What to consider on a high mileage car?

[Pulse]

I'm looking at potentially buying a high mileage car (a Ford Focus), and I'm wondering what I should be wary of...

It's a 2 litre diesel, on a 2007 plate, and covered 180,000 miles!!! It's had a brand new engine 3 months ago (with a warranty) and cost £4,000. The car is up for £3,000.

What else should I be looking for? Will a lot of other items need replacing soon, or will they already potentially have been replaced? Would I find the car impossible to sell due to the mileage and replacement engine? (Although the latter I see as a benefit)

[Baryonyx]

There is absolutely no way you should be looking at a Focus of that kind of mileage. Not unless it's a mint condition RS. I sold my Focus for less last week! They're decent cars but they certainly don't inspire minicab mileage quality in me. If you have a look at it and it's all well and good, I'd still say you're paying too much for it. But look for the usual wear like rust, wear to the back suspension components, electrical faults (electrical gremlins are the real problem).

[Pulse]

doogz said:

Pulse said:

I'm looking at potentially buying a high mileage car (a Ford Focus), and I'm wondering what I should be wary of...

It's a 2 litre diesel, on a 2007 plate, and covered 180,000 miles!!! It's had a brand new engine 3 months ago (with a warranty) and cost £4,000. The car is up for £3,000.

What else should I be looking for? Will a lot of other items need replacing soon, or will they already potentially have been replaced? Would I find the car impossible to sell due to the mileage and replacement engine? (Although the latter I see as a benefit)

Why did someone spend £4k on a 180k mile car, to sell it shortly afterwards for less than they've just spent on it?

That would put me off before i even started thinking about how tired the gearbox might be. Or the suspension, or the steering rack, etc.

It's a trade-in, so I'm not sure. A good point though - don't want to be replacing gearboxes etc in the near future!!!

[Parrot of Doom]

Just get yourself a BMW E39 530D or something similar, something that was designed to cruise at high speed all day on the autobahn. Don't mess around with a leggy Focus.

[1275GT]

For three grand there are plenty of other choices out there that are a safer bet!

[philoldsmobile]

wouldn't touch something as small as a focus with that sort of mileage, but if it were a merc E class or S calss, it wouldn't bother me...

[deveng]

why are you looking for a high mileage car?

There are thousands of cars for less than £4000, so surely one of these would be your best bet? Especially if you want a focus, the mk1 can easily be picked up in almost any spec other than RS for that money.

[philoldsmobile]

there are some very good reasons. if you are buying a car for comparatively small annual mileage, a 150,000 mile lexus GS or LS, BMW 7 or 5 series or Merc E or S class can make an awful lot of sense.

[HellDiver]

180k it should be looking at a second or third suspension refresh, probably a gearbox if the current one is the original. Really, it's likely to be a heap of st, you'd be better off getting an older one with less miles.

[Baryonyx]

You could buy two amazing cars with that buget, so you really should be trying harder to get more for your money.

[digger_R]

For less than that you can have my e39 528 (2000), has 118k miles - will certainly cost less as an ownership prospect unless you're doing massive mileage

[PaulGT3]

The car has done 180k in 4 years, I would assume mostly motorway mileage. I doubt the gearbox and suspension has had anywhere near as much abuse as a 40k average miler thats been used predominately round town.

[duckson]

There is no way i'd even entertain this for £3k, infact not even £1k.