Higher mileage vehicles. How high is too high when buying? Suggestions?

[RazorsEdge]

I was thinking about buying a used 2011 Murano for a work vehicle during the winter myself. It's has 98,000 miles on the vehicle. In my mind, I think I could get another 100,000 miles out of it,but unsure if anyone has been changing the cvt transmission fluid.

Used car marketplace is crazy.

 

[ecotourist]

I prefer a front wheel drive vehicle with a manual transmission and snow tires in snow. You know what gear you're in because you put it there. With snow tires on all 4 wheels you can go through anything you aught to be driving on.

If you want to learn how to drive a manual in snow head over to a parking lot in the early morning hours (before there are many vehicles there) after a snow storm. Drive around a little. It'll take you only a few minutes to figure it out.

One of my least satisfying drives ever was the test drive of a small Mercedes with a turbo (I think) and an automatic transmission. On hard acceleration on pavement I could not figure out what was happening - engine roaring? turbo winding up? transmission downshifting? wheel spin? or what? I couldn't imagine driving that thing on snow. With a manual transmission at least I always know what gear I'm in.

 

[FZ1]

I’m looking for a cheap winter vehicle, something auto, awd maybe Subaru or a Kia/Hyundai suv…

The “issue” is price vs miles…
maybe I should look at other brands?

A couple suvs I ran across a Hyundai Veracruz with over 250k miles are asking 4k, another one a 2012 Kia Sorento with almost 300k miles seller is asking $4100..

So I looked at Subaru and found a 06 Subaru Legacy with 308k miles for $1800

While browsing though a really odd one popped up it was 2012 Suzuki Kizashi - 165k miles awd and 1500 bucks.

I will only use this vehicle for the winter months. it won’t be a daily for the other three seasons of the year so I’m not looking to spend big money.

at 300k miles I would assume everything has been rebuilt and replaced? I’ve never had a 250-300,000 mile vehicle so I’m kind of clueless on what to expect in that regard. I’m sure issues like sensors, check engine lights, tire lights, and other lights will be the norm, along with a little rust but still should pass inspection or is that asking for too much?

At what miles should I just “pass on it”?

And what’s up with the awd Kizashi ? is that a problem on wheels? I’m seriously contemplating it but i would hate to pick up someone’s else’s issues on a vehicle that might be impossible to get parts for?

Suggestions on high mileage but still some what affordable awd vehicle? Maybe 2003 or newer, no trucks or body on frame vehicles. A wagon would be cool, or a small/medium size SUV. I’ll throw out a number $2K but flexible if it’s worth it.

Thanks!

Different strokes. Potential to incur lotsa costs with an additional old car with unknown problems, insurance, etc. .02

 

[MotorFan]

$ 4000 is way too much $ to spend to play Russian Roulette, a brand new Glock 19 is only about $ 600.

 

[JC1]

The Kizashi was the last of the Suzuki models imported to the US that were manufactured in Japan. It was a very good car, as were all of the Japanese built Suzukis. The reason that Suzuki fell in the US was because of the very poor quality of the Korean produced models from Daewoo, and the rebadged GM vehicles. Suzuki got a bad reputation because of these vehicles and nobody wanted to buy them.
Suzuki is still building and selling vehicles, a LOT of them, they have 46% of the India auto market. It is because of this that Toyota has recently gotten in bed with them.

My BIL has a KIzaahi. It's a good car, he's never had any major issues. The problem would be parts availability especially body parts etc of it would need them. You probably won't find much at the scrap yard if you needed something.

If you see enough repair parts like brakes etc and you are ok owning a car that may be harder to sell when the time comes, then go for it.

 

[turboseize]

An ideal high mileage vehicle would be single owner, not too old, mostly highway mileage, with good maintenance records. Age eventually kills everything. I've seen Honda Odyssey's go for 500K+. You want the salesman's car who covered hundreds of miles a day, or someone with an exceptionally long highway commute.

Back in the day, we'd get 2-3 yr old cars with just over 100K, and they looked nearly new.

This.

Cars age just like humans: as an indicator of health, how many years you've already spent on earth is less important than how you have spent them (octogenarians aside). At my old place of work I had a co-worker that every new young male employee would try to flirt with. (For the record: I did not, because I was already married and my wife would have killed me.) She was in her early fifties! But she was fitter and looked better than 90% of the staff, including the girls in their twenties and early 30s. Her secret: she had never smoked, drank alcohol only very rarely and in very sensible amounts, ate healthy with lots of vegetables and fruits and sufficient protein; she commuted to the office by bike, worked out in the gym regularly and practiced yoga daily.
Looks aside, she also was an absolute tank. The amount of work she did - and did well, and the success she had in bullying other people to get their **** together (read: the art of project management...) - was phenomenal. Nobody ever believed her when she told her true age.
Take care of yourself, and chances of staying in a presentable shape and of preserving your mental and physical performance are much higher than you think.

And the same is true for cars. I've experienced a lot of high-mileage cars that drove absolutely fine and were ridiculously reliable. I've seen engines open after 400,000km that were exceptionally clean and whose wear measured within tolerances for a new engine. I've also seen engines completely sludged up at less than 100.000km, with seized camshafts, worn bearings, worn cylinder liners etc.
How a car is driven and how it is treated is much more important than how many miles it has run. Also keep in mind that a lot of things fail not with mileage, but with age - or heat cycles. After 20 years, chassis bushings and rubber hoses on a low-mileage car will be as brittle as in a high-mileage car that has covered double, triple, quadruple the distance. In not to few cases, these parts in the high-mileage car will actually be better, because they already have been replaced at least once.
Thus, I do not care about mileage at all when buying a car. I care about a car's history and about it's current condition. The number on the odometer may offer some hints in thus regard, but that's about it.

 

[atikovi]

I got my eye on this Toyota Avalon selling tomorrow,