Used Car - Age vs. Mileage?

How much do you weight age vs. mileage for considering the condition of used cars and estimating how much more hassle-free life they have left? Like, a 2018 with 125k vs a 2016 with 80k.

Specifically: I'm looking at Dodge and Chrysler minivans in Columbus, OH. So winters where rust happens.

We really liked the interior on the Pacifica. I'm avoiding the 2017's. Would prefer 2019+, but considering 2018's. Getting ones that are down to $20k seem to have higher mileage. Although, it may be worth spending a couple grand more for lower mileage.

I'll take the higher mileage car with better maintenance/condition, over a rougher lower mileage car. 

My dad keeps trying to come up with reasons to sell his Ford minivan. I've told him, you've taken care of it, it never leaves you stranded. What's the point of selling it and putting money into an unknown? 

Around here, a 2 year difference isn't even a consideration outside of a model/generation change. But you're talking 50%+ more miles, so it really depends on a useage case. And rust. Hard to say over the internet, especially without pics and a good inspection and service history. 

Better question: the 2017 and 2018 Pacificas had a fair number of issues being a new model. Obviously the people who bougt them dealt with problems, but once the cars are past 60,000 miles or so, are there likely to still be latent issues hanging around? Or will pretty much everything have been fixed under warranty?

Kinda weighing spending the premium for a '19 or '20 Pacifica, vs finding a low mileage '16 Town and Country.

I was really hoping to spend about $16k, but it's looking strongly like we're going to splurge for a $20-$22k Pacifica.

Columbus is pretty light for rust, so I would not be too concerned for that.  The main thing is maintenance records.

Either one of those vans should have had the oil cooler replaced once or more already, the spark plugs SHOULD have been done at the same time, since both operations require pulling the upper intake off.

Check oil change records.  If they cannot prove that the oil was changed every 4000-5000 miles, walk away.  The top ends on the 3.6 do not cotton to long oil change intervals, the rockers fail, the lash adjusters seize, all sorts of fun times.

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

Columbus is pretty light for rust, so I would not be too concerned for that.  The main thing is maintenance records.

The things I see driving around here every day say otherwise. I mean I'm sure cleveland and further north are worse, but I wouldn't call columbus light on rust.

With rust mileage is a factor but use and care are much bigger factors. A 100k vehicle owned by someone who cared about it and did their best to keep it from rusting is going to be in better shape than one that has 50k miles and has only seen a couple of winters but has never had the underside cleaned in its life, for example. So I'd really evaluate it on a case by case basis rather than try to narrow the search parameters.

That is a weird canoe.

Discussing things further with my wife last night. We're pretty much in agreement to just "splurge" by spending $20k - $22k on a '19+ Pacifica instead of me spending all my time and effort hunting to find a steal on a nice Town and Country.

Mostly this is me getting over my hangups of, "I MUST FIND A DEAL!" If I put a bunch of time and effort into it, I'm sure I could find a nice Town and Country for cheaper. But it would be a lot more work and effort for something that wouldn't be as nice.

This will be our first vehicle bought together, and we have plenty of money to do this. It's just me having to get over my reflex to be frugal.

I know I'm the weird one, but always mileage for me.  I don't care if it's 40 years old.

Every mile clicked off is one more mile between birth and a major failure.  Every mile is 5000 times that the rings scraped against the cylinder walls, another minute of wear on the transmission, another 5000 cycles of inertial forces on a piston pin, another minute closer to a wheel bearing dying or a CV joint failing.  Most importantly, another mile of someone else's maintenance records.  Sure, they changed the oil, but did they have a teenage kid who liked to do neutral drops?  Did they have a grandmother who drove around in 2nd gear all the time with her foot on the brake?  The interior looks great, but were they savvy enough to recognize when the PCV valve died?  Anal retentive means they kept dust off the dashboard and paid to have it detailed.  It doesn't mean they know anything about mechanically maintaining a vehicle.

Always mileage for me.  Every mile NOT driven by someone else is a mile that someone else didn't berkeley it up

In reply to Beer Baron :

Don't buy an Ohio car. Buy a ticket to Atlanta and return with something that isn't a rusty pain in the neck to work on.

Condition over mileage or age. I've looked at newish cars I wouldn't trust to get me across town. I've looked at antiques that I would take anywhere. 

The 2014 Mustang I just bought has 168k on it. It was also spotless and obviously well taken care of. It literally needed nothing beyond an oil change when I picked it up. We have put 4k flawless miles on it since purchase. 

My wife's Suburban had 290k on it when we bought it. I changed 2 window regulators and put 4k miles on it a week later on a vacation to Maine. It has made 3 round trips to New Orleans in the last 8 months towing my enclosed trailer and I would send it out of town again without hesitation. It has somewhere around 370k on it now and is 23 years old. 

Service history over either.  I just bought 2 cars each with over 250k miles but outstanding maintenance.  Run like new.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

Counterpoint: Some of the worst cars I have seen were low mileage cars that sat a lot, and were not maintained because "I never drive it".

I prefer high mileage cars because that is proof that it was cared for and maintained at least well enough to make it that far.

Really depends on the use case and the exact vehicles in question but there are a few things to consider:

• If you rack up a million miles a year it doesnt really matter how many miles are on the vehicle you purchase because its gonna turn into a high mileage vehicle in no time anyway.
• Conversely, if you drive no miles a year, high mileage works in your benefit when you go to sell it since the rest of the comps have caught up in mileage but you realized a lower buy-in.  So you take less of a depreciation hit.
• If you never plan on selling, mileage is less of a deal-breaker than something that is a 1-3 year ownership timeframe.  A car will always be easier to sell with lower miles because of the antiquated thought of "mileage kills vehicles, 100k is worn out"
• Modern cars have a lot of BS with things like certain year infotainment not getting updates even if they look functionally identical to the layperson.  Check the model year splits on any updates so you are not stuck with a paperweight in a few years.  

At the end of the day, condition, condition, condition especially for a used appliance.  I would much rather have a well optioned, well maintained minivan that was used by one 125lb woman to take one tiny kid 100 miles round trip to ballet practice 3 times a week and racked up a ton of miles that way than a low miles vehicle that spent its life idling in the drive-thru lane at McDonalds for the 3rd run of McFattys that day and hauling half the soccer team 3 miles across town every day.  

Condition over everything else. Old, high miles with no rust and extensive maintenance records and a spot-free interior with excellent paint tells me it was taken care of and no expense was spared to keep it running. A newer car with a stained and torn interior, lots of dents and dings, and no oil-change stickers is a red flag. 

For me, there's a third metric to consider: Price.

I'll consider a beat up, higher mileage car if it's eye poppingly cheap.

Case in point: Middle of the pandemic I found a local guy selling a 2017 V60 with 125,000 miles on it. Guy had a CPO warranty, so regular maintenance had been addressed, but consumables had been overdue for the last 20k. Thing is, he was selling it about $4000 back of wholesale value. $350 for brakes, $500 for wheels/tires, another $220 for timing belt kit. Even though it has extremely high mileage, I'm in the car $3000 back of wholesale, which eases my mind quite a bit.

Cheap cures a lot of sins.

edit: I don't live in the rust belt, so rust has never been a consideration

We're pretty well set on a '19+ Pacifica or Voyager. So my initial question is moot, because it will be neither old nor high mileage.

The only potential curveball there is if I happen to find a well maintained Town and Country for a killer price. Otherwise, being willing to spend more money makes finding a good example a lot easier.

This will be a third car for us. I have my S2000 for most of the year. She works from home and has an RX-8. This will be for when we need to carry more than the two of us and some groceries. It will be my winter daily, and a backup vehicle if either of our cars is down for maintenance or anything.

We do roadtrips out to Virginia a couple times a year. Since we've started road tripping out to Virginia multiple times a year, we decided we want something nice for that, not just another "beater minivan" like the one getting replaced.

calteg said:

 

...125,000 miles on it...    ...Even though it has extremely high mileage...

 Your idea of extremely high miles and mine are slightly different.  125k is prime purchase territory. I only have one car with that few miles on it. Most of the rest of the fleet is over 200k with several of them being over 300k. 

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

Service history over either.  I just bought 2 cars each with over 250k miles but outstanding maintenance.  Run like new.

+1 there

My rankings start with service history, mileage, and age.  Obvious visual condition will overrule those things.  

Seems like about half the vehicles we're looking at are former fleet vehicles. Are former fleet/rental minivans more or less likely to have been properly serviced?

I'm in this very predicament, and struggling with the same thing as you.  I'm always looking for a deal, and because of that I missed out on a few that I would probably buy today if I'd known. Prices dipped here a few months back, dropping about $5k, and I thought they would be here to stay. They weren't and everything in that range sold out quickly.

I'm looking for a 2016-2020 Caravan, not really concerned with any specific model, not looking for any options in particular.  My main goals are/were the newest van with the lowest mileage possible, under 60K, and in my price range.

Early on I saw a few with Carfax's that showed they were dealer maintained, with regular oil changes, and all the BS dealer checkups. I told Mrs. O'lady, those are the vans we want, they were very well looked after. I thought I could do better.

Don't make my mistake, if you see something that looks good, even if it's a few bucks more, look at it. Over the period of ownership, a few bucks will mean nothing.

Toyman! said:

calteg said:

 

...125,000 miles on it...    ...Even though it has extremely high mileage...

 Your idea of extremely high miles and mine are slightly different.  125k is prime purchase territory. I only have one car with that few miles on it. Most of the rest of the fleet is over 200k with several of them being over 300k. 

 

I should have been more precise. High miles for the year. At the time it was 5 years old, so it had amassed 25k/year, roughly double the national average

In reply to calteg :

Makes sense. I used to pile 50-70k miles a year on my work vehicles. It tends to make you immune to mileage.

I think it depends on the make and model.  A Toyota with 200k and 10 years old is not the same as an Audi with 200k and 10 years old.  

Beer Baron said:

Seems like about half the vehicles we're looking at are former fleet vehicles. Are former fleet/rental minivans more or less likely to have been properly serviced?

In my experience (both on the side of being in fleet maintenance AND a driver of fleet vehicles) that fleet cars are far more likely to be properly maintained by the company, but also far more likely to be neglected, abused, and beaten by drivers.

In one of the fleets I drove, it was always my responsibility to report when I had hit 5000 miles so they could change the oil.  It was my responsibility to say "hey, the power steering pump is whining," or "the transmission is flaring on the 2-3 shift."  It's fair to assume that the level of reporting is vastly different between drivers.  I have put my butt in a different fleet vehicle and wondered "how does Cliff not realize his transmission is stuck in 3rd?" or "I guess Paul doesn't care that his radiator is hemorrhaging coolant."

Depending on the fleet, they are supposed to be out on the job working and making money.  It's not the maintenance department's job to hold the drivers' hands.  Some fleets (like the buses I drove) always came home and got a check up, but some fleet vehicles only ever see maintenance when the driver takes it in.  Some drivers are clueless, and others think of their fleet ride as disposable.  The utility company I worked on the maintenance end was a mixture.  The higher-ups drove their F150 or Explorer to the office every day, but line workers' F450s were all over the state for months at a time.  Sometimes I'd get receipts from a Ford Dealer for an oil change 200 miles away, but some trucks I didn't even know existed - other than the fact they were on our manifest.  In my 4 years there, I never saw truck 1224.  Apparently it was a GMC Top Kick with a bucket, but it was a running joke that it was a mafia payout and didn't really exist.