Used cars-MY vs. mileage

jess71903

Ambassador
When car buying, how do you weigh model year vs. the number of miles on the vehicle? So, say you had a 2003 with 80,000 miles vs. a 2005 with 100,000 miles and they were the same price. Which would you pick?
 
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ProudMommysince09

New member
I also think like PP mentioned it depends on the overall condition of the car. When I was looking at my car, the dealer had 2 of them in close price range. My car had more mileage already but overall seemed in better shape than the other, had leather and the better 'package' of the car so I went with that. Im still happy w it although it has 140k on it now:whistle:. (03 Explorer)
Edit to add: Is there a way to find out how well the car was cared for? For example routine recommended maintenance, was it done at all/regularly, does it need replacement parts now like brakes, tires. Isnt there a log or something, is that was carfax is for?? Sorry rambling but maybe thats something to consider.
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
I would look at the model year to be sure that there were no differences...if something was different, I would be careful to note the differences, and whether any of them were important, and related, I would look to see if the safety ratings had changed...newer usually means better safety ratings, so if there were a significantchange, that wold be important to me....other than tyhat, I wouild look at milreage, but also usage, hwy vs city miles, and especially how well the car was kept up..for example, a vehicle that comes with proof of regular checkups and oil changes is WAY out in front...check carfax of course...smoking is a big one for me, thoe chemicals linger for years and are toxic and dangerous....
IT's not a simple answer, lol.
 

jess71903

Ambassador
Great, thanks guys. I hadn't thought about the changes made between model years except from a cosmetic standpoint. I pretty much chose my car (06 Explorer) over another one (05 Expedition) because it was the first year of the new body style and would look newer longer. That was really my main deciding factor. Now I regret that choice. I'm just going to have to weigh the individual vehicles against each other and see how they've been cared for. It's hard to do that when all I've done so far is shop online!
 

bobandjess99

Senior Community Member
Great, thanks guys. I hadn't thought about the changes made between model years except from a cosmetic standpoint. I pretty much chose my car (06 Explorer) over another one (05 Expedition) because it was the first year of the new body style and would look newer longer. That was really my main deciding factor. Now I regret that choice. I'm just going to have to weigh the individual vehicles against each other and see how they've been cared for. It's hard to do that when all I've done so far is shop online!

I completely understand, to be honest, I never even considered safety ratings before our most recent car purchase, and then, it becvame the MOST important thing for me.....stuff like looks, went way down the list, and even MPG for example took a hit when I factored safety into it. But it's worth it now when I can watch crash test videos of my car, and the dummy in the backseat where my kids sit does'nt even look like it MOVES out of place when slammed in a side impact, because the SAB come down so fast !!!!! Makes me feel very good about my choice even though its a *grumble grumble* GOLD *grumble grumble* Kia. :rolleyes::)
 

npauli

New member
FWIW, when I was truck shopping a couple years back, I looked at enough trucks for sale that I settled into using the following to compare values for different years and mileage:

$500 per year of age
$500 per ~ year of miles (12-15k)

So a 3 yr old truck with ~ 5yrs worth of miles (60-75k) was worth similar to a 5 yr old truck with ~ 3yrs worth of miles.

That seemed to be pretty close for the trucks I was looking at (2001-2006 GM diesels). I'm sure everything else depreciates a bit differently. Smaller vehicles and gas engines probably depreciate faster.

As several have pointed out already, some MY changes are more significant than others, and miles is not the only or best indicator of condition - it's just the most commonly available indicator.
 

Keeanh

Well-known member
I would say it also depends a bit on where you live and what kind of wear the car has endured. Here in BC, no-one in my family has gotten rid of a car because the engine died. The body &/or electrical has always gone first because of the salt in the winter & the rain the rest of the year. All other things being equal, we have always gone with the newer, high-mileage vehicle. With our last purchase, though, we saw an '06 that was an import from Texas, priced the same as local vans, so we jumped on it.
 

An Aurora

Senior Community Member
I bought an older car (01 with 91K) over a newer car with more miles (03 with 110K). The one I bought was a single-owner car with all the maintenance records in the glove box, and the other one had had a couple owners. I also preferred the older car because it had a couple features I really, really wanted (manual transmission, smaller v6 versus v8 engine so better gas mileage) and it also didn't have rear-airbags, which I would have had to have disengaged anyway. Overall I was very happy getting an older car :)
 

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