Been keeping my eye out for a van and have found one that fits the bill. But its 3 years old and has 112k miles – is that a good or bad thing? I’d have thought they’d be largely motorway cruising miles so its still gonna be in good nic.

Whats the pit falls?

You will get a flood of people telling you that mileage is unimportant these days. They are lying.

I’d say it depends how many miles you are expecting to stick on it as to how it will suit you and how well it has been serviced. There are many things to look out for – vans can take a lot of abuse in 3 years. Oh, look out for timing belt (if it has a belt) replacement.

It may be fine, it may be a pig – best bet is to take someone with you who knows their stuff.

Just run in.
Make , model?
To clock up that sort of mileage it is unlikely to have any reliability issues. Or maybe its now in nead of something major doing to it, why is it for sale?
If it has been maintained / serviced correctly and if it is cheap then worth having a test drive to find out more. Maybe even find out what make / model it is.

£7k, Toyota Hiace SWB, 2.5TD.

Because of the mileage I’d be wanting to get down to £6k maybe.

vans are designed to be work vehicles. a friend of a fiend who is a mechanic reckons van mileage is 3x what you’d expect of a car.

ie. the average annual mileage is 3x more and a van will go on to do 3x more.

i was keen to get a low milage (30k) 3 yr old van. paid for it though.

What service record has it?

Only ask as a friend of mine is a mechanic and he once showed me the (lack of) servicing some van’s get – ie the lease company will only change/pay the filters every 2nd oil change etc.

Some of the ones he got were barely touched in their 100k/2 yrs.

Unless its stellar, I don’t think high mileage on a van is an issue as long as the servicing records are there and the price is right. It does depend on the van though, Sprinters, Ivecos and the like will go on forever and rust/abuse is usually their downfall rather than mileage related issues.

General condition is as good indicator as ever, if it looks abused no matter what it is it wont last. Hiace always looks like a solid van.
Suspension bushes and cambelt are likely to be the major things.

Look for a good servicing record.

I just bought an 8yo Honda Civic, 2.0L engine, done 81k miles. It has a good servicing record, purrs like a cat, minimal interior wear. I’m not worried as the last Civic I scrapped had done 198k miles without fault before the gearbox failed. I do ~15k a year so this car’s got years of driving in it yet.