The right sort of High Mileage?

M

MSW

Member
Can't get out to look for my first Zed so musing over adverts. I'm looking at 'entry level' prices for a 3.0 E85 so mileages are mostly north of 100k (yes, yes, I know that these engines shrug off 100k for breakfast but you know what I mean). They seem to divide roughly in two:-

- ones that did most of their mileage in the first 5 years and then have put on 2 to 3k per year for the last 8 to 12 years (the majority, I would say)
- ones that have steadily risen by 8 to 10k per year

Choosing a good looking example from either group and assuming that both are in average to good nick and have not been neglected, I find myself wondering which sort of mileage does the E85 handle best? Hard out of the blocks and then easing up or steady from start to now? If they are serviced 'on the nose' then the steady car has been seen more recently but the low current mileage car has less recent wear and tear.

Any thoughts or experiences welcome
 
All you can ever do is view and read the documents, visually inspect and test drive, each and every car you are drawn to. Any car that has done 100k could be about to have an expensive moment. Most higher mileage E85' s are as you noticed now doing far less miles than they did when they were younger. But how they have been driven is also a factor in ware rate of components and you will seldom know that history.

I covered 8-9k pa for several years and did a couple of track days when she had less that 15k on the clock too. Grew out of that phase and 9 years on, she now does <5k pa and is fast becoming a garage queen. Does that mean my engine is about to expire, I hope not and I doubt it. :wink:

Good hunting. :thumbsup:
 
A car with steady mileage is likely to have steady servicing. A car that only does 2-3k a year might have gone 5 years between servicing, which aint good.

Engines like to be used... got up to operating temperature and actually get driven is no bad thing. And its rarely engines that go, its normally ancillaries, which often go as a result of under use, coolant corroding, seals drying up, rubber hoses perishing etc.
 
I'd suggest it's really how hard a life the engine has led and how hard its been driven more than mileage and for that I'm somewhat comfortable knowing that the previous owners of my e85 3.0i have been ladies, and possibly less inclined to rag the engine at every given opportunity as fellas possibly would. Contentious hypothesis perhaps.

Bought mine at 100k 3 years ago. Has 150k on it now and still purrs like a kitten. A recent compression test revealed it's still within factory-fresh spec although cylinder 6 is marginally down on the other 5 although still within tolerance. Regular as well as intermittent oil changes, not driven like a tw@t, I'm expecting at least another 100k miles...
:driving:
 
Mine falls into the first category. Its had oil change every year for the last 5 years and other fluids every other year. Only covered 9k in that time. Its an over serviced garage queen.
I'd certainly buy my car were it forsale over one thats done 9k each year with service based on mileage.
 
As others have already highlighted there are pros and cons to buying a car that has been driven infrequently. If the servicing has been carried out regardless of the low annual mileage there is less to worry about.
I would be very concerned if it had only had oil changed every 10-15k whilst doing only 3k per year.

One of the perks of buying a garage queen is that it will have seen less road salt. These cars seem to do fairly well with regards to corrosion but it is still a major consideration with a 15+ year old vehicle. Some of the rear subframe parts seem to suffer the worst.

Ultimately you will always have to carefully inspect to car. I would never buy one without going over it very thoroughly. I looked at some proper lemons (with all the different engine options) before settling on buying my 2.0. Some of them looked great on paper but looked like money pits in reality.
 
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