Should I Buy: Older, Lower Miles Or Newer Higher Miles

[Shink]

Opinions needed ...

Looking at an Avensis diesel tourer. I have about £4,500 to spend. We do 10k a year or so of mixed driving.

Option 1

Lower mileage, perhaps better spec, and a model year of 2003/2004.

Option 2

Higher milage, lower spec, but perhaps a 2006 facelift.

Engines are on my mind, you see. I have heard that the long life of the diesels is not as long as it could be. Can you still expect 200k from both the 2.0 and 2.2 D4D diesels as you could from Toyotas in the 90s?

Obviously, it's a spectrum and shades of grey. But which way would you be looking?

[Heidfirst]

for 10k a year I would be looking at petrol.

yes, annual car tax will be higher & mpg possibly lower but modern turbodiesels have a lot of things (DMF, EGR, injectors, turbos etc.) that are expensive if/when they go wrong.

Also the 2.0 & 2.2 D4Ds Avensis manufactured April 05 to February 09 may develop a very expensive problem with the headgasket - Toyota have extended the warranty for this issue to 7 years/112k.

[Mistermena]

I agree with Scott above!^^^^^^^^^

[Shink]

for 10k a year I would be looking at petrol.

So don't buy a diesel out of warranty?

The early VVT-i engines developed a bore liner problem. Anyone know what year they fixed that?

[Mistermena]

Think that was fixed on the 2006 onwards model??? But Scott will be alone to tell you what dates the fix happened

[Starlight Taxis]

Personally say older with lower mileage every time. But with your budget you might find you get much more for your money looking at other models. I just done a quick search on Auto Trader for diesel estates and this is what I found:

Vauxhall Vectra Elite (Top Spec) Estate 2.0DTi 04reg 76k miles £3,500

Ford Mondeo Ghia X (Top Spec) Estate 2.0TDCi 04reg 46k miles £3,250

Toyota Avensis T Spirit (Top Spec) Estate 2.2D-4D 55reg 108k miles £3,250

Honda Accord Executive (Top Spec) Estate 2.2CTDi 05reg 80k miles £3,499

Volkswagen Passat Highline (Top Spec) Estate 1.9TDi 54reg 100k miles £3,199

The Mondeo seems much better value to me! I had one of these and ran it until 342,000 miles and it never once missed a beat until some bugger smashed into it and wrote it off! Very nice specs on the Ghia X too!

[Red diesel]

Quite a few of the 2.0 D4Ds in the Mk 2 Avensis have gone on to do big miles, Chap on here (Cima i think) has/had a taxi with something like 380 k miles on it without issue.

I understand that the HG issue is a lot less common on the 2.0s - im curious though as to what changes were made in 05 to make the later ones more liable to Head gasket failure.

If your going for the later models then low mileage is best to give one a better chance of staying within the 112,000 mile and 7 years limit on the extended warranty.

Its a shame about the HG issue - otherwise id be saying newer with high miles.

Red diesel

[Shink]

Personally say older with lower mileage every time. But with your budget you might find you get much more for your money looking at other models. I just done a quick search on Auto Trader for diesel estates and this is what I found:

Vauxhall Vectra Elite (Top Spec) Estate 2.0DTi 04reg 76k miles £3,500

Ford Mondeo Ghia X (Top Spec) Estate 2.0TDCi 04reg 46k miles £3,250

Toyota Avensis T Spirit (Top Spec) Estate 2.2D-4D 55reg 108k miles £3,250

Honda Accord Executive (Top Spec) Estate 2.2CTDi 05reg 80k miles £3,499

Volkswagen Passat Highline (Top Spec) Estate 1.9TDi 54reg 100k miles £3,199

The Mondeo seems much better value to me! I had one of these and ran it until 342,000 miles and it never once missed a beat until some bugger smashed into it and wrote it off! Very nice specs on the Ghia X too!

That's helpful, thank you. And the Mondeo is a good car, and the boot is big enough to sublet to a family of four. Thing is, with a little boy to think about, safety is paramount. The Avensis is the clear winner in terms of the Euro NCAP test results.

Quite a few of the 2.0 D4Ds in the Mk 2 Avensis have gone on to do big miles, Chap on here (Cima i think) has/had a taxi with something like 380 k miles on it without issue.

I understand that the HG issue is a lot less common on the 2.0s - im curious though as to what changes were made in 05 to make the later ones more liable to Head gasket failure.

If your going for the later models then low mileage is best to give one a better chance of staying within the 112,000 mile and 7 years limit on the extended warranty.

Its a shame about the HG issue - otherwise id be saying newer with high miles.

Red diesel

Thanks for your thoughts. The fact they make popular taxis is a good sign, I think.

[Heidfirst]

Think that was fixed on the 2006 onwards model??? But Scott will be alone to tell you what dates the fix happened

believe it was 2005 but don't know exactly when so a 2006 or later manufactured VVTi sounds OK.

[MarkR]

My 04 Avensis diesel is coming up to 230k miles. No HG issue, but did have to replace clutch, flywheel, fuel pump, and gearbox within the last year! Suppose something had to go eventually. Running great now, no regrets buying car (had car 4 years, since 89k miles).

[Heidfirst]

My 04 Avensis diesel is coming up to 230k miles. No HG issue,

your car falls outside the dates of manufacture of the TSB so presumably isn't liable to the issue

[Jas16]

I personally would go new but high miles, because usually its motorway miles as company/rep cars and they are looked after in terms of servicing if not driven in the best manner. With a car thats done low miles, its usually mostly town work which for a diesel isn't ideal and the low miles actually mean a higher rate of wear in terms of the engine and gearbox and brakes for example

Also if you are looking to sell on later within a short time (couple of years) it will be easier to sell the newer model rather than the older one.

Oh and you can get a newer one with more kit as standard, but then it goes down to personal preference in terms of what you are looking for

[Shink]

I personally would go new but high miles, because usually its motorway miles as company/rep cars and they are looked after in terms of servicing if not driven in the best manner. With a car thats done low miles, its usually mostly town work which for a diesel isn't ideal and the low miles actually mean a higher rate of wear in terms of the engine and gearbox and brakes for example

Also if you are looking to sell on later within a short time (couple of years) it will be easier to sell the newer model rather than the older one.

Oh and you can get a newer one with more kit as standard, but then it goes down to personal preference in terms of what you are looking for

You make good points.

Would your logic be the same for a petrol?

[buzlby]

Hi

My preference would be for the high miles but newer, there may be some warranty left on the newer car, and if they are motorway miles there is much less wear -BUT - I would test drive both, and get a decent warranty thrown in as part of the negotiations.

For some reason I trrust high miles cars more a second hand purchases, cars are made to be driven and ones that do short distances and left parked outside for days on end are intrnisically less reliabe.

Old adage - dogs that have been looked after well dont bite - check service history

HTH

Buzlby

[ptaurissr]

I would go newer and high mileage for both petrol and diesel as people have said tend to be used on motorway miles so less wear than down driving. Out of the six cars I have owned (petrol and diesel) so far the older one with lowest mileage caused me the most problems!

[Starlight Taxis]

Seems everyone is disagreeing with me! I forgot to mention, check out the Skoda Octavia estate. They are probably THE most popular taxi nationwide, for a very good reason; german engineering at budget prices. I found this as an example:

Skoda Octavia Estate Laurin & Klement (Top Spec) 1.9TDi 52reg 80k miles £3,995

But like I said, probably best value for money would be the Mondeo (EVEN if you got newer with higher mileage as opposed to older with lower mileage). And my Mondeo just kept going and going! Although I did get it with less than 10k on the clock and it NEVER missed a service, and majority motorway mileage which probably had a lot to do with it. I thought even the Mk3 Mondeo got 5 stars out of 5 for NCAP??? Check it out, and good luck car-hunting!!!

[Jas16]

You make good points.

Would your logic be the same for a petrol?

In general petrol cars are cheaper than diesel, so in actual fact you might be able to get a newer car with low miles.

However, in terms of wear and tear, I would still use the same argument, town work is worse for the same mileage. But I do feel that a petrol car is more suited to town work than diesel (and in some cases makes the car more fun to drive). But again personal preference. I do about 10K miles a year, but because I'm on the motorway for 80% of that and would like to keep the car for a few years, I went diesel (newer but high miles at the time) and touchwood, all good so far

Also I prefer the extra torque of a turbo diesel, but miss the high revving nature of the petrol engine. oh well, can't have it all :(

Oh and petrol engines warm up quicker, esp important for short trips in town