Been out today looking at buying a van. I’ve seen an immaculate looking 2011 1.6 diesel VW Caddy, which I’m quite interested in. Took it out for a test drive and it drove really well. It was spotless inside and out. Everything looks and seems really good. One owner, full service history. My big concern though, is the mileage it has done. It’s on 132,000 miles, which seems pretty high. At only 3-4 years old, it’s pretty new and that’s a lot of miles to clock up in that time. What sort of mileage should a van like this be good for? Can I expect to start getting issues with it pretty soon? I’m going to be doing 12-15k miles a year in it and would quite like to get a good few years trouble free motoring out of it.

Now then this is a tough one,I have had a 52 plate transit for 5 months now,it has 88,000 on the clock which is not much you might say,however a lot of parts will soon be coming to the end of their life and will need replacing but iff I chanced a van that had done 130,000 + the parts might have been changed befor I bought it!all depends how it’s been used in the past really!I think mine was a welfare van so even though it hasn’t done many miles it’s probably done a lot of hours.

ok, so it’s not a van but my 03 Toyota corolla D4D has got 253K miles on the clock.
Other than consumables,servicing the only major repairs have been a clutch at 170k miles and heater matrix at 200k miles.
Gets use for commute to work 30miles each way 20 of them on motorway and then stop/start doing site visits for about 15miles a day

All about condition but if not done already i would have thought that the two risky bills are…

Clutch/dmf
Diesel particulate filter

Both a big number and failure hard to predict on mileage alone. Otherwise you have normal second hand risks. Things like bushings and brakes will depend on mileage but also on the type of driving, the roads it had been used on, smooth a road and motorway vs. Grotty rural lanes for example and time based degradation too. This is something you cannot control for. Is it priced appropriately?

For comparison we bought an ex civil engineering company Mondeo at 8 years old and 100k. It’s had a hard life and it shows (and in hindsight we shouldn’t have bought that particular one). My much higher mileage year older one has been utterly brilliant but has been loved mechanically and driven sympathetically the 100k+ that its been in my ownership.

Really depends on service and use.

My 03 plate transit was mine from new, so I know its history. Ive got 195k on the clock and my mechanic says it still drives like a new one. Original clutch, all Ive changed are consumables and one rear box. Gets a service twice a year.

I don’t know what it’s been used for but, to my (untrained!) eye, it looks like it’s been well looked after and driven carefully. By comparison, I took a similar aged Vauxhall Combi out, which had over 40k less miles on it and that just felt tired and a bit unloved. The brakes felt worse, the clutch felt worse and the gearbox felt worse.
Normally I wouldn’t touch anything with such high mileage, but it just looked and felt like it had done more like 32k miles rather than 132k!
Price wise, it’s £4.8k, excluding VAT, which seems pretty reasonable.

Amaizing what a wash and a valet does for the milage on a car…

I would never buy a 132k car expecting trouble free motoring…..but thats jnot to say i wouldnt buy a car with 132k on clock – i justmwouldnt expect to have no issues.

Dont spend all your budget on a 132k car keep a couple of k – your coming into potential suspension and clutch teretory on that milage equally it could go on for another 5 years needing nothing….i wouldnt bank on it though.

4.8k + vat isnt a bad price for a 3 year old van though.

As someone has mentioned above the interesting bit is really what major work it has had done already. Clutch/flyweehl, turbo, particulate filter etc.
It’s not at all unusual for vans to do 30-40k per year and I’d guess it’ll be an ex lease van so will have been serviced on time and looked after.

ive just bought a vito with 192,000 on it. it looked better maintained and generally less abused than ones i was test driving with 100,000 on them. i might regret it yet but ive got a bit of money left for garage bills now

Around that milage you are going to start looking at clutch/dmf, dpf, EGR and other issues, the fact it’s also just out of warranty…. so budget 2-3K for repairs/replacement… other than that you should be OK

I bought a 5 year old VW T5 with 160k on the clock, the clutch/ dmf had been replaced at 130k and the dpf had been removed and had a remap….. the bus is now on 205k after 18 months of heavy use and other than needing a new alternator has been spot on.

Have a good listen to the engine whilst putting your foot on and off the clutch.. any hint of chatter which disappears when you depress the clutch will mean the dmf is going. If its got vag sh phone the garage and ask about any repairs.

My 2.5tdi T4 is approaching 160,000 miles, I bought it at 110,000. It’s had it’s first clutch at 147,000 & an early 2nd cambelt at 116,000 because the previous owner hadn’t payed out the £50 extra for a water pump at the 1st one.

I fully intend to run it till it dies. I do about 10,000 a year inc a French trip. It gets serviced once a year in Nov and has a good check over in Summer.

My mate has 230,000 mile mk4 1.9tdi Golf and my bro in law has run two Mondeo’s to almost 200,000 miles. Another mate with a garage has lots of 300,000+ taxi’s that he looks after.

So my conclusion is, if you intend to run it till it dies, go for it.

My old shit bag tranny 07 plate had a clutch at 35000 miles but 5 years old. Loads of short journeys in and around Derbyshire.

I had a T4 for seven years, sold it with 195000 miles on the clock no major repairs just usual consumables, most of that time I ran it on cooking oil, I did service it religiously at 6000 miles. If you think it a good one I would say buy what ever you get there is always an aspect of luck involved.

ive just bought a vito with 192,000 on it. it looked better maintained and generally less abused than ones i was test driving with 100,000 on them. i might regret it yet but ive got a bit of money left for garage bills now

vans are for making money – if you’re clocking up high milage in them then travel itself is how your money is being made. Low milage vans are just a tool box, they just get the owner to the place where they make their money. Thats why high milers often look and feel fresher than low-milers, because owners invest in maintenance to protect their income.

Check the service history/garage for clutch, timing belt, dpf and any other major costs. If it’s due a belt change it’ll probably need tensioners done too as they most likely won’t have been done previously.

Take it for a good long test drive. Check for length of throw on the clutch. Any reluctance to go in or out of gear probably means a new release bearing, so new clutch anyway. If it has service history and has had reglar oil changes and those big services items are accounted for I wouldn’t bee too worried about the figure on the clock.