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Is a high mileage or low mileage car best?

I tend to swap my cars every 12 months, over the last 5 years i have cars that are about 3 yrs old and with low mileage, each car has had the engine management light come on and work has been needed.

I now have a 3 year old Citroen C4 Cactus with18k miles and the EML has come on again and keeps going off and on. I am beginning to think I should go for cars with about 50k on them hoping problems have been sorted out, any advice please?

Asked on 16 February 2024 by michael grieves

Answered by David Ross
It is quite unusual to have experienced so many occurrences of EML warnings on several different cars. Unless you are purchasing diesel cars that are very low mileage and being used for frequent short journeys and the EML warning are related to DPF issues, there is no obvious explanation as to why this has happened so frequently.

Choosing a higher mileage car is not necessarily a negative, as long as the vehicle condition is good and the service history is complete. Cars with average or above average mileage may have spent more time on motorway journeys, which are less demanding on a vehicle than frequent short journeys and stop start traffic, so you may wish to consider higher mileage vehicles in future.
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