'd over 3 years then handed it back.
3 years of trouble free motoring for around £100 per month less than one on 30K miles.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
PrinceRupert said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I buy newish cars for my wife with high miles, because she does very low miles. If I can buy a 9 month old car with 40K miles well below market value as a high miler, I can sell it in 4 years time when it's nearly 5 yrs old, with 50K miles, as a car with average mileage, and get full market value.
Is it not also true that you could buy a 9 month old car with average miles for market value and then sell 4 years later with say 15k miles for above market value?For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying I find buying a high mile car at a discount confusing. It makes perfect sense. If anything I'd trust a well looked after car at higher miles more than I would something that has just been bumbling to the shops and back since it was new.
The crux of my question was that these cars are examples of those which are up for equal to, or approaching, market value despite their mileage. I'd understand taking on that Volvo, for example, if it was still within warranty but much cheaper than equivalent models with lower miles - but it isn't. Same with the S350, there are other cars available with half the miles for the same price - that's where my curiosity as to who'd snap them up comes in. If it was £5k cheaper than everything else, I'd get it. But it isn't.
Buying a high miles car if it's well looked after and has evidence to support it, at a reduced price, makes perfect sense to me.
Sadly on balance I think the outcome of them sitting on the market until the seller suggests a lowball offer/goes through auction, before being clocked and put back on the market at a considerable profit, as has been suggested, does make the most sense.
The crux of my question was that these cars are examples of those which are up for equal to, or approaching, market value despite their mileage. I'd understand taking on that Volvo, for example, if it was still within warranty but much cheaper than equivalent models with lower miles - but it isn't. Same with the S350, there are other cars available with half the miles for the same price - that's where my curiosity as to who'd snap them up comes in. If it was £5k cheaper than everything else, I'd get it. But it isn't.
Buying a high miles car if it's well looked after and has evidence to support it, at a reduced price, makes perfect sense to me.
Sadly on balance I think the outcome of them sitting on the market until the seller suggests a lowball offer/goes through auction, before being clocked and put back on the market at a considerable profit, as has been suggested, does make the most sense.
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