(iSeeCars) — When it comes to buying a car, you want your new used car to give you thousands or tens of thousands of miles of trouble-free transportation. And common sense seems to suggest that the fewer miles a used car has, the longer it will serve you faithfully. But with used car prices at all-time highs, a higher-mileage car may fit your budget better.
Is buying a high mileage car a good idea? And since higher mileage usually equals an older vehicle, how old is too old for a used car? Is the correlation of lower miles equals a better car a hard and fast rule to live by? The real answers to these questions are a bit more complicated than they seem. There are exceptions, and they are not always obvious.
All of which begs the obvious question: How many miles should a used car have, anyway?
To give you a better idea of what your ideal used car mileage might be, and why it’s a difficult metric to measure, and when a high-mileage car might be the best buy, we’ve done the research and broken down the facts . All of the following are worth considering the next time you shop for a car at your local dealership:
Use and abuse
All cars are driven, but the line between used and abused is fine. Some owners are so fanatical that they will keep every receipt related to their car, whether it’s oil changes, gas fills, or car washes. Others will only be aware of the need to service their car when warning lights start flashing on the dashboard.
Most people will fall on the spectrum between these two extremes. But when there are two similar cars with different mileage, you should choose the better maintained car over the lower mileage car. Of course, there is a limit to this: a car with 30,000 miles is superior to one with 300,000 miles. But if the gulf in mileage is only ten or twenty grand, would you prefer the unkempt car with lower miles or a more pampered one?
To get an idea of a car’s maintenance and service history by its previous owner, the best resources are actual receipts for services performed or a record of repairs performed. If these maintenance records aren’t available, and it’s not uncommon for them not to be, a Carfax or Autocheck vehicle history report will reveal any known service record history on your report. These reports will also indicate any previous accidents, which is another thing you want to avoid regardless of mileage. Feeling confident about a car’s history can be more important than any other factor, including the number of miles on the odometer. Many iSeeCars used car listings link to free Carfax and Autocheck reports. To complement these vehicle history reports, iSeeCars offers everything you should know about a used car, including price analysis, listing history, and projected depreciation with its free VIN Checker tool.
And don’t discount simply looking under the hood to assess a car’s condition. If you pull the dipstick and see that the oil is dark and muddy, it should be changed. Cracked belts and hoses are probably past their prime too. Cloudy coolant is equally concerning. All of these signs point to poor maintenance and excessive wear and tear, and that can mean additional headaches down the road (for a more comprehensive guide to inspecting a used vehicle and what you should check for on your test drive, check out what to search). when buying a used car).
unused
On the other side of all this is disuse. Sometimes a car is almost useless, and spends most of its life gathering dust in some garage. Finally, when this car hits the market, the used car owner will likely try to get top dollar thanks to its abnormally low mileage.
At first glance, it seems like the premium would be worth it – how often can you find a like-new example of an old, discontinued car? For those who swear by a certain product, think loyal Town Car buyers or diesel truck buyers, this find seems like a godsend.
But there is a catch. When a car sits for an extended period of time, certain parts will break. Rubbers, seals, and gaskets are a perfect example of this: given enough time, these flexible components will become brittle and ineffective regardless of use. It’s not uncommon for a car with unusually low miles to leak after being suddenly pressed into daily service, thanks to the failure of these rubber parts.
The irony here is that if the car had been driven regularly, this might not have been a problem – the process of thermal expansion and contraction when an engine is running, along with the light lubrication of any passing fluid, could to have extended the useful life of these. rubber bands
This particular concern is only relevant to older but very low-mileage cars – think a ten-year-old car with only 30,000 miles or less. These are rare finds and still worth buying if you have a soft spot for a certain make and model, but beware of the potentially expensive fixes that can be hidden in an underused car.
Excessive use
You also want to be wary of a newer car that has racked up mileage well beyond the national annual average of 12,000-15,000 miles per year. Any car that sees such serious annual mileage means the driver was doing significant seat time. It’s inevitable that racking up miles on this clip means more maintenance will be needed sooner rather than later.
You might be able to pick up a car with more miles for cheaper, but it also means you’re a lot closer to major service for things like timing belts, cooling systems and brake pads. Maintaining these systems isn’t cheap, and it’s an expense that can be deferred if you buy a car with fewer miles.
Vehicle age: How old is too old for a used car?
It’s worth reiterating that the average annual mileage for a typical traveler is 12,000-15,000 miles per year. That means a five-year-old car is probably sitting on 60,000 to 75,000 miles; a ten-year-old car also shows 120,000 to 150,000 miles on the odometer.
At some point in a car’s life, unexpected repairs will begin to occur with increasing frequency. There is no hard age or mileage for this to happen, but it often happens when the car is 8-10 years old and reaches 100,000-120,000 miles. This is inevitable: engineers can’t build cars to last forever. If there’s a certain age or mileage to avoid, it’s the decade-old car whose odometer reading is already showing six figures.
Mileage and vehicle age are indelibly linked, but just like mileage, there is no single right answer as to what is a good age for a used vehicle. In general, you want the newest car that your budget can afford. But the usual used car considerations persist: if there’s a car that’s a year or two older than you’d like, but has been well maintained and never been in an accident, it’s a better buy than a newer car that has suffered an accident or been poorly maintained. . As always, general condition is paramount.
Highway miles versus city miles
Another thing to consider is the type of mileage a car has accumulated. For example, a car sold new in a New York City neighborhood will have a much harder life than one sold new in, say, rural Arizona. Because? That New York car will hit potholes and pass traffic in its rush to go from light to light. The Arizona car will likely cruise serenely over the smooth asphalt that winds through the desert.
In all likelihood, the car in a rural area will accumulate more kilometers than one in a densely populated city. But those desert miles represent good mileage—mileage that piles up with a certain ease not found in city driving. The reason for this is the same reason marketers like to brag about highway miles in their advertising: an open road with no turns to contend with or traffic lights to slow down for is the least stressful scenario for an automobile. . It is also the stage that accumulates the fastest mileage.
City cars other than taxis or ride-sharing vehicles will likely drive well below the national annual average of 12,000 miles per year. But they will wear out more quickly thanks to the nature of urban conditions compared to cars that largely see long road trips.
The bottom line
Mileage should be considered as a critical factor among many important factors when buying a used car. You want the lowest mileage car you can get that has been regularly serviced, never been in an accident, and has been used regularly. Sometimes that criteria means passing on the lowest mileage car you find. That’s all right. More miles won’t kill a car, but previous neglect will.
Shop smart and buy the nicest car you can find and you’ll get many thousands of miles of happy motoring.
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This article, How many miles should a used car have? originally appeared on iSeeCars.com.
