Showed my dad an advert of the car i want -\'96 Mazda 323 1.5 gxi with 70,000 miles. His first concern was that 70,000 miles is too much for a petrol engine (my/his old diesel corolla has done 86,000) and i should watch out for blue smoke etc etc.
I had never even thought about 70,000 miles on a Mazda 323 as being a problem at all if i get one thats been cared for. If it was an old Fiesta i would be weary.
Is he right or living in the past ?!
Thanks.
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I'm no expert, but I have bought quite a few old cars in my time, with my fair share of bargains and mistakes. 70K should be no problem for a modern engine as in this Mazda. But you do still have to be careful. A lot can happen in 70K and seven years, some of it not nice. Check for smoke anyway and keep an ear open for knocking noises. It will most likely be absolutely fine if the mileage is genuine but better to find out while it doesn't belong to you. And on that subject, is the mileage genuine? In my experience a lot of second hand cars for sale have done 70K, either in ten years or two years, but what are the odds of finding that with a bunch of random cars. Weird, is it not?
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I bought an mx5 with 103k miles and no problems. The owners web sites have many owners with 250k plus miles..... If it's been looks after, there's no reason why you can't double or triple that 70k
Martin
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I do 40-50000 a year always keep my cars 4 years, when I sell them on sometimes to friends they still keep going, after a few years low mileage they sell them for the same as I sold it for.
Warning. Check it has a full dealer service history, if it hasn't don't touch it, the cheap repro parts used in some garages cause loads of trouble.
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If you're going to buy a high mileage car, youre probably better off with one that has accrued those miles over a short period. The things that kill cars are cold starts, especially if the driver has no mechanical sympathy, and lack of maintenance. A car that does 25-30000 a year will be hot most of the time and possible has had a low stress motorway life. Fleet cars are usually serviced regularly as well.
70,000 for the MaZda shouldn't be a problem if it has a proper history, but as with any 7yr old car you have to expect some bills. There are cats, dampers, brakes, clutches, steering arms, belts, hoses, exhausts, need I go on? Even so it'll be cheaper than the depreciation hit on a new one if you have average luck, just don't expect nothing to go wrong ever.
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It's a bit like the piece of string.
I think there are 2 principles:
1) High mileage in a short time is by and large much better than a low mileage in a long time
2) Servicing is everything. Look at the oil - has the engine been cared for?
Bought a 5 year old Volvo with 180,000 miles 5 years ago. It has now done 280,000. Nothing major ever replaced.
70,000 is a tiny mileage for a quality car.
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I got rid of my Panda at 177,000ml.Terminal door rot;mechanically excellent.My last Fiesta(1100)I sold with 155,000ml.still running perfectly and I still have an XR4i with a broken g/box but 150,000+ on it.But then my shortest trip was 17+ ml..
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BMW had a 325i (E30) that did over 1 million miles: 24 hours/day with regular servicing: on a circuit. Using Mobil 1 oil.
madf
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1 million miles
wow that is a heck of a lot
J Stephenson
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A company we use has a Vito that just goes to Italy and back 3 times a week. It has so far covered 600,000 miles and has had nothing major done other than a new turbo.
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If it's running 24 hours a day it'll run for ever.It's cold starts/drives that kill them.
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I you look at those beige Mercedes taxi's in Germany, they run 24/7. Rumour has it that they are never switched off except for a major stop (for a service ???). These cars do 300000km + without a blink
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There is a guy in America that has done well in excess of a million miles with a Volvo P1800S coupe on the original engine and drivetrain - as driven by Roger Moore from "The Saint" TV series (For those of you old enough to remember).!!
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He's actually passed the 2 million mark now. There was a big article about him recently in Classic and Sportscar mag.
Volvo gave him a new car at 1 million miles and again at 2 million. There was also a feature on Top Gear some years back to find the viewer with the highest mileage car. Can't remember the details but a merc. with about 700k won, second was a Renault 21 with about 450000 miles and its original clutch!
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How long is a piece of string ?????
My zx td presently has done 125,000 miles still going strong, using no oil or water between services. Used for work on a round trip of 40 miles daily on motorways.
Also had a Escort 1.8 with 180,000 without a rebuild.
Really its down to regular servicing and good quality oils.
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We often see Peugeot/Citroen XUDT diesel engines in excess of 200K still running nicely!
Incidentally, the service booklets on these cars are always full of service stamps....funny that!
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It's odd that a car's value drops like a stone as soon as it gets to 20,000, then 40,000 then 60,000. Just think of the life left in it, as long as it has been run-in well when new and serviced at the correct times. After 60,000 miles, a main dealer probably isn't interested except to part exchange into an auction. (Perhaps a lot more cars are clocked than I thought!)
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My 2 litre petrol Citroen XM reached 247000 miles. The engine had a new headgasket at 195000 miles. I expect the car is still going somewhere, but I fancied something newer.
The service book stopped being stamped at around 70K miles ;-)
I had regular oil changes every 6000 miles at Kwik Fit. Apart from that the car never saw the inside of a garage for servicing.
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My "New" car is a 1998 Passat tdi 110bhp with 120000 on the clock. I do 40k a year.
Last car was a montego countryman 2.0d./ When I bought that it had 115000 on the clock. Lasted 2 years before it got broken into.
Nothing wrong with 100k+ miles on a diesel (as long as it is serviced)
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Car engines don't really last that long.
If you assume that a car travels at an average speed of 25mph (probably about right these days....) then 25000 miles equates to 1000 hours of running. 100,000 miles equates to about 4000 hours. There are about 9000 hours in a year, so 100k is less than 6 months continuous running.
There are lots of engines (eg 'industrial' engines) that run for years, more or less continuously. I admit they are much less stressed that automobile engines, but as someone else said, its the starting and warm-up phase that wears the engine.
These cars that run up 1 million miles running 24/7 round a track don't prove anything. Give it to a little old lady who drives 2 miles to the shop and back every day and then see how long it lasts....
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Just thought you might be interested in this which I stole from a BX message board when someone was taking the pink fluffy dice out of me about my penchant for old BXs (170,000 from one which I sold to a friend who took it to 200k and sold it on for more than he gave me. Current one has 147k on clock. Neither have had anything done to engine except new cambelts every 50k, oil changes every 5k and one set of new glow plugs each)
\"Posted by Mike 1703 on September 24, 2002, 12:58 pm , in reply to \"Perfect car?\"
194.117.133.84
I drive a BX diesel which I use as a taxi. It\'s my 5th. BX 19 diesel & all gave me the greatest satisfaction in both reliability & economy. I still have my 1987 BX which I cannibalise for spares, not that I need many. It was retired for \'scrap\' after a crash @ 350,000 miles. It\'s replacement was sold off for less than the value of its parts @ 450,000 miles; one has been retired to my driveway @ 740,000miles & my current workhorse is now @ 380,000 miles. I\'ve never changed a wheel-bearing, only one gearbox and a few suspension bits; one major engine overhaul; two head-jobs but never a tow-home failure [unless you count the one time I let the cam-belt snap!]. Why is it Ford drivers keep telling me \'You\'ve just been luck mate\' which is usually followed by \'anyway, no car can do that sort of mileage, who are you trying to kid\'!\"
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