Looking at buying a used car (probably a Mondeo estate, but not 100% sure). I’ve always been an advocate of buying a younger car with higher mileage, but looking around there are some cars with very high mileage which start to scare me. For example there’s a 4.5yo one with 60k miles which I feel might suit (my current car has almost 160k miles on, so I reckon I’ve got at least 100k miles to go on that). However I’m also seeing <3yo ones with 100k+ miles for less, but not so sure at that sort of mileage how soon I’m likely to start to get into use related failures. Am I being paranoid, and is the <3yo one with 100k actually a lot better value? Given that’s going to be lots of motorway mileage, presumably there isn’t actually as much wear as on something which has got that sort of mileage over a longer time (my current car was ~7yo when it hit 100k). Will a 3yo car with 100k+ miles happily go through 200k miles in another 8 or 9 years before things start going badly wrong?

I know a lot of it is psychological and I’m being paranoid, as I actually feel a lot happier about the idea of the 3yo one with 80k I found than ones a bit cheaper with 100k+, when realistically the difference between 80k and 100k is the same as the difference between 60k and 80k (and I’m not feeling the 80k one is any more of a mileage issue than the 60k one). However I’d welcome the real-world experience of anybody who has bought a car at 100k+ miles and then owned it for a significant amount of time/mileage.

Thanks chaps.

I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a young car that’s been racking up 25K/year, can be a bargain as long as FSH, ideally with a proper record of everything thats been done. Certainly rather that over something old but low miles (but sounds like you already subscribe to that).

Do your research and look for costly things likely to go wrong at some point. If they’ve been done recently, but not prematurely in the service history, thats piece of mind that you shouldn’t be paying for them for a while.

04 diesel mondeo at 167K btw. Only had it about 18 months but its been fine.

I always go the other way around. Slightly older but low miles.

My current car was 3 years old and 19,000 miles. Very reasonable as folk don’t like MOT’s. I’ve put 30,000 on in the last year and it’s just coming up to average miles.

Another year and I’ll px against something similar.

young cars with high milage is fine…..
old cars with low milage is a bad idea imo – usually all of the rubber has perished and will require replacing.

My Mondeo estate came with 85k at 4 years old. That’s actually pretty low mileage for one of them as 99.999% of them are bought new as fleet cars.

I’ve now put another 25k on it in 3 years and it been great VFM so far.

Depend’s how old they are, my car’s 6 years old with 56k, 24k of that is my miles in the last 12 months. I bought it knowing that by the time I sell it I’ll be luck if it’s still only got average miles on it. If I’d bought a normal miles car I’d have saved a few quid but I reckon I’d lose more in a years time trying to sell an 8/9 year old car with high miles, than an 8/9 year old car with average miles.

While young cars with big miles would’t scare me, they would if they were too much money – ie I wouldn’t pay +£10k for anything with +100k on it. Its too much of a risk, as if you’d only paid £2k and it goes pop, you can walk – but if you’ve paid +£10k…

Would always buy cars that are 3-5 years old and with 50-100k on the clock.
Cars tend to start die at 10+ years due to corrosion of suspension and brake lines and calipers etc (ie lots of stuff thats exposed to the elements).
A young car with stellar mileage may have a random engine or turbo failure, but with lean burn engines I think you are more likely to have problems with a 5 year old car with 10k on the clock from a pensioner than a 5 year car with 80k on the clock thats had regular use.

Check to see if whatever you’ve got has got a DPF or dual mass flywheel and the expected age/mileage for failure. Both = ££££

I’m not upto speed with Modern Mechanics like Dual Mass Flywheels etc, but about 10 years ago, I used to sell Saabs with 130k + miles that were 3 years old.

They never had a problem. It was just sat all day at Motorway speeds so not much wear to Gears, Clutch, Suspension etc and it was scary how cheap we bought them for, think they were £20 – £25k new and we got them through auctions for £4 – £5 k 😯

My 2 year old Fiesta has 51k on it and still drives well ( touch wood )

Got a 7 yr old touran with over 100k. Still feels more or less as fresh as when I got it at 20k 5yrs ago

What I found with my old Focus, was that at 10 years old and 90000 miles it had pretty average miles, but the age meant when it came to replacing wear items like wheel bearings etc, every bloody thing was hopelessly locked together and it was a nightmare to work on. Whereas my Mondeo had 100000 miles in 5 years, which means when stuff wears out it’s not had a decade to weld itself in, and no gas axe required.

YMMV of course but it’s a complex relationship, age and miles.

I bought an ex-police rover diesel back in the day, 79K in just under 2 years and I very much doubt that was mainly motorway driving. Cost me 4K when it’s list price was 12K.

It died at 217K when someone pulled out in front of me.

My only problem with buying new cars with stella mileage is that you might be stuck with a car that has an expensive problem (ie something electrical) that hasn’t yet become obvious yet (not sure if I’m getting my point over very well).

ie the DMF thing on new diesels – you’d have avoided a certain make because they are extra prone to that problem because there is a history of cars 4-6 years old that develop it, on a new car it might not have become obvious yet.

Now I have a mate that has bought his past three cars (two Audi A4’s and a VW Passat Estate) all three to four years old but with stellar (for me) mileage on the clock ie all over 100,000 miles. Yeah all looked nice and shiny and all had full history but all three in my opinion didnt drive as well as my 1998 Pasaat with 185,000 on the clock! Yes I bought my Passat at three years old with 48,000 on the clock for £7k with full service history etc etc but I have looked after it like it was a new car and it gets driven hard daily. It is actually more taught and better brakes than any of our fleet of 15 odd performance vehicles that I get to drive at work that are all less than five years old with less than 40k on the clock.
My mates cars two had dual mass fly wheel clutch replacements, the VW is plagued by ignition key problems and other electrical glitches.He bought all from auctions as one owner FSH.
For me its lowish milage one owner FSH and just pay an extra few quid and then service it yourself keeping to all oil specs etc etc etc and being fussy that the car is perfect mechanically (bodyworks is starting to go badly under roof rail mounts and front and rear windscreen apertures) but I think since 2001 my £7k aint done me bad at all…..
Company cars dont get looked after in my opinion like a privately owned motor.