Would you buy a 2 year old car that?s covered over 125,000 miles? The car in question is a Honda Civic Type R. Apparently it has a full Honda service history. Only mod seems to be a Mugen induction kit...
If I was looking at say a 7 or 8 year old car that had 125,000 miles on it I wouldn?t be that concerned but is it asking for trouble to have so much mileage put on a car in less than two years? Price of the car certainly takes into consideration the mileage: £7,000 verses £12,000 for the next cheapest. I only really need a car at the weekend and would be little real mileage. What do you think?
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You could have bought the same car clocked down to 20000 miles for £12000 and never noticed.
I passed on a Honda Civic with 160000 miles on the clock and the engine was still as sweet as the day I bought it new!.
At least it is genuine and I'm sure a lot of untrustworthy characters would love to get their hands on the same car.
Mal.
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Assuming that most of that mileage will be motorway miles as with most high mileage cars, it will have had relatively little wear and tear on engine, transmission, suspension etc.
Seems a pretty reasonable buy to me.
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Yup, seems reasonable to me too based on what you have written, though you don't say who is selling it (private, dealer, etc), so I'd probably still run it past an HPI check. I guess there's still one year's warranty left too, unless it's an import, if anything did go wrong?
I find Honda cars tacky plasticky inside, which personally puts me off, but there is no doubt at all about the integrity of engineering, or that the Civic-R's reputation is well deserved. To cover that sort of milage in two years, it won't have spent much time on short journeys, and everything will have been nicely warmed through.
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If it has had services done at specified times which would mean
going in several times in a year.not sure about the interval times on that car.but as long as it is genuine then see no reason not to buy it.But do get it inspected hpi`d ect.
Just to be certain.5 grand less spent on a car could mean as much to spend if all goes pear shaped.I hope I`m not putting you off but do be carefull.
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It should be okay, as it is a Honda, but it must also have been serviced every at least every 10000 miles or so (that's 12 services), with regular oil changes.
If the buyer is selling it privately, you might have to shout a bit during price haggling, as the VTEC engine revs + induction kit will have done their hearing in ;-)
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I doubt there is any warranty left. Aren't they usually only good to 60,000miles? Also I understand that the fitting of any performance parts, including Mugen, will invalidate the warranty.
A friend of mine has a TypeR and was told in no uncertain terms bu the dealer that they will sell and fit Mugen parts, but the warranty goes out the window.
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IIRC Honda warranty = 3 years/90000 miles = out of warranty.
The Mugen induction kit would invalidate the warranty regardless.
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I bought my 1972 Triumph 2500 in 1975 with 130,000 miles on the clock. The previous owner had become ill and died, and in fact had covered that mileage in just two years. He commuted from Peterborough to Southampton almost every day, about 200 miles each way!
There were problems with the fuel injection (these would give trouble right from new, nothing to do with mileage) but there was no other sign of high mileage and the engine gave no trouble until 180,000 miles when it still ran OK but became noisy when cold with piston slap.
I wouldn't worry about the Honda's mileage if the car appears to be OK now and has been properly serviced. I wouldn't even worry if the service intervals were a bit stretched out as most deterioration occurs with cold starts, not with long motorway miles. However the modification would make me very wary as it could mean that the car has been driven hard by a boy-racer type.
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wibble,
Firstly, fantastic forum name! Isn't it Red Dwarf related? Or am I just demonstrating how irretrievably sad I am again?
Anyhow, I got a cab to the station this morning as it was hissing down. The cab was a two year old Peugeot 406 HDi with 137,000 on the clock. The driver told me that he'd had two problems since new, both sorted under warranty. Apart from that, he had to have the clutch changed at 120k. It ran like new with no horrible noises and the ride was extremely smooth.
As long as the car has been well-looked after, then there shouldn't be a problem.
Cheers
Rob
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wibble, Firstly, fantastic forum name! Isn't it Red Dwarf related? Or am I just demonstrating how irretrievably sad I am again?
Black Adder goes Forth. Pass the pencils.....
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No problem if the service history is o.k: take into account you are 5K up on the deal so you could easily swallow the odd glitch. High mileage is not the problem it was once.
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The only way this car could have clocked up this amount of miles is very heavy motorway use. Which means (assuming he cruised at 80) the engine has not been thrashed to within an inch of its life on swoopy back roads, racing away from lights, etc etc. This means its had 125,000 fairly stress free miles. If it has a full service history this is bargain time.
(worked it out - at 70 mph this bloke has spent 148 12 hour days in the thing...............)
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tend to agree with RF, it's bargin time!
especially if it's an "auto".
cruising at 80 on motorway, approx 4000rpm, unlikely to have been thrashed in lower gears, unlikely to have been red-lined in top,(65-7000rpm-type "r" performance engine= 140-150mph!)maybe red-lined in "d3" overtaking occasionally, but engine built for it!.
plus,£5000 in back pocket on top! sounds almost too good!
billy.
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Thanks for the advice, Ive emailed the fellow so I can have a look at the car. Keep you all updated...
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...only other caveat is that I think you will have difficulty selling this car on again as there are very few people out there who will be lokking for 130000+ miles car.....
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Done 115K in 3 years in Toyota vvti Corolla - no problems (apart from Gearbox bearing, from new fault).
Only things likely to wear:
Brakes, esp. fronts - may just need new pads, tho.
Tyres, of course !
Don't think the Type R Civic is unusually heavy, but it is front wheel drive/front engined, so I would take a look at the front shocks, too.
I would budget for all the above, plus plugs, air filter, oil filter and oil change, before you make an offer.
On point - oil change. Take a good look at the logs, make sure they've been done regularly. I do mine at 12k on advice from Millers Oils, as on this sort of driving the engine is under less stress, but make sure it hasn't been stretched out to 20k or something.
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