[Researcher]

Voted for 'I'm okay with 100,000+ km cars'
I am okay with any odometer reading as long as it has not been tampered with and has been maintained well without abuse. I usually prefer to stick to vehicles which have been driven by a good driver, be it the owner or a hired person. Additionally, I tend to find out if any sticky issues are existing with any model after any specific odometer reading (read the other day here about Accent CRDi and its issues in around the 80,000 mark). I generally stick to Japanese brands due to easier spares and higher overall reliability as per my personal experience (Maruti/Honda for petrols and Toyota for diesels).
Currently I happily daily-drive a pre-owned 2008 SX4 ZXi bought in late 2017 at around 70,000kms, which has crossed 97,000 recently with just regular maintenance and a few inexpensive, irregular ones (engine mounts, lower arm of suspension). Due to the bad road conditions, I am currently scouting the market for a pre-owned 2012-16 Fortuner Automatic (preferably in 4X4), and rarely I find any of them available below 6 digits on the odometer. Risky, but worth taking in my opinion and as per my usage.

[Scorpion 10]

My preference will be vehicles from non-metro cities clocked not above 35,000 km.

A 35,000 km driven vehicle in cities like Bangalore/Mumbai/New Delhi (read traffic congestion) equals a vehicle clocked around 50,000 km in non-metro cities - always have this notion in my mind. I might be wrong.

[SS-Traveller]

I personally feel the odometer reading is meaningless by itself, and a large majority of cars on sale (at least in my city) have had their odometers clocked in India before sale. In the absence of any law to prevent this, clocking is rampant, and folks who do not understand the intricacies of how to gauge the actual mileage of a car are not advised to buy used cars unless they know the owner closely and can get a watertight guarantee that the car has not been clocked.

I do not know at what actual odometer reading members here sell their cars, but most of those I have sold, have done over 100,000 km in the time they had been with me. It is probably not fallacious to say that plenty of cars have been used beyond 100,000 km, but the used car market will throw up very few of these in case one searches online.

So I trawled through OLX with filters set for "Km driven" in Delhi, and here's what the numbers look like in a graph:

Only about 5.5% of all cars (1219/21917) show odometer readings of 100000+ km.

OTOH, if we are searching for cars all over India on the OLX website, a little over 20% (58364/282696) of all cars on sale have odometer readings of 100000+ km. This seems to be more realistic.

But when the OLX filters are set for cars with 100000+ km in Mumbai, the percentage is 10.6% (1650/15506). Bengaluru = 16.3% (2352/14423). Kolkata = 2.2% (91/4059). So odometer resetting is common in the big cities, whereas in smaller cities, the percentage of 100000+ km cars being sold are much higher and odo resetting is not a common activity.

When I searched for cars in Melbourne (a country where there are anti-clocking laws), I got a figure of 25.8% (17494/67803) for cars with odo readings above 100,000 km on the carsales.com.au website. For Sydney Metro, the numbers are not too far off - 21.2% (11909/56231).

It is also very easy to do up a high-mileage car to make it look very attractive, so my advice to all folks reading this is: Don't trust the odometer reading or appearance of the car, use the services of an expert / check with authorized service centre records before committing to buying a used car. Also, not all 100000+km cars are bad, and neither are all <25000-km cars excellent.

[mh09ad5578]

As they say it depends. After I did 2,10,000 km in my Duster in less than 4.5 years with minimal maintenance, I've come to a conclusion that a well maintained, good car with 100k kms is not such a bad idea. It'll cost less and once you sell it you'll lose less money in depreciation.

On a side note, against the grain of this thread I bought a new Creta to do highway duties as I thought my monthly 4k kms run needs a car with zero downtime (fingers crossed, hopefully).

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

It is also very easy to do up a high-mileage car to make it look very attractive, so my advice to all folks reading this is: Don't trust the odometer reading or appearance of the car, use the services of an expert

Absolutely; my FNG mechanic only has to open the hood and take a detailed look around the engine bay to say whether or not the odometer reading is genuine. I haven't ever asked a service center for records till now when evaluating a used car. Needless to say, I have a very good relationship with my mechanic! My motoring passion depends on him

[Heart_Revs]

To me, it's the owner and his driving that matters more than odo reading. A gently driven 50000km old car is still better than 25000km old boy racer's toy.

[Rajeevraj]

Voted for <49000. The 3 pre-owned cars I bought were 11,000; 27000 and 45000. Ideal would be <25000, but that may not be realistic.

As GTO mentioned, it's more of a feel factor. Of course, there are a lot of other criteria to validate a used car.

[diwakarmuthu]

Today if a owner maintains with appropriate service history, then it becomes easy to make a decision on high mileage cars. However, there is a doubt in your mind after you have made the decision, if the car starts to give you troubles.

15 years back I picked up a Pre-Owned Maruti Esteem with 40k on the ODO, but after 2 years the car started to give one trouble after another. The only silver lining was that it was my first purchase and I had a ball with the car.

For me apart from the mileage, the age of the vehicle also plays an important role in making my decision

[condor]

Depends.

There may be cars that have done more high-way miles than city. And if from a known source / is a known car, then the running becomes secondary.

In rare cases, one may be looking for an out of production car - and here the running cant be considered.

[a4anurag]

If the car that is being considered is from a 'reliable or a known source' then I wouldn't mind picking up a 1,00,000+ kms run car.

Even if it from a dealer and the car in question has clean papers and genuinely traceable service history, I wouldn't mind getting it.

[vigsom]

In my opinion, a few machines on which 1,00,000km is just a fraction of the useful life of the machine:

2002-2012
Land Cruiser, Fortuner, Innova, Pajero/Sport, Japanese built Suzukis, old Honda City, Corolla, Camry

2003-07 Accord, old Elantra

Machines which I wouldn't trust as much with even 20k on the odo eg. Kwid

It is all about the ability of the machines to stand the test of time.

Most of the cars I've owned so far have had minimum 70k on the odo when I acquired them.

[chiranjitp]

I have in the last 5 years bought two cheap used cars, both of them had a odometer reading close to 100k km & were 13-14 years old. I bought them since I was a college student then & had a limited budget, basically I bought them for the price of a 2 wheeler. First car was a 01 Zen Vxi, which I used for over 26k km. Next was a 06 Swift Zxi, which I have used for 12k km & counting. Atleast 50% of that running was on highways.

All these kilometers, neither of them ever broke down on the road or needed any major repairs. Having said that a car so old will certainly feel old to drive, rattles will be there, some interior parts will be worn out etc.

As for maintenance, I only did basic maintenance to keep the Zen running. Never did any suspension overhauling or tyre change for the Zen (Zen had almost brand new tyres when I bought her). Now, a few months after buying the Swift, I started working. Since I was earning, I wanted to bring the Swift to new car like condition. That meant, I did a full suspension overhaul, 4 new tires, new ICE etc. The money I spent on the Swift is quite significant compared to the market value of a 14 year old Swift. Of course I am not complaining, since I love the Swift & she is still one competent car.

So, my advice is that if one wants to have a perfectly working used car, better to buy a car with 40/ 50k km on the odometer & not more than 5/ 6 years old. Whenever the time comes to replace the Swift, I will be only considering 4/5 year old cars or a brand new car.

My ex 01 Zen Vxi:



My 06 Swift Zxi:

[discoverwild]

I picked up a Tata Indigo Marina at 90,000 kms and sold it at 1,65,000 kms. Except for a timing belt mishap (due to the trust in my former mechanic), the car was absolutely a runner, having used it in all kinds of terrain.

We also bought a Nano at 8,000 kms and sold it at 25,000 kms, a decision my brother regrets till date. He moved to Bangalore and didn't want to run around with TN plates, then. Both the above cars were sold because we didn't need them anymore.

I might look for a larger SUV with 4x4 capabilities and definitely would not buy new because of the exorbitant pricing, that most come with. I like to stick below 10L for any depreciating asset.

As long as the car in question has a traceable and clear history, I wouldn't mind the distance it has done.

[2000rpm]

While I prefer a car around 40k also, my recent acquisition has 82k on the Odo. I bought the car because it is still immaculately maintained. Drives very well and if I hide the Odo and claim the car to be 30k driven, most people will believe it!

[jetsetgo08]

Voted for 1L+. Although, the sweet spot to buy used would be under 3years & 30k kms, it would still require having money worth 60-75% of the original price. So in some cases it may make sense to buy a well maintained car even with higher mileage but at a substantially lesser price.