Discussion What's a good mileage roughly to buy a used car?

200k cars are usually destined to cost more if your state has strict inspection requirements. For one, motor mounts are toast regardless of make at that mileage.

At 120k-140k, you have to factor in suspension repair and fluid renewal. The motor mounts might not be shot. Things like German luxury start acting up. For Korean cars, the life might be over in about 60k.

Indus said:

I've owned 4 cars.

1. Old Toyota Cressida 120,000 miles (ran really good for 7 years, nothing besides maintenance)

2. New Toyota Corolla (problems with sensors, leaks and strut mounts)

3. Certified Pre-owned Toyota Highlander bought at 41,000 miles (massive problems with sensors, electrical issues, mufflers, leaks)

4. Rusty old 2012 Ford Explorer with 131,000 miles (running good and no massive expenses besides maintenance, annual undercoat for rust and a strut mount)


So I have a theory that used cars maybe you get better value if they're in their 120-200k mile range as they've been driven a whole lot and have proven their reliability.

It's the 30-80k miles 2nd hand vehicles that scare me.

What do you think.. if you were in the market for a used car.. what mileage would you look at where you were comfortable purchasing a car?

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This theory makes absolutely no sense.

Personally I prefer lightly used cars, i.e. CPO. So 25k to 45k miles, tops. But it really depends on the make, and also one's budget. Used cars soared in value due to the supply chain locking up, and made it harder for people to buy an affordable car.

Keep in mind that 45k miles on a Toyota is basically nothing, so "it all depends." More importantly, did the first owner properly maintain the vehicle and keep detailed records? If so, a "high mileage car" can still be a safe purchase. Your theory kind of alludes to that; but in general, high mileage cars are more expensive to maintain and repair. Which is why they're cheaper to purchase.

I tend to think the opposite. Being a nerd, I think of a car as having two hit point bars - the "time" bar and the "health" bar.

The "time" bar is for stuff like rubber and plastic - stuff that will likely need to be replaced every X years no matter what. Timing belts, rubber boots, bushings, gaskets, that sort of thing. The "health" bar is for the durable metal components like the engine which, despite being durable metal, accrue a small amount of wear with each use regardless, and will eventually wear out. With regular maintenance and fluid changes, you "buff" the damage resistance for the health bar - making the durable components last longer. But they still wear out eventually.

With older cars, especially ones with multiple owners, you also often don't have complete maintenance records, so it's harder to know if that engine is more likely to explode on the way home or last another 100k.

The electrical gremlins you've experienced with your two Toyotas are pretty uncommon. For all that I and others may complain about too many "gadgets" on newer cars, most of the tech is actually pretty reliable, and Toyota is particularly conservative about it. But flood cars get passed off as used/CPO sometimes, and new cars often ship from the factory with a defective part or three - that's what happens when you build a car out of 10,000 parts from 100 subcontractors. That's also what recalls, TSBs, warranties and lemon laws are for. You put up with a little teething issue here or there, get things taken care of at the dealership during your regular maintenance appointments, and in return you usually get excellent reliability from 20k to 200k. Everybody I know has dealt with that to some degree, even with "reliable" brands. It's usually worth the annoyance though - once you get things settled in, a newer/lower-mileage car has a lot longer to go before something expensive breaks.

Anything covered with a factory warranty

Depends on budget, more ability to DIY repairs the older it gets, finding one well maintained, researching the issues specific to that make/model/engine/tranny, and getting a credible mechanic to do a pre-purchase inspection if it's worth more than you can afford to lose.

Vehicles over-built for commuter use tend to last longer when it comes to big ticket items like engine or transmission. Ideally I'd avoid vehicles over 100K mi unless there is a known end point to ownership so you don't expect to keep it *forever*, and lower than that if a Korean or FCA brand.

I'd still consider buying something for occasional use at 150K mi, but not so much at 200K mi, would get something older with fewer miles before newer with 200K mi at the same price point, unless it's a lot newer and you know that most miles were interstate (not just highway) driven.

There is no simple answer. The vehicle should be priced appropriately to the age and condition, keeping in mind that some vehicles built to a price point or ridden hard and put away wet, don't age as well.

I wouldn't get anything properly valued at less than ~$8K (moving target, let's say 1/5th or lower fraction of original sale price) or over ~12 years old unless you plan to DIY much of the repairs. Otherwise it's just too easy to spend $1K here, another $1K there, having a shop do work.

Also, 80k highway miles is WAYYY different than 80k city miles... js. I'd buy a 100k mile car with mostly highway miles over a 70-85k city car any day.

I'm in a tight spot where my '06 Impreza, an absolute legend of a car, is now ~18 years old and I'm almost always replacing things on it. For the most part I don't care but I just keep dealing with it because I feel like anything newer than 2017 or so is unreasonably priced. Sure, it'd be nice to grab something newer but gone are the days where you could just pick up something 8-10 years old for 3500 bucks. I swear the other day I saw a 265k mile Tacoma, like a 2018, and they wanted nearly $40,000 for it.

I'm sorry... I know it's a Taco, and everyone loves Tacos, but that's a $10,000 vehicle tops in realistic dollars.

I wouldn't bother starting with mileage or used/new. I'd figure out what I'd be willing to spend and work from there to narrow my options. Also, with "used" you're going to be further limited by whatever is inside the radius you're willing to travel for, so it's hard to draw some specific rule about "don't buy over X mileage".

We tend to make decisions based on personal experience, but that doesn't mean they are good decisions. I'd say if a person can do a lot of their own repairs and has a good relationship with a mechanic, an older, higher mileage vehicle has the potential to be a great value. I would guess that most people do not have those resources, though, so for the typical person, a newer, lower mileage vehicle with good reliability scores is the safest bet.

I can't discount any of the opinions in this thread. Given the fact that I retired early 23 years ago with very little savings and a rental property which still had a mortgage to pay, I'm almost stunned at my good luck, looking back on a mostly used-car ownership history with one new car exception.

What I learned from all that, with the help of shop manuals for every car I've owned, is that cars are conglomerates of subsystems, and parts in the subsystems have lifecycles. The shop manuals usually provide a chart that suggests some of the lifecycles.

A car or vehicle was something that I always "needed", but for which I didn't want to pay for extra glitz, status/prestige, etc. I had different priorities.

So, after I retired, I wanted a 4WD SUV and had an opportunity to buy a 1987 Isuzu Trooper in 2000 from a friend. A clutter-brained college girl talking on the phone to her cat's vet while driving then totaled my newly acquired Trooper after I'd had it two years. But I was impressed with it, and bought a second generation 1995 Trooper. I have talked of this vehicle extensively in threads and posts here over the years.

Last year, I had to replace the starter-motor and the windshield washer pump-motor. I had owned the car for 21 years, using it more for short trips to the grocery after several initial "wilderness excursions", so I had twisted the ignition key many times over a period of maybe 100,000 miles. I should've expected the starter to die. Now, there's not a damn thing wrong with the car at 200,114 miles except the anti-theft system -- decommissioned by me because of repairs I couldn't make and a lack of confident knowledge by mechanics I've known. I'm going to replace a gas-tank idiot-light sensor this spring, although it's not really necessary since the conventional gas gauge works fine.

I ran some Cata-Clean through the exhaust over a year's time, and my December '23 smog-test (this is California) was phenomenally great. New brakes, new tires, new suspension and ball joints, new radiator, new harmonic balancer. It has a reman transmission acquired in 2004 with 78,000 miles of use. Doesn't use a drop of transmission fluid or engine oil. Factory "hwy mileage" spec was 17 mpg, and that's what I got with it on an 800 mile round trip this last November between Riverside, CA and Gardnerville, NV -- south of Reno. Cruise control still works perfectly, and for an old fart like me, it's a miracle.

I'm 76 years old. The rental property has long since been paid off, adding $1,000/mo to my fixed-income retirement annuity. My elderly mother recently died such that I inherited her house and her liquid assets -- doubling my savings. Meanwhile, over the 22 years I've owned the 28-year-old vehicle, it has cost me (including original used-car purchase) just short of the $29,250 MSRP of 1995. Consider that about $4,000 in repairs were due to my negligence and might have been avoided. I figure it's good as long as I can buy gasoline for it, and I might not need any significant work done on it before I f***in' die and punch my ticket.

It seems like that old 3.2l V6 is just going to keep on running, some mechanics telling me it will go to 300,000 miles.

I don't think I could easily make a purchase as lucky as this had been, and I don't want to buy a new car. I drive about 3,500 miles per year, although that increases now that Moms has passed and I can visit my brother north of here. The "plastic and rubber" hasn't deteriorated. I don't know what else to say. I've got a "solid gold repair shop", and I cultivate the people who own it or work there.

With my sense of things, I'm not sure what I would recommend to others. It might be fine to get a vehicle with maybe 50,000 odometer miles for a good price with CARFAX information before purchase. Parts will eventually wear out and need replacement. One has to embrace the trouble and attention of used-car ownership if you want to go for the "long haul". You might have more luck than I've had, or you might have less. Otherwise, getting a vehicle for $30,000 new every six years with a $10,000 trade-in value might cost you $60,000 or $70,000 over 18 years, not counting repairs not covered under warranty. Maybe more. And also figure the insurance bill when you have a car mortgage. Right now, I may have $4,000 "at risk" if my Trooper is totaled, but the odds are low for that to happen.

And honestly, I don't know if I could do this again. It will require extensive study and research, I would think. I can't keep up with the 21st century, and I feel a bit weary, but I intend to hang around as long as I can. That includes keeping my license and running this old car.

Depends on the car. I wouldn’t touch anything German or British with over 80k on it.