2005 Astra estate, 21033 miles on the clock.
It was a company car for the 1st 7000 miles of it life, the next 14000 miles of its life were put on by an old dear in her 80s!
The car is immaculate, very well looked after, full independent service history and drives like a new car.
Is it worth a punt or should I run away?

Since when has 2005 been old?!
Check for clutch wear, stereotypical but true. Give it a good thraping too.

Check the items that should be serviced after a period of time, not milage have been done. For example some cam belts should be done every three years if the mileage interval has not been reached.

Also check the tyres. They may have deteriorated over time despite the low mileage.

No need to run away if you are careful and don’t mind owning/driving a Vauxhall. 😀

Petrol/Diesel and price?

When you say full independent service history, what exactly does that mean?, has it been serviced every year or on mileage?
@21,000 miles in 8+ years should have had at least 6 services and one cam belt change, I’m not up to date with the service requirements for that model.
Also has it been checked for any outstanding recalls that Vauxhall would know about, but the independent garage might not?
Low mileage vehicles aren’t always the holy grail people make them out to be, lack of use can cause issues just too.
A good provable by the book service history counts for a lot no matter what the mileage is.

you’re guessing whether its been used infrequently, or whether for 9 years of being started everyday and run cold for 2 miles to the shops – left to cool then started and run cold for 2 miles back.

But that said – my 05 astra van has 150,000 more miles on it than that and is fine

has it been serviced every year or on mileage?

indeed – a friend inherited a v low milage escort from an elderly relative. Hardly any miles but the bonnet release mechanism corded solid because it had hardly ever been opened. Time passes for all the rubbers and plastics, and pipes, and seals, and clips ,and radiators, and gaskets, and bushings, regardless of the miles

As above 2005 is not old, but I’ve owned 15.odd low mileage but over 10 year old cars which all needed constant work. I now have a 7 year old car on 165k which has been faultless since I got it 20k ago. The only lesson I’ve learned is go Japanese.

05 Astras have a pretty big oil change interval anyway, think its 2 years or 24k.
Be a good buy I reckon, if the price is right of course. I wouldn’t necessarily pay more just because it had a low mileage, it is stil la 8/9 year old car.

Check the tyres and belts for cracks. Plus check if the brake fluid and so on has been changed during those services.

The car is a 1.6 petrol.
Asking price is £6500.
Servicing has been done yearly rather than miles.
I’ve had a really good poke around under the bonnet, all hoses/belts look healthy with no cracks, same with the tires.
I gave it a good thrashing whilst test driving it and all seemed well.
Vauxhall recommend a cam belt change every 80000 miles or every 8 years, whichever comes 1st. Its yet to have a belt change so may be able to use that to batter the price down a bit.

£6500!

At that price not a frigging chance.

You could get a much newer car with similar miles for that money

6500 buys some nice cars.
The low mileage stuff I’ve had goes wrong just as much as the cheap banger hi mileage
Just different things

Didn’t Vauxhall change it to 40,000 on the 1.6?

I wouldn’t pay anything like that for a nine year old car unless it was something desirable.

A nine year old petrol Astra for £6.5k!!!! Too lazy to check prices but that sounds like £3.5k tops to be honest. Walk away.

Vauxhalls of this era had tensioners that were made from cheese so the cambelt needs changing every 40k with a complete cambelt kit. We were told by Vauxhall to ignore the 60k interval for the cambelt and bring it in at 40k to get the company zafira done. I would definately put this in your costs. Even with the low mileage 6.5k is a hell of a lot of money for a 9yr old vauxhall. Look and see what 6k can get on autotrader then haggle like mad if the dealer won’t budge I’d walk away.

Quick look on eBay would seam the average price would be £1500/£2500 for an average car. Can’t see how it could be worth more than £3500 no matter how low mileage was.

How much!?!

Is that for a twin pack?

I’d not walk away from a low-mile car but the trouble is people think it’s a selling point so they’re often too expensive.

The 2005 1.6 astra estate was super thirsty on fuel having had 2 and access to another 3 from my exemployer on the motor way we were lucky to be getting 35mpg. and the tax is quite high too.

according to a few of my friends in the industry a car such as an astra holds its value best doing 6000 to 8000 miles a year, and all of them stay away from cars with a lot less avarage miles on them for the fact that the chances are its been doing short cold runs.

Is that British or Egyptian pounds?

Someone’s seeing you coming for 6500 I would be paying no more than 2500 irrespective of mileage, I bet it was only 10k new and vauxhall a are not exactly known for keeping residuals

My stepdad has a 28k miles 91′ Fiesta.
It’s engine is fine but it’s a complete knacker.

6500? No. Not a chance.

If you said 3k.

Does it book that high? Doubt it. Full indie history? 😆 thats a new one. Almost estate-agent creative 😀

For 6.5k you could get a decent MKV Golf.

Got to be a BOGOF 😉

u could get a brand new zafira for £2.5 k more

Struggling to believe this is genuine. £6500 is a ludicrous amount for a 2005 Astra, whatever the mileage. Why would anyone not look the price up and realise how ridiculous it was?

We paid £6,500 for our top of the range 2005 Zafira……… In 2007

I inherited some time ago (around 2008) a year 2000 w reg polo (6n2) from my great aunt who had only covered a poultry 1000 miles but with full history (an annual service). It was immaculate.

But only valued at £1000 over book price at the time.

So I really wouldn’t be pleased at that price for an Astra!

Regarding the price, it appears misleading as I’m not in the UK but Sweden! £6500 is the going rate out here for either a high mileage 08-10 car or a low milage 05 car! 2nd hand prices out here are roughly double the price of UK cars
I was mainly seeking info on whether a low milage 9 year old car was worth a risk compared to a newer higher milage car.
That’s the painful thing about being out here, knowing that if I was still living in the UK, this car would less than half the price of this one.

Has it been stored inside or out? Has it been plugged in over the winter to a block heater. Still expensive for Svenska, get onto Blocket 😆

2005 Astra estate, 21033 miles on the clock

The in laws have an 03 Astra it’s done 36k or something like that

The car is immaculate, very well looked after, full independent service history and drives like a new car

Yup that’s it

It spends weeks on the drive while they use their free bus passes and the rest of the time it’s in airport car parks while they go on month-long holidays

Wouldn’t give them £6.5k though. Couple of k maybe 2.5

my friendly garage man (Dan Tomson; Tomson Motor Co.) used to very much poo poo the notion of low mileage as being the holy grail – as you said really, equates to little old ladies pooling to the shops and back (basically what happens with our car these days)..

contamination in the exhaust, clutch wear, battery — they react badly to high usage relative to the mileage.

He used to point to some Golf GTI that was in for service; was ragged down to Italy every other month, had 150 000 miles on the clock and apart from stone chips on the lead bumper, reckoned it would be the better bet..

My dad has an 11 year old diesel corsa, 5 door, 31000 miles, looks like an drives like new and been serviced when it should have been, he just traded it in for a new Kia and he took £1500 for it, I do think he might of got more for it on a private sale, but I’m like him know nowt about cars

I’d probably rather have a higher mileage car that’s been serviced properly.

On an old low mileage car there’s probably plenty of perishable parts that haven’t been replaced. On the high mileage cars there’s probably new parts been fitted.

2.5k is about right. I would be inclined to come to UK buy a Volvo and take it home on the ferry.

(Surely with such a price difference in cars there is money to be made?)

I bought an 8 year old Peugeot 306 Hdi estate 5 years ago, had 33k on the clock, FSH, one owner from new. I’ve still got it, put another 130k on it. A lot of that mileage towing trailers, so I’ve worked it. Cost me £3.3k, been excellent value, all I’ve had is regular servicing costs and age related running repairs.

The age isn’t the issue, it’s just is it a reliable motor.

Try and find out what the use pattern is.

If its start-shops-stop then I would avoid. IMO, etc.