Age vs Mileage.

[Da Game]

In 2001 I purchased a 1997 Q45 with 43K for a good price the dealer had all the service records. The car ran great for for 10 years (it still runs great). In Jan 2010 the wife was hit in the rear by a teen who only had his DL for a few days. When I went to the bodyshop to have it estimated for insurance, the gent to me the car had been hit before. He showed me the areas that was repaired. Well the Ins company totaled the car price to repair was more that the value. The dealer got it from an auction here in Illinois. I should have had the car inspected by an independent source. I didn't know better and if I did, I would not have paid the $200 anyway just to back out the sale.

So would you also include a FULL body inspection with the money out of your pocket? And if you do have the car inspected for mechanical problems would you pay again? So I learned if you buy use this comes to about $500 or so for peaace of mind. Better yet how many would go thru all this?

 

[addyguy]

Mileage today ain't what it used to be.

A car with 120k miles can be barely 'broken in', and easily do another 200k miles.

The reliability of modern cars is not even 'on the same planet' as it was 20-25 years ago.

 

[otis24]

Agree about 100k miles just being broken in. However, time continues to take its toll on some items (belts, hoses, etc) regardless of the miles accrued. I plan on driving my vehicle for 200k miles. My Impala only had 23k miles on it (37k now), but was put into service in January of 2005. No concerns about the engine, just want to make sure "all the other stuff" is taken care of so that it hits 200k with little to no out of pocket expense other than oil, gas and tires.

 

[Beachboy]

Lately, I've been having mixed emotions at how well to take care of my cars. My previous car was a '99 Mercury which I took excellent mechanical care of (not so much for appearance care) and put 325,000 troublefree miles on it. When I traded it in, it still ran like new, but I was just tired of it after 11 years and had the bug to buy brand new and shiny. Despite the excellent condition it was in, the dealer just gave me basically junkyard value without even driving it. Once he saw the odometer, all dealing was off. I'm backing off on the maintenance I'm giving my new car, as its obvious it doesn't pay off when I go to trade it in. The owners manual for my new car calls for no fuel filter changes or transmission fluid changes, and coolant replaced only after 105,000 miles. I don't know if fluids technology has improved that much since my last car, or what.

 

[otis24]

The payoff for maintenance was the you got "325000 trouble free miles" and eleven years of service instead of having to invest hundreds of dollars in repairs and having a vehicle that only lasted five years.