What do you think of a 9 year old "new" vehicle?

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2008 Scion xB

Never put into service, has 1,131 miles. Is the warranty good from the date of purchase by the first retail owner? Has the warranty been compromised by the lack of service?

A 9-year-old new vehicle, interesting.
 
I have a lot of experience with all sorts of vehicle Les that have had stupendously low usage over many years. Cars, boats, heavy equipment, RVs, etc.

I have one thing to say about these machines:

Run.

Sitting around without being used is not good for machines. Once you start using them frequently, all of the monsters are going to come out of the cracks.

Rather have one with 80k miles on it.

In the world of automotive appraisal, a car's value is inversely proportional to the amount of miles it has, but reality doesn't always agree.

One of my first jobs as a teenager was taking care of a warehouse full of 18-20 super survivor (108-2031 miles) muscle cars and "modern classics". Fuel lines opening up for no God given reason at all. Brake seals, oil seals, and batteries doing the same. Any diaphragm was always up for grabs. Anything that was supposed to move just might not anymore. Electrical issues nobody could explain the cause of.

RVs were the worst. 10 years old and 11k miles. Oh boy! Nicer they looked for their age, more issues they seemed to have.
 
It has about 125 miles/ year on it. Was it driven a little bit each year, or was it driven for maybe a month then parked and sat still? I don't think the car simply sat still for 9 years. Can you gather some background info on its usage? If it was driven even 100 miles/year, that would be enough to keep things moving. If so, I would buy it.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
2008 Scion xB

Never put into service, has 1,131 miles. Is the warranty good from the date of purchase by the first retail owner? Has the warranty been compromised by the lack of service?

A 9-year-old new vehicle, interesting.


It's listed as used and no warranty.
 
The warranty is in effect but powertrain expired by time so that idea thrown out the window. Maybe a small warranty like air bags or rust is still in effect.

The asking price $12,900 is stupid for this likely $15,000 new MSRP. But there are idiots out there who think low miles despite years blind them into buying. Especially the buyer interested in this type of weird car. A USA Toyota exec had right reaction when the Scion xB was introduced to them, "When do the clowns jump out?".
 
I'd consider it a 9 year old used car or demo, and price it accordingly, if I were to consider buying it. If I liked the car I might even pay a slight premium, slight, but that's about it.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
Scion's are made by Toyota but they have had a very poor record for longevity and consumption of oil. This list goes on. I'm a big Toyota fan but I wouldn't touch a Scion. Besides that car is butt ugly. https://www.carcomplaints.com/Scion/


And that alone is reason enough not to by this car.
 
Not sure about the reliability, but those XB's had a lot of legroom for a small car and did real well with MPG. A very practical vehicle.
 
My brother is a mechanic and also flips used cars on the side. He said he puts way less effort and money into the cars that average 15-20k a year with someone who does maintenance vs. Granny who puts 1500-2000 miles per year and does maintenance only when something breaks. Plus he actually is able to sell the higher mileage cars for a decent price... he recently sold a 1999 Civic with 283k and no rust for $2200 and it ran like a top.

Perfect example: my grandma bought a 1991 Lumina brand new. Garage kept all its life. She passed in late 2007, the car had about 3100 miles total and less than about 500 miles in its last two years. It needed all new injectors, a fuel pump, brake lines, at least one caliper froze, I'm sure it needed intake gaskets, etc.... it was a mess. He ended up selling for about $1300, which was probably way less than the time, effort, and parts it took to even make it halfway reliable at that point. But boy, was it cherry to look at!
smile.gif
 
My brother in law picked up an interesting car in this case. A 2015 Golf TDI brand new in 2017 with under 75 miles with a factory backed extended warranty as long as VW has them for under $17k with 0% financing included too. It retailed in mid $20's.

He really likes this car as 45 min each way commuter and the associated 50MPG. His previous ride was Corolla so massive comfort upgrade.
 
Test drove one. Not a great car. Bought a Yaris instead.
Interesting concept with the big Camry engine, Cool dashboard, vanagon-esque capability but it somehow doesn't come together as a good vehicle. Fair at best fuel mileage too.

The The Previous generation with small engineand tossable chassis was the better car.

Run away from this.

I Do like the dashboard with the "Rally" Gages though:)

 
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I spend a lot of time looking at and reviewing GM muscle cars for sale/purchase from 1998-2004. And as a rule, regardless of how low the mileage, they don't have problems. I communicate with original owners who take out their toys out a few times each year, and no problems. I've purchased several 20K-30K miles cars the past 15 years, all were at least 8-12 years old when I bought them. They operated flawlessly for years. My current daily driver was bought with 22K miles at 7 yrs old. Now has 79K miles. No "surprise" issues from the car having been driven so little early on. I'd have no qualms buying a 1K-10K mile/10 yr old car as long as I know it wasn't always short tripped 1-4 miles at a time. All that said, this Scion doesn't impress me. And maybe 1K is just too few miles for a soon to be daily driver. With an MSRP around $16K, I could see a truly collector car fetching $12K or so. For this thing maybe half to two thirds the MSRP. I paid around 40% of MSRP for my 1999 SS when it was 13 yrs old with 12K one owner miles....not a drip of anything, anywhere...and putting about 1,000 miles on it per year.

Thousands of high end car collectors covet cars with 100-1,000 to even 5K miles. The pay huge premiums and the low mileage doesn't deter them in the least, especially on cars built in the last 20 yrs. If these cars were all just waiting to puke fluids everywhere and live short mechanical lives, these guys wouldn't buy them in the first place.
 
The seller also rebuilds and restores cars. There are six records on the Autocheck report but the seller won't allow public access to the report. You have to pay for it yourself. Hopefully it wasn't flooded then "restored". I would bet there's a story with the car and prob not a good one. As mentioned cars are meant to be driven. Just like people need exercise or problems start happening.
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
A 9-year-old new vehicle, interesting.


Looks like it was built in July of 07, so over 10 years old.
 
I posted this because it was interesting that is, out of the ordinary and far enough out that I would never consider it unless it was a screaming good deal. This one is not. Also, as pointed out this year was a problem year for some reason with many, many more complaints than almost any other year.

I purchased a 1st generation xB a few weeks ago after a lot of research and hunting around. It's a 2006 with 131K miles and a good service record.

This is my substitute for the older VW bus's that I used to buy, fix up and drive. The collectors drove me out of my hobby. I owned 11 of them over the years from a 58 to a 79. The 58 23 window was purchased in about 1975 for $1,000 in complete condition down to luggage racks and owner's manual, and drivable. I did a complete restoration down to the last detail, found the tool kit, owner's documents, used original NOS everything. There was no body filler or rust. I later sold it for $50K in the 80's after winning awards for best VW at several car shows. The buyer just approached me at a car show with cash and offered me more than I would have ever asked. About 15 years ago it sold at Barrett-Jackson for $128K. The seller did nothing but detail the bus before the auction. The bus is now in a collection in Japan.

The collectors took my hobby away so I chose the 2006 1st generation xB and feel comfortable that this won't happen with my current selection, ever. There's no way to explain the 1st generation xB. You either like them or most often hate them. You can't justify owning an 11 year old self propelled shipping crate just like there's no way to justify owning and driving an old VW bus.
 
Originally Posted By: JohnnyJohnson
Scion's are made by Toyota but they have had a very poor record for longevity and consumption of oil. This list goes on. I'm a big Toyota fan but I wouldn't touch a Scion. Besides that car is butt ugly.

https://www.carcomplaints.com/Scion/

Scions are built just as good, and are just as reliable, as any other car built by Toyota.
The problem with these cars is... who they were marketed to, and who actually drove most of them... teens and twenty-somethings. Also, many of the cars were purchased FOR the drivers (not BY the drivers) and many of those drivers didn't take care of them, abused them, and crashed them. Millennials have grown-up in a disposable society and many of them don't really understand the concept of taking care of something and making it last, especially if they themselves didn't pay for it. It doesn't matter how good a vehicle is, if you abuse and/or neglect a vehicle you WILL destroy it! I have had to beat this concept into my kid's heads. The worst used Scion models that I have seen are the tCs, most of which driven by young girls in their late teens and early twentys (and their boyfriends). It doesn't help that some repair/body shops take advantage of them. For this reason, most used Scions are bad investments IMO. Used Honda Civics (especially the coupes) also suffer from this same problem.

When it comes to the age vs miles argument, vehicles also wear out due to age, not just miles.
My advice when it come to this sort of thing is... when comparing two vehicles selling for the same price, assuming that both vehicles were regularly/properly maintained, IMO a 3 year old vehicle with 90k miles would be a better investment than a 10 year old vehicle with 30k miles (not to mention safer). Warm-up cycles are the key here. 90% of a vehicle's mechanical wear occurs during the first 10 minutes of operation after an engine is started cold. If that 30k vehicle was driven daily, it was driven almost entirely in the city and it was NEVER fully warmed-up! On the other hand, the 3 year old 90k vehicle driven daily has had less than a third of the warm-up cycles, has had a higher percentage of highway miles, and IT will actually be the better vehicle mechanically, and the better investment.
 
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