Thread: Vehicle age Vs Kms

Many newer cars have their first big - read expensive service at around 100,000km. I would take a newer higher km car that has had this service over an older lower km car that has not had this service subject to no other issues with either car.

Garry

It depends on the vehicle and the condition its in.


High Km units that are young have generally done a lot of highway work and if you know where to look you can spot a vehicle thats like this.

worse are the lower KM older vehicles that have had plenty of stop start driving these are the ones that are most likely to turn into a maintenance nightmare.

What kills modern cars as much as distance is heat stress. Hard work in hot weather, towing, city commuting, parking in the full sun etc will kill a car much more quickly than long gentle country miles. My brother bought a cheap VT Commodore for his son with 220 000km on it, it was a beauty showing virtually no heat damage to critical plastic items. The only casualty was a failed diff, easily replaced.

Another thing to watch is the timing between services if you go for the older vehicle with the low k's.Some people only service by the K's,which is not what is needed.

My brother still has his D1 that had 80k on it at 24months old,when he bought it.Has now clocked just over 330k,and has hardly had an issue.

Hi,

x2 for what CraigE said.

A similar example I have seen is Hyundai vs Subaru.

Both good first cars (depending on models etc) but I have had a few Subarus go 300+k, and up to 15 years old, and the poor old Hyundais are past it at 150k and 10 years.

No doubt others may have the opposite experience!

I reckon the variables include: model, body type, original cost, forum advice (good or bad ), engine type, service history, previous ownership, previous location, service availability, options (or mandatories - eg, expensive windscreens), age, price, mileage and personal preference.

Cheers,

Gumnut

Originally Posted by Gumnut

but I have had a few Subarus go 300+k,

Absolutely - Mum's subaru (now just a second car) has 368,000Km on it, and nothing had gone wrong with it until just recently. Did what I thought was a head gasket, but it had split in one of the bores. I have freshened up the heads, and just need to get another bottom end for it - which is $200 from Japwreck, so easy and cheap to get going again.

i always believe when you by second hand be prepared to spend a couple of thousand dollars over the next 6 mts or so , so which car has the cheapest spare parts which car will be the cheapest to services so will it be cheaper to by second hand or will it be cheaper to by new

Hello from Brisbane.

My family were involved in the motor trade for years and the general rule of thumb in pre-two car family days was that an average car would run up around 20,000km per year (~12,000 miles). Anything above that was typically discounted as a trade (unless of course you were keen to deal or had loaded the up-front price a bit to keep the margin). With two cars in many families this level of use is not quite so common these days and maybe 12,000km might be closer to the average.

Anyway, under the old rule of thumb, your newer car (2008) at around 4 years of age would have been expected to have run up around 80,000km, whereas it has about 50% higher kms on it. So, it has been used. But, as others have also noted, it really depends on what it is and where and how it was driven. Long country miles on a Falcon or Commodore are obviously different to CBD miles on an Lada........... But then country cars can also have their issues, especially with the suspension if part of the running was on gravel.

I would personally go for a lower km car, but that's not everyone's' choice. What is true is that there is no shortage of used cars out there to pick from and unless you are in a terrible hurry to get something time is your friend.

Cheers,