Talk to me about mileage

[tiglon]

I am finding the comments regarding low mileage and lack of servicing very apt at the minute.
I am looking for a low mileage (I know!) Fiesta for my daughter. The Fiestas have the 1 litre ecoboost which have a 'wet cambelt'. According to everybody, it is imperative that the oil is changed regularly to prevent the belt disintegrating and bits clogging up the oil pump and lunching the engine. Oil in good condition is the key to preventing problems, apparently.

I cannot find a single Fiesta that has had Ford's schedule of servicing, purely down to low miles and the 'it's only done a few thousand in the last 2 years so why pay to have a service?' attitude.

This is probably a direct result of main dealers (and most garages) charging so much for a simple oil and filter change.

I had a Focus with the 125bhp 1.0 "ecoboom" engine. Bought it at 25k miles and had it until about 85k miles, sold it to my ex when we separated. It's now on about 100k miles, and I don't think she's had the belt done yet.

I definitely missed at least a couple of services and never had any problems from the engine. I'm not sure £1k to replace a belt every 100k miles is really the end of the world anyway, is it? Just stick a tenner in a savings pot every time you do 1,000 miles. My Skoda belt needs doing every 60k miles and is about £500, and most BMW's will need a water pump and cam cover gasket before 100k miles and that will add up to closer to £2k...

I know other people with the same engine in Fiestas and... no problems there either.

 

[caius]

Think the lowest mileage car I've bought (albeit also the only one I've ever taken on finance) is the Fiesta ST at 25k/3 years old. (Also has a chain rather than belt, being the 1.5 EcoBoost engine. Properly good fun hatch.)

Everything else has been bought over or run past the 100k+ line, and two of them I've taken over the 200k barrier. There's been a couple I've always been waiting for engine issues (known issues at higher mileage) but something else has ended my time with the car before I've had major issues. Usually its suspension issues that make themselves known, or the usuals like brakes/tyres. I'd most likely pick a 160k car with suspension work done over a 90k car with nothing changed yet now.

The most annoying one was I got rid of a 220k mileage Ford Mondeo mk3 estate (2005) and replaced it with a 6 month younger, higher spec Mondeo mk3 estate with about 82k on the clock. The second one didn't drive as nicely, the engine didn't pull properly and it smoked like a chimney under hard acceleration unless I cleaned carbon out the inlet manifold every couple of months. Definitely should've kept the high mileage one in that case.

 

[Bmwz4ruby]

Think the lowest mileage car I've bought (albeit also the only one I've ever taken on finance) is the Fiesta ST at 25k/3 years old. (Also has a chain rather than belt, being the 1.5 EcoBoost engine. Properly good fun hatch.)

Everything else has been bought over or run past the 100k+ line, and two of them I've taken over the 200k barrier. There's been a couple I've always been waiting for engine issues (known issues at higher mileage) but something else has ended my time with the car before I've had major issues. Usually its suspension issues that make themselves known, or the usuals like brakes/tyres. I'd most likely pick a 160k car with suspension work done over a 90k car with nothing changed yet now.

The most annoying one was I got rid of a 220k mileage Ford Mondeo mk3 estate (2005) and replaced it with a 6 month younger, higher spec Mondeo mk3 estate with about 82k on the clock. The second one didn't drive as nicely, the engine didn't pull properly and it smoked like a chimney under hard acceleration unless I cleaned carbon out the inlet manifold every couple of months. Definitely should've kept the high mileage one in that case.

I think that is a point worth mentioning:
At around 60,000-80,000 most cars will have got to that mileage on factory fitted parts. But around then is when bits start to fail, suspension, brakes, belts, odd electrical items, chains possibly. That all adds up. If you get one over the scary 100,000 generally they have had those bits done.

Also I personally wouldn’t go near a wet belt car.

 

[brillomaster]

My daily is up past 176k, good old bmw 330d. Only items outside of regular maintenance were a dpf clean, and a snapped front spring. Other than that, fine. And that's including the obligatory remap to 280bhp.

Cosmetically it's a little rough, but ac still blows ice cold, sunroof works, it's all good.