How high of KMs on an ODO is too high for you when buying used?

Split off from another thread, had me curious.

So, when buying a used vehicle, many of us use the ODO as a benchmark. Leaving behind documented maintenance as I have only come across someone having that ONCE in all my used purchases, where is your comfort level?

Personally, for me, my comfort line is 160,000kms when buying a used vehicle. Any more than that, and I usually get pretty uncomfortable with the purchase...But I am hearing from many others that their number is WAY higher...

so where is your line?

My line is anything over 100K

Depends on the vehicles purpose and price range.

If it's just a winter beater and $1-2000, the sky is the limit for me as long as it runs good.

Once you get into higher dollar amounts and if this is going to be your main vehicle, then it depends on your budget and accepting the year of the vehicle and mileage. Obvoiusly the lower the better but if you're buying a late 2000 model of whatever, the mileage is most likely going to be around 200k.

Like stated, for me depends on the kind of vehicle I am getting and the purpose. My own vehicle since I don't keep them for too long, I don't mind something with 30K-40K. The X5M I had picked up was 54K and that's probably the max I'd go for me.

Been looking at A4's or Q5's for the wife and since she's gonna keep it a long time, I am looking at no more than over 20K. So options are fairly limited to mostly brand new ones.

I have a HARD mental block at 100,000 KMS, even for my personal ownership (I.e. I will sell it around that point) and probably would never even look at anything used with more than 30-50K on it. I wouldn't even look at anything near 100,000 KMS because my filters would have removed it from my searches.

There are enough cars out there that I've never had trouble finding a low KM version of what I want for little to no premium. I often find high mileage cars overpriced unless they are very heavily discounted. That's the beauty of the used market, you can get a low mileage, fully optioned version of what you want for not much more than all the high mileage stuff, so the way I see it there is no point at looking at the high mileage stuff unless the discount is enormous.

From a sellers perspective, I'm glad not everyone thinks like me :D

It depends on the vehicle, use, age of the vehicle and the previous owner.

For example my 2002 Honda is hitting 321,00km and it runs fine. Other then wear and tear, the odd repair (i.e new brakes calipers). Engine itself is fine. I bought it at 212,00km.

When purchasing, looking at the previous owners will gives an insight on how the car was driven and cared for.

I would not bother with American, or German at that mileage though.

I also would be reluctant to buy a automatic transmission at a high mileage (250km) the exception being a Nissan Pathfinder or a Toyota Camry or even a Corolla. At that high mileage its usually about the engine and ease of repairs.

It all depends on the vehicle and price range im getting it at, I'd say 250 to 270 is my limit

Yea really depends on the vehicle.

ie: when looking at trucks I shy away from gas above 250k but a good Diesel engine like a 7.3 Ford is just getting started at 250k.


I find people that set a limit across the board regardless of make,model,engine don't really know anything about cars and/or don't wrench themselves.

I pretty much only shop for diesel trucks these days, but no mileage by itself is offside. The only thing that I would avoid is 2-4 years old with 120-180,000km. I feel like that's an area where there's a lot of depreciation and I don't want to start there.

I would have no idea how to shop for cars.

I would buy something in good condition with 150-200k but that car would have to be priced under 10k. I do not want to finance something with 150k.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by mzdspd
I would buy something in good condition with 150-200k but that car would have to be priced under 10k. I do not want to finance something with 150k.

---

Financing anything with significant kms sounds like a bad idea. You can't afford it new, can't afford it with 150k on it, maybe you just can't afford it period!

Diesels - don't care. :eek:

Otherwise I consider the 'life' on most vehicles around 200k. :dunno: I would buy anywhere below that and keep it until 200k kms.

hmm. just realized my lowest mileage vehicle is my '87 Iroc with 80k on it.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by CLiVE
Diesels - don't care. :eek:

Otherwise I consider the 'life' on most vehicles around 200k. :dunno: I would buy anywhere below that and keep it until 200k kms.

hmm. just realized my lowest mileage vehicle is my '87 Iroc with 80k on it.

---

U do rock if you rock an Iroc

Too many factors.

Mostly depends on cost. But also how the previous owner used the car (highway vs city), your usage of car and more.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by CLiVE

Otherwise I consider the 'life' on most vehicles around 200k. :dunno:

---

Many of my cars have 200K+ on them and I don't feel like there's any reason they won't go another 200K. The 944 chumpcar I race has 500K on the tub. On the other end of the spectrum, I just bought an S4 with 50K and had to change a wheel bearing on it right away.

I turn my own wrenches, so that probably changes my perspective. Stuff breaks on all cars, when it does I fix it. If I was paying for someone else to do the work, I might be more inclined to go lower mileage, but even still stuff breaks.

As others have said, it all depends on the vehicle and its purpose.

My Jeep has 240k. But it is an occasional vehicle in a summer, and my winter beater. I would never want 240k on my daily driver.

For that, my Infiniti is up to 126k and that is already getting on the high side for my liking.

100,000. 150,000 is where I sell usually. But lately , my new rule is one owner,60,000 or less.

Completely depends on the vehicle. My last used vehicle was a Tacoma with 160k, I didn't even bat an eye. Drove it for 2 years put another 50k on it and sold it for nearly what I paid for it. There's a handful of vehicles I'd buy with 150-200k and not worry much about

At a certain point the scary things in a high mileage vehicle will have been replaced. I'd be more uncomfortable with a lower mileage vehicle with expensive maintenance coming up, than a higher mileage vehicle that's had it done.

New vehicle? Under 60k.

Older vehicle (7+ years)? Under 160k.

Beater? Who cares.

...

One of my first vehicles was a 88 Toyota Camry and I drove it from 140k to 240k.

I don't think I will buy a used car with over 100k but I will keep driving one well over if I had it from day one.

I think when I bought my volvo it had 190k. I want to say that was probably not the best idea.

Will pass 500k on my 99 Sierra in the next few days, thing just keeps chugging along. I have had a number of domestics that have cracked 300k, only sold them when electrical gremlins started popping up.

One day I'll have a nice shiny low km vehicle like the rest of you!
I generally find I buy in the 100-150k zone for my personal car, which is usually a jap made. But I probably pay too much into the maintenance each time. oh well.
In the meantime:

Our '07 Legacy is still running strong with less maintenance work than I would expect. (220k). First spot of (visible) rust this year.
Lots of recalls this year though (3 so far)

However our '07 Saturn Ion (came with the gf) needs to die a quicker death (190k). In the last year or so I've had to fix or replace:
-Rear defroster
-Driver low beam (corrosion: re-solder)
-Rear driver power window: not functioning(motor)
-Front passenger window: no "up" action (cable re-solder)
-rear brakes kind of died (or as internet spells em: breaks)
-AC not functioning (haven't looked into this yet)
-coolant reservoir sensor malfunction
-blower fan (climate control)
-front control arms and bushings wore out
I'm sure there's much more I forgot, or haven't noticed yet.
oh right.. tranny. (and a year later, the same tranny)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by speedog
Will pass 500k on my 99 Sierra in the next few days, thing just keeps chugging along. I have had a number of domestics that have cracked 300k, only sold them when electrical gremlins started popping up.

---

Ah good!, this means my 330k '06 has a good chance to hit that high too. Except I doubt my interior will last that long.

My shop truck Sierra has close to 500k, keeps going strong too!

I personally put more emphasis on maintenance and use than mileage. Hourmeters are an excellent indication of use, had some low km trucks with ridiculous high hours before.

The only vehicles I'd be very careful buying with high kms are high performance vehicles (M cars, AMG etc) Had a friend with a S4 4.2 Audi that pitched it's timing chain at 120k, cost him close to 8K to fix that mess.

There was a guy in our Corvette club with a C6 that had close to 400,000 on it, was his daily and vacation car lol. He still had the original clutch/engine/trans, but the guy was ~70+ and drove like it too.

I think I mentioned this a few times, but that truck I bought last summer has 396,000 on it when I bought it, and only 402,000 when I sold it.

There is no hard line that I won't go past. However, it is a real bitch to sell things with over about 250,000 on them. That 402,000 truck wasn't a fun sale.

For me, I like to have one "reliable" vehicle in the house, and the wife drives that. Everything else can be beater status. Savage Honda Fit Recession Fighter has 171,000 on it, and the mileage doesn't worry me at all.

I bought my daily back in 08 when it had 400k on it. And it's sitting at 650k now, and I wouldn't hesitate to take it anywhere. Granted the body is far from minty. :burnout:

I want to see at least 30k a year - so a 10 yr old vehicle should have 300k. Any less and it's been infrequently used which seems to cause me more grief than higher km...

But I shop for vehicles outside the city looking for high mileage, as my best value... Lots of those can be found in the rural areas with commuter mileage - often with dealership service records dating back to new (love farmer record keeping)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by AndyL
I want to see at least 30k a year - so a 10 yr old vehicle should have 300k. Any less and it's been infrequently used which seems to cause me more grief than higher km...

But I shop for vehicles outside the city looking for high mileage, as my best value... Lots of those can be found in the rural areas with commuter mileage - often with dealership service records dating back to new (love farmer record keeping)

---

My first thought was holy crap that is a lot. But kinda makes sense when you break it down to a weekly average. Then you know they weren't driving it 5kms a day to work at minus 30 and it spent more time idling than driving.

I think 20K a year is considered average and I'd probably be comfortable with that. Just depends on the purpose etc, I personally would feel more comfortable with 10K a year for a high end vehicle.

If you are somewhat knowledgeable about cars and can do minor fixes I believe the below is reasonable.

Toyota - 250k...most can last up to 500+ if well maintained...seen some tacoma and land cruisers over a million.
Honda - 200k
Anything German - don't touch once over 100k unless you are planning to just flip it for profit
Anything domestic (except trucks) - nothing over 50k as they are POS's that fall apart. I would never suggest buying a domestic unless we are talking a $100k sports car as there is always something better in the same price range non-domestic.
Discount brands (hyundai/Kia) - see domestic...I would never buy one of these under any circumstance...POS.
Gas trucks - 150k
Diesel Trucks - 250

My dad was an auto mechanic at one point in his life so when I was growing up he drilled it into my head to avoid used cars over 100K when I was shopping for my first vehicle. Of course, I'm well aware modern cars are vastly more reliable than cars in the 60's and 70's as evident by peoples' experiences in this thread, but it's kind of the magic number that's been conditioned in my head.

Of course I don't think I can actually say it has to be under X kilometres, but more like under X/year. In my case, I'd probably be around 20K/year at the most and I'd never consider a used car older than 5 years anyways so I'd still be within my 100K limit, unless it was like a classic car, a really good steal, or something I wasn't planning on keeping very long. The fact of the matter is I just don't trust people I don't know, so I'm always suspicious they're trying to unload their problem vehicle onto me. I'm more likely to buy a new vehicle so I know the ins and outs of it from day 1.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by 2Legit2Quit
Depends on the vehicles purpose and price range.

If it's just a winter beater and $1-2000, the sky is the limit for me as long as it runs good.

Once you get into higher dollar amounts and if this is going to be your main vehicle, then it depends on your budget and accepting the year of the vehicle and mileage.

---

word for word, exactly this. To me it's really condition and how well it runs and relative to the year what the mileage is. If it's low mileage relatively speaking (like 5k km a year or something when the average is 25k km), good condition, runs well and is a decent price ... go for it.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by AndyL
I want to see at least 30k a year - so a 10 yr old vehicle should have 300k. Any less and it's been infrequently used which seems to cause me more grief than higher km...

But I shop for vehicles outside the city looking for high mileage, as my best value... Lots of those can be found in the rural areas with commuter mileage - often with dealership service records dating back to new (love farmer record keeping)

---

Yeah, rural vehicles are often fantastic values. But for someone who lives in the city (pretty inner-city as well) I have never in my life put 30,000 kms in a year.

Even my wife, who commutes across the city doesn't hit 20,000 per year.

For a city dweller, maybe if you live in Tuscany or Cranston . . . .

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Type_S1
If you are somewhat knowledgeable about cars and can do minor fixes I believe the below is reasonable.

Toyota - 250k...most can last up to 500+ if well maintained...seen some tacoma and land cruisers over a million.
Honda - 200k
Anything German - don't touch once over 100k unless you are planning to just flip it for profit
Anything domestic (except trucks) - nothing over 50k as they are POS's that fall apart. I would never suggest buying a domestic unless we are talking a $100k sports car as there is always something better in the same price range non-domestic.
Discount brands (hyundai/Kia) - see domestic...I would never buy one of these under any circumstance...POS.
Gas trucks - 150k
Diesel Trucks - 250

---

Just out of curiosity, why would you put Toyota above Honda?
I've always considered them to be in the same grouping with small variances. Since immigrating here I have noticed Toyota reliability is placed above Honda a lot of the time. I'm just curious why that is.

I put on just over 30k a year and my wife about 25k a year so in general because I like to keep a vehicle for 3-4 year I have never bought anything with over 20k on it.

My wife's last 3 vehicles have been brand new because he is a princess but at least they last 4-5 years with zero issues and can still be sold easily.

My last 4 vehicles I have purchased with 10-20k on them. Most recent one had 12k and was 9 months old. I have had it for exactly 2 years now and it is at 74k so one more year maybe.


On the topic of German/Japanese/American, I generally agree that really long term trouble free mileage is best with Honda/Toyota but beyond that I don't rate the Japanese any higher than a German or American car. All of my vehicles have been German or American with the exception of one Toyota Camry (purchased to drive lots of miles for work). And the Toyota was by far the worst. It was a 4 year old car that constantly had issues and the regular service cost more than anything domestic. I didn't even keep it a year. Likely I had a lemon, but I will still never own another Japanese vehicle.

Funny thing was a service shop I took the Camry to the owner told me they make most of their money off of people that own Japanese cars because so many are stupid. He said they all think they will run forever and spend a fortune to keep them running where he said any smart person would junk the cars long ago. lol

For a daily I was looking to buy, I would say below 160k, but preferably below 100k. For a beater it doesn't really matter. Personally, I would rather a car with 120k and in good shape with proof of maintenance than a car with 90-100k with no maintenance records by someone who didn't take care of it.

I wouldn't be totally against a car with 200k+ though if you're willing to turn a wrench. My cars (both import and domestic) have 260k and 330k now. Bought them with around 100k on them and it's all been typical maintenance and consumable stuff :dunno:

mileage is pretty irrelevant for me as long as she runs good and the price is right.

currently daily driving (80km round trip) a 1985 Mercedes 300D with 430,000kms and occasionally my 2006 Nissan titan with 316k (190k on the motor)


my last car was a 2007 suzuki SX4 with 340k on her when hail wrote it off.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by master hec0
mileage is pretty irrelevant for me as long as she runs good and the price is right.

currently daily driving (80km round trip) a 1985 Mercedes 300D with 430,000kms and occasionally my 2006 Nissan titan with 316k (190k on the motor)


my last car was a 2007 suzuki SX4 with 340k on her when hail wrote it off.

---

Late yesterday afternoon, treated the old beast to a car wash - automated but the paint on it isn't all that pristine any more...


» Click image for larger version

Quote:

---

Originally posted by schocker
I think when I bought my volvo it had 190k. I want to say that was probably not the best idea.

---

Why? Volvos are known to be one of the most reliable vehicles on the road period. You simply can't kill those things unless you never maintain them.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Shlade


Why? Volvos are known to be one of the most reliable vehicles on the road period. You simply can't kill those things unless you never maintain them.

---

kinda depends on the generation i'd imagine :) The newer high tech ones - definitely have a bunch of electrical snafus that can crop up.

Well, here's a thought expereiment for y'all that fits the OP's topic quite well.

When looking at used vehicles, it's common to find some with vastly different mileages. Particularly pickup trucks. Here's two actualyl pulled from kijiji tonight

Vehicle details are similar enough that they don't matter, let's assume they are same trim and same condition.

2012 Pickup with 300,000 kms listed at $17,900
vs
2012 Pickup with 200,000 kms listed at $21,000

Is that extra 100,000 kms worth the $3100? Would you think it's worth more or less?

I think they're priced too closely to go with the higher mileage one. I think it would be harder to get back out of it for $18k than the other one at $21k.

It would make the decision easier if they were different colors or conditions, but if they're identical I'd pay a little more.

I would pay more for the 200 for sure....that is a massive difference. To be honest though list price on Kijiji you can never tell. I've often time got 30%-50% off list price for vehicles on Kijiji for being in the right place/right time so who knows you might get the 200k one cheaper.

man, for 3100, I would get the lower KM one, especially for you.

You are gonna have a much easier time selling the one with 220k on it than the one with 320k on it.

It's a no brainer to me.:dunno:

Depends on the car. My Z has 450,000km on it and makes 545whp. My STI has 115k. I wouldn't buy a car with LESS than 80k on it

Thanks guys. Those particular trucks aren't going to be purchased by me, but something similar may be.

Would you go with the higher mileage one for $5k? $7k?

I know how hard it is to sell a truly high mileage vehicle, after my rodeo with that 400,000 km beast last year. I'm hoping to avoid it. I do find the psychology fascinating though.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Well, here's a thought expereiment for y'all that fits the OP's topic quite well.

When looking at used vehicles, it's common to find some with vastly different mileages. Particularly pickup trucks. Here's two actualyl pulled from kijiji tonight

Vehicle details are similar enough that they don't matter, let's assume they are same trim and same condition.

2012 Pickup with 300,000 kms listed at $17,900
vs
2012 Pickup with 200,000 kms listed at $21,000

Is that extra 100,000 kms worth the $3100? Would you think it's worth more or less?

---

I guess in this scenario I would pay the extra.
There vehicles are closely matched in price so its almost a no brainier in paying the extra.

But in other scenarios I would also be looking at the person selling the car. If its your regular bro dog or wohoo girl (lower mileage city driving) vs someone who appears to have their life together, has kept a recorded history but has a slightly higher mileage (highway driving). I'd go with the latter.

When buying my Sequoia, it seemed to work out to $1000 per 10,000 kms that I was willing to move so if one had 150,000kms on it and they wanted $25K, I would consider one with 200,000 kms for $20K or 250,000 kms for $15K.

I ended up doing a little better then that probably more like $1200/ 1000kms but the concept worked pretty good to decide if I felt things were a "good deal" or not

I hardly ever look at mileage as a sale factor. My M Coupe had 83,000 miles on it when I picked it up, and it has 162,000 miles on it now. There's very little reason why it shouldn't be able to double that with proper maintenance. I'm hoping it does! I'd love to have the highest mileage one out there.

i have seen a toyota/lexus with 480 k i believe still good

but you can get carefully used lightly used GM/ford etc cars with 50k that run perfectly fine but people will still go for higher mileage Japanese or Euro

I've got a supercharged BMW from 1997 with over 170,000 miles on the clock. Miles.

I was warned about it, you know, requiring a lot of work.

And sure, it's had various unusual problems requiring attention.

I wrench on my own vehicles though, and when it comes to a classic Bavarian, you literally save 50-90% in mechanic fees.

The vehicles drives amazing, and I honestly feel I'll have many more miles to go.

Of course, there will be numerous unusual fixes along the way, but I don't mind.

170,000 miles on the clock has only shown me that the number is meaningless in terms of determining the value of a car. It's all about history, maintenance, and care. These things are much more challenging to determine. But qualitative rationale often is.