I've had to post this thread because I feel there is some gap in my knowledge. In writing this I am not trying to pee people off or cause offence but to question. There have been a number of posts recently saying that low mileage was not quite what it is cracked up to be with a used car.
First questions are: would you have Doc's car? would you have Lanciaman's car? would you have one of Jay Leno's cars or Nick Mason's or perhaps one of the cars from the Porsche museum?
I would. If you know what you are doing, it is perfectly possible to keep a car in great condition on low miles, there are tonnes of posts on this forum with good advice about tyre pressures, run times, humidity, battery conditioning and the like.
So what could make a high mileage car okay? Motorway miles are good. Suspension bushes, engine mounts, Interior bits like seat bolsters gear levers etc will get less wear in 100k of motorway miles than in 100k of daily short journey use.
Getting in an out of a car ruins the interior, driving round corners knackers the suspension, short journeys that do not fully heat up the engine and exhaust, ruin the engine and exhaust. Changing up and down gears uses the gearbox and clutch, so unsurprisingly wearing them out.
High mileage cars, thanks to the law of averages, rarely get to do only motorway miles; they get used to go to the shops, to the tip, to the pub and to work etc.
What does age do? Well it is true that age ruins rubber and plastics at differing rates, depending on the quality of rubber and plastics and on the exposure to heat cold and sunshine. Metals don't fare too well either, damp steel rusts and some alloys, though immune to corrosion once a layer of oxide has built up, will fatigue naturally with age.
All three of my cars; W124 E300 Merc 50k, Mk3 Golf GTI 80k, Fiat Barchetta 65k, have lower than average miles on them being 19, 13 and 10 years old respectively, and thanks to my cycling habit are sharing a measly 4k of miles between them in a year. Needless to say they are all perfect .
So my question is, why or perhaps when, is a low mileage car not as good as a high mileage car? If the only answer is that a high mileage car is more likely to have been kept well then I'm afraid I just don't believe it.
Discuss....
First questions are: would you have Doc's car? would you have Lanciaman's car? would you have one of Jay Leno's cars or Nick Mason's or perhaps one of the cars from the Porsche museum?
I would. If you know what you are doing, it is perfectly possible to keep a car in great condition on low miles, there are tonnes of posts on this forum with good advice about tyre pressures, run times, humidity, battery conditioning and the like.
So what could make a high mileage car okay? Motorway miles are good. Suspension bushes, engine mounts, Interior bits like seat bolsters gear levers etc will get less wear in 100k of motorway miles than in 100k of daily short journey use.
Getting in an out of a car ruins the interior, driving round corners knackers the suspension, short journeys that do not fully heat up the engine and exhaust, ruin the engine and exhaust. Changing up and down gears uses the gearbox and clutch, so unsurprisingly wearing them out.
High mileage cars, thanks to the law of averages, rarely get to do only motorway miles; they get used to go to the shops, to the tip, to the pub and to work etc.
What does age do? Well it is true that age ruins rubber and plastics at differing rates, depending on the quality of rubber and plastics and on the exposure to heat cold and sunshine. Metals don't fare too well either, damp steel rusts and some alloys, though immune to corrosion once a layer of oxide has built up, will fatigue naturally with age.
All three of my cars; W124 E300 Merc 50k, Mk3 Golf GTI 80k, Fiat Barchetta 65k, have lower than average miles on them being 19, 13 and 10 years old respectively, and thanks to my cycling habit are sharing a measly 4k of miles between them in a year. Needless to say they are all perfect .
So my question is, why or perhaps when, is a low mileage car not as good as a high mileage car? If the only answer is that a high mileage car is more likely to have been kept well then I'm afraid I just don't believe it.
Discuss....