[shankarbn]

Most folks buying 4 year old <60k run cars do not realize that significant service/replacement schedule will set them back more money and make them second guess their purchase. I would rather buy a car at 62000kms and 4.5 years old with brand new tyres, plugs, belts etc than buy a car 5000 kms before this milestone and spend a ton of money and time on it to do it myself.

If the car is much older either in number of years or kms, I ask myself if the car is safe enough and has atleast half of the niceties that are a must have (airbags, bluetooth connectivity, adjustable seats and steering etc.. for me, YMMV).

If most of these items on my wishlist are available in the car I intend to buy, the only other considerations would be the price, condition of the car and service/accident history. I negotiate the price simply based on the condition of the car, service and accident history. If the car needs belts worth 5k, I bring the price 10k below asking. If the car needs brake pads worth 5k, I bring the price 20k below asking (because disc rotors can be worn too).

Short answer : Setting an arbitrary limit is not ideal, especially not before considering all of the above.

Source of said opinion
1. Bought a used E46 BMW 320i at 36000 kms
2. Bought a used Nano LX at 27000 kms
3. Bought a used Hyundai Tucson at 138000 kms
in that order...

[Sugato]

Thanks rajushank84, for starting this interesting thread. This being a highly subjective topic, I would like to share my views from three separate angles. First being as a manufacturer of the car, second being the owner(first owner to be precise) and third is through the lens of a potential buyer looking to purchase a pre-owned car.

Manufacturer's Definition of a "too old" car:

Car is an integration of several thousand parts, with each part having it's own lifespan. So, from a manufacture's view point a car is evergreen as long as we maintain the car well and continue to replace the failing parts on time. However, at some point of time, we find ourselves in a situation where several parts requires replacement at the same time to upkeep the car. The time frame is based on the quality of parts used by the manufacturer, and as quality comes at a cost, so the thumb rule may be higher the production cost of a car.. better would be the quality of the parts used in it. Now, as a manufacturer they would want to build all the components to be fitted in the same car with a lifespan within a certain range. The outlier here may be the components with heavy usage or subject to various environment factors. Still, they would be very few when compared with the other parts. Thus, after a certain point of time and in progression we would find that we still have the car, but nothing inside or outside it are the ones we initially purchased with the car! This, of course is subject to availability of parts and no law based on car’s age, to categorize a vehicle unfit on road.

As an existing car owner:

The assumption here is that the owner initially purchased the car as brand new. The owner here is the best person who knows how well or badly he maintains his car. There are several psychological or business factors of the owner that factors into his/her car, redefining the car's age to accommodate it into the "old age" bucket. Few years back, we had an outage for one of our US based clients, to resolve the issue someone from our company had to work at the client's location. As usual I called one of my colleagues in the US, not too far from the client's office and asked his help. He was apologetic; however, he did provide an alternate contact person. He told me, "I wish I could help our client, however there is too much of ice and snow outside and I would not want to take my brand-new car in such a hostile condition. Few days later, I asked him over an informal chat what was the brand and make of his car. He told me the details and added, "Buddy you know it just over three-year-old". Next few hours I started a random survey in office asking my Indian colleagues till what time would you continue calling your car "brand new"? To my dismay, one year was the maximum time I got out of my informal survey. Coming back to the point of a car being labelled "too old" by an owner is subject to:

1. Owner's own take, he might call a car "too old" as the first renewal date of the car insurance approaches or he may wait till the end of fourth renewal before he concludes that the car is "old". Note: I intentionally did not mention "too". Because, here his "too" is determined by his ability to purchase a new car without compromising too much on his existing income and expense

2. There is a second category of owner, whose initial car's handling can only be matched by dirt car racing drivers. These people sometimes feel to keep a car longer, however the expense they incur on maintenance later is sky-rocketing and are forced to sell off their cars


3. Social pressure and the urge stand out among peers and neighbors drives some owners crazy, forcing them to sell of the existing car and purchase another car which is bigger and more expensive than the existing one. They term it as an "upgrade", I don't disagree on the added necessity, but mostly it is driven by social pressure rather than an absolute necessity

4. I have ignored the self-employed and the business community, their purchase most of the time can be justified. Given, the fact that they save on taxes in addition to a little business edge ... including the fact that their creditors and lenders gets a non-verbal communication sent across of a well to do businessman

A potential pre-owned car buyer(individual):

For a potential preowned car buyer, any discontinued model is a "old model" car. The model may have been just been launched with minor facelift. Preowned car purchaser is a value seeker and given the fact that knows he is purchasing something old, it is natural for him to suspect every car with a thought provoking him that there is surely a major issue with the car, else why would someone sell off such a nice car. The buyer uses all his tools and resources at disposal only to rule out the previous owner or the car dealer is trying to hide something from him that he is unaware of. It is ultimately his tools and resources that helps him finalize his car. He does not care too much about the age of the car, apart from the fact that how long would the car be allowed on road. Bottom line, the definition and classification of the age of his vehicle is proportional to proximity of car's age to law of the land on road worthiness. The thing that matters most to such buyers is the "value" he gets out of his purchase.

Thus, a car is never "too old" or is "old" after it is out of showroom. Age of a car is subjective to the owner or to a potential preowned car buyer. Having said that, a car owner who sold a five year old car previously may always perceive any five year old "too old" for rest of his life

[gautam109]

How old is too old? A pretty interesting question for me personally.

I own a 2011 Etios V (Petrol) that has only about 20,000 kms on the clock. My daily commute is by train, the car is hardly ever used except for weekend chores, airport trips and the occasionally getaway. Pristine condition, owner-driven, serviced annually at a Toyota workshop (average oil-change interval of under 3,000 kms!) etc.

I'm really split between selling it & getting a new ride or keeping it on for another 5 years+, given that it's in virtually "new" condition. Plus, I'll probably get very little value relative to the car's condition.

The "head" is inclined to upgrade the suspension (to the new-Etios set-up), slap on fresh tyres, maybe get that hydraulic mount I read about in the forums and keep the car going for another 10 years.
The heart would like to experience that "new car smell" again, not to mention the bells & whistles today's cars come with. Though I'll surely miss the Etios' huge boot - larger than even most D-segment sedans.

[Jeep]

Anything more than 50K km run would be considered 'old'. To me the number of years doesn't really matter, as much as how the car was maintained does.


Picked up a 11 year old Toyota MUV (needed a seven seater as didn't want to rent when relatives/friends visit us) which had done 117K miles (translates to around 187K kilometres) on the odo - which I wouldn't have done back in Bangalore. Reason - 2 owners from new, and more importantly had Toyota services continued until 110K miles which is very uncommon here). Plus the famed longevity of the 2.2 D4D (though of a higher tune). The annual mandatory check up (MOT) in the UK helps your confidence, so does 'buying from a dealer' (as you have better rights here, though it comes at a premium).


Would have got a much less run one for the same price if I was looking for a 5 seater car. Was in a hurry as well. Planning to use for short term and that helped the decision.

[rajushank84]

The resounding thought I get from this thread is 3-5 years old, 30k-50k km.

Sounds like owning a much older car is a luxury reserved for deep pockets.

So.. Let me flip the question around. What's the budget to own a much older car?

Let's say, something like a 118NE or a Contessa. Or even a Gypsy. With 1 lakh miles.

• Finding parts is an issue
• Service - something like Gypsy can be easily serviced whereas the Premier will have to be looked at by independent garages.

Let's say I find a good well-maintained "mint" piece around say 2 lakhs, and I want to own one for nostalgia value. Then how much would you budget for a 5-year ownership? 5 lakhs?

[sureshkishore]

We own a 1996 M800 since new. The car has been dealership serviced till date. No issues with parts whatsoever.
I used to own a SS80 1984 model. Bought it at 13k on the odo when it was 25 years old. Did the service only at dealership. Usual parts like filters and brake parts were available but suspension parts were not. Parted with it couple of years back after 5 years of happy motoring. As a perfectionist it was tough to maintain the car since the OE parts weren't available. Heart did not permit Jugaad.
My brother owns a pre owned 2007 Sx4 petrol parts are slightly expensive compared to Maruti standards but are available at dealerships. Have owned it since 3 years now without any fuss.

Since my experience was with Maruti Suzuki, I can safely say that mass produced cars as old as 20 years are serviceable.

Beyond that it's a tough path to tread.

[Samurai]

I once bought Mercury Sable GS (3.0L V6) with 112,000 miles (179,200Kms) on the odometer for $3600. I sold it after 8 months for $1500, at 134,000 miles (214,400Kms). It was loaded to the gills with features. The only thing that stopped working during my ownership was the wipers. I was doing 70 miles of daily commute for majority of the duration.

Therefore, I don't mind owning old cars. My currents cars are from 2007 and 2011.

[alpha1]

My 2001 Honda City Vtec is still running smooth without any issues (>1 lakh km).

So is it really niggle free? To a very large extent YES!
The only problems I have encountered in the lifetime ownership are rusting at few locations (facing now - changed the exhaust), paint fading (facing now), suspension overhaul (dampers), steering rack replacement, CV joint replacement and some electrical cabling issue that causes sporadic trouble with high beam - low beam switching.

Di I start facing these problems suddenly? No.
So I would not want to place any time limit or KM limit on the technical issues.

In general the older the vehicle (or the more abused a vehicle), the more will be spend on mending the wear and tear.

[Nishith]

Hi,

I am stuck in a tricky situation and I need some guidance from the experts on this forum.
Scenario - Wife needs a car to commute to work (40 Km to and fro) hence auto transmission is a must and she is a newbie to driving hence not very keen on getting a new car.

Cars in the Garage -

Maruthi Celerio AMT - Dad used to use this regularly for his office commute, he's now retired and hence its not being used much. (ODO: 30K)

Hyundai Accent - I am the only one who uses this car and its mostly used for long trips and when we have to carry more stuff. No plans of replacing this (ODO : 54K)

Scenario - Now that we already have an AMT at home, there is no problem in wife using that for her office commute as it is idly most of the time. But once her office resumes in Feb'21 I don't want dad to become car-less when wife has taken it for work and given the current scenario not too comfortable in asking dad to take cab given that he's above 60 yrs.

Now the third car that we buy will have to be an automatic and will not be used much, its strictly going to be a backup car which dad would use for his city run-arounds or wife would use when the Celerio is off-duty and not to forget, parking space at home is only for 2 cars and the third one will mostly be exposed to the nature's elements as we cannot arrange a covered parking and will be parked out side the compound if we have to leave behind all the cars at home for a vacation.

Confusion: Which car to buy?

I've been looking at the used car market for quite sometime now, I had almost made up my mind on getting a Tata Nano Amt, but a test-drive of a prospective seller's car made me rethink on this for the following reasons.

1. The car lacked the safety feeling I get when I sit inside my other cars.
2. Extremely poor braking
3. Dint feel stable at turnings
4. Very poor pickup

Note: The car I drove had just 14K km and had a complete service record, the seller was quoting 2.2 lakhs for the car

Now I am considering buying a used Hyundai Santro Automatic but the fact that most of the Santro’s I see in the sued car market are almost 13 to 15 years old and with their 3rd or 4th owners with around 60K km on the ODO, quoting price INR 2 lakhs.

So now I am confused if I should get a lesser confidence inspiring but newer Tata Nano (and not worry about FC formalities till 2030) or get the Hyundai Santro even if its 13-15 years old and with its 3rd or 4th owner (where most of the vehicles already have the FC or will have to get the FC in an year).
Need advice from the experts on this forum.
Please note: I want to keep the investment as low as possible since this is not going to serve us as a primary car ever.

Thanks,

Nishith

[adi_drive]

Interesting convo going on here. Thought I'd add my $0.02.

I just bought my first car a month ago, a used 2016 Octavia 1.8TSI Style Plus in Race Blue The car had done about 36000KM. The warranty had expired a year ago but the car was in top shape and had no issues so far in the service history.

I guess the list of questions one should consider would vary based on what is the intent of buying a used car in the first place. If you're keen on buying a car that's not your daily, then it doesn't apply. I was looking for my daily and very keen to avoid the initial depreciation. In light of this, here's what I had considered pre-purchase:

• Will the ownership experience be peaceful? Since this was my first car and will be driven extensively, I need some peace of mind while travelling or just driving around. I have read about the Skoda horror stories here, but that was a risk I was willing to take. That apart, it had to be a car with relatively low miles on the clock given the age of the car. This vs. my budget, the sweet spot appeared to be around 3-5 years with 30-45K on the clock. Any older and I'd probably risk vacuuming out all the money I've saved (hope my DSG isn't getting any ideas!). But there was still some narrowing down to do.

• How much tech is too little tech? The older the car the lesser the features it has. Things like safety and like navigation are important to me. I'm not much of a nit-picker when it comes to things like memory seats or auto-parking, etc. Just a few things that I think really make a difference. I personally think Apple carplay/android auto is something really useful to have. This is another thing that draws the line at the 4-5 year mark for me.

• What do I get for the money if I go older or newer? The D-segment is a dying space and I don't think there's much of an option apart from the Octi. But if not this, then what? I could get a 6 to 7-year-old 320d or the like or, if I go newer, I could get a 1 to 2-year-old City. To me, it seems like a no-brainer that the Octavia was the sweet spot and offered enough with little to compromise.

• Do I save money and buy an older model year? You could theoretically but to me, the first two points ensure I can't. If I was in the market for a car that was probably more reliable, (maybe a 6 to 7-year-old Corolla?) then I could save the money but an 8-year old Skoda would probably give me nightmares.

I think the line for "how old is too old?" simply varies based on the price. Nothing is too old if priced correctly IMO (or if it causes enough heartache to not get it). But if all options are priced "fairly", this would be how I'd go about it.

[fawad0222]

Originally Posted by rajushank84

The resounding thought I get from this thread is 3-5 years old, 30k-50k km.

Sounds like owning a much older car is a luxury reserved for deep pockets.

So.. Let me flip the question around. What's the budget to own a much older car?

Let's say, something like a 118NE or a Contessa. Or even a Gypsy. With 1 lakh miles.

• Finding parts is an issue
• Service - something like Gypsy can be easily serviced whereas the Premier will have to be looked at by independent garages.

Let's say I find a good well-maintained "mint" piece around say 2 lakhs, and I want to own one for nostalgia value. Then how much would you budget for a 5-year ownership? 5 lakhs?

Hi,

I believe the crux of the matter for those who want to own a pre-owned car which is out of warranty is the probable cost of ownership, for next five years. Its an important issue as the price of the pre-owned cars has become mouth wateringly low. Can we start a new thread with the heading, [b]Cost of ownership of old cars of different brands at 05 yrs and 10 yrs level,where people can give their inputs and help others decide in an informed and objective manner. thanks