How many K's are too many?

[Calaber]

I'm often amused by comments that Commodores have too many kilometres on them when somebody asks if they are worth the price being asked. Another thread here has a VY II with 180k and an asking price of $9900, and the comment is that it is overpriced because of the distance travelled.


So, how many k's are too many? What sort of k's on a Commodore would stop you from buying it, even if the price was good? I realise that this is a very open question, because 100k on a VT would be low distance, but the same on a VE would be reasonably high, so keep in mind the relative age of the car when commenting.

I purchased a VR Berlina in 1998 with 179k on it. It was reasonably cheap, but the distance was very high for its age. Despite this, I sold it four years later with over 335k on it and it had been very reliable and given excellent service during that time. The bloke who bought it got a great car for 3 grand. From that experience, high k's on a car don't really worry me if the price is really right.

[MikesCalais]

For me, anything more than about the 180 - 190,000 mark would stop me from buying a car. That being said, if it was a REALLY good price because of the K's then I'd consider it I suppose

You also gotta keep in mind that there are commodores out there with 300,000k + on them.. so you know that theyre still gonna last for a while.

So... to keep it short - anything near 200k is abit much for my liking

[padrickz88]

Well the average is 20k a year but for me to buy it, anything over 30k a year because i knoiw they can rack up damn easy..... Thats for a privately owned car but if it was a company car i would concider buying a car with 40k a year...

My mums old car was a company car, done about 40k a year, full service history etc etc etc, went fantastic and never let us down... only thing we needed to change was the CAS and coilpack in about 8 years of owning it

[Benboy]

I was told by someone in the Taxi industry that they loved Commodores because if/when correctly maintained they are good for in excess of 400,000 + (Remember - the OPERATIVE words being c o r r e c t l y m a i n t a i n e d).

[PIMPIN]

I look at an average of around 20-25k a year...
I guess it also depends on who the previous owners were, what they did etc

[delcowizzid]

its not unheard of the old vn going round the clock with nothing more than timing chain and head and inlet gaskets.plus the odd sensor here and there

[Zuicider]

well kms wouldnt influence me on the car, its all depending on how smooth and good it looks, i tend to like to slither under the car for a lookey

[Ado]

I dont worry about klms,im more interested in condition and price.Ive seen cars with bugger all kays and are stuffed and fantastic cars with high klms.

[Lumps of cheese]

Depends on whether or not it's my main car or not. If it was going to be a second car then kays wouldn't matter to me. I still like my main car to have low kays when i buy it.

[bigfut]

The highest kms I have purchased a car with was 210,000 on a vx which was 5 years old at the time, that would be the limit though, as long as I can see a service history, kms dont worry me that much, price has to be right though.

[jimmig81]

my Vn had 350000 when i bought it bout 6 months ago but in good nick for its age an service history also a country car so a lot of highway ks on it so it but my Vt had 180000 an i had more trouble with that cause noone looked after it ha ha to the nobs that stole it best thing they ever did realy depends on the car and all the other factors

[Ozzie]

Mines done almost 280xxx...

Its pretty much been a highway car its whole life and doesnt skip a beat.
Its been serviced its whole life and well looked after, does this mean its going to "blow up" soon

Even though its highway km's and you might aswell say its done 140xxx the price of it dropped wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy down with this amount of k's

[vlv8vic]

390 000k's on my merc(80) and many more to go. Old camry(89) has about 300000 and the commodore(88) had 300000 when i sold it. No problems with any of them when properly maintained.

As for buying one... i'm more inclined to look at the condition of the car and how it drives not base too much on the odo reading. That said lower k's probably take some of the effort out of it but as stated before the price can make a difference.

[Morton]

I bought my VQ with 270,000km on the clock. It's nudging 300,000km now, and still without a glitch. *touches wood*

Three most important things for a long car life:

1) Change your oil regularly
2) Use the same, good oil.
3) Keep it cool

[VL Berlina 5speed]

As for buying one... i'm more inclined to look at the condition of the car and how it drives not base too much on the odo reading. That said lower k's probably take some of the effort out of it but as stated before the price can make a difference.

this is exactly it
car might have only 20K on it but is it thrashed or granny driving to chuch
look at the car not the clock

we just bought a vy ute last week for $10,500 with 275,000km on the clock
drive perfect no noise and just a bargin

the vs we have has 400,000km and no probs,
owned is since 150,000km

its all about condition not the clock
also another thing that pisses me off is one owner etc, who cares!
i could by the car and thrash it 24/7 then when i sell it say its 1 owner so it makes it special

[VYMAD]

I've heard about taxis getting 400,000-500,000+ as well but i'm of the opinion that regular servicing (by me) extends the life of the vehicle. Oil every 7-8,000 k's air every 20,000, fuel every 20,000 and plugs every 20,000 i also run on premium and drive respectably, except when i go mad every now and then but that's good too- cleans out the cobwebs so to speak!!!! I would prefer to buy a car that has less k's on it though despite what the statistics say. Isn't it nice to have a clock with lowish mileage?!!!!!

[lil_mickey]

as long as the car looks clean and runs smooth, i don't worry about k's...

[Reaper]

486,972. Only goes down hill there after.

Reaper

[excalibur]

I look at the condition of the car and service history. Km arent usually a factor for me

[savage1987]

As a few other people have said, it all comes down to maintenance.

My VN 3800was still going strong on original motor and 500,000++ kms (I say 'was' because we're dropping in a VR V6 now, just for fun)

Dad's VT Ecotec is well over 400,000km now, that causes us no problems really (one gbox rebuild but it's been great since then)

Mum's VY Tonner Ecotec had around 90,000 when she bought it. More than its fair share of issues.

Sister's VX S Ecotec had 80,000 when she bought it and a couple of issues but nothing too serious

My old 5L takes the cake as the problem car. I had a whole shitload of things I had to fix on that car, never quite ended up finishing them all. That was at 260,000 when I got it, car had gone to shit thanks to the last 2 owners.


kms mean nothing.

[gopher]

i buy them with less than 100ks on them and trade them in at around 250ks.
i'll service them around every 10000 ks and fix things that need to be fixed to keep them running and sort of roadworthy.
they're normally worth next to nothing when i get rid of them

[love the general]

k's aren't a big issue there just a bargaining point really. When i bought my vr it had 203xxx on it and blew up about 3000 later but my toyota which i got off my dad which he bought new in 88 has over 800xxx on it and has hardly missed a beat

[naf33n]

my mates vn calais would be nudging 500,000k's, sounds a bit rough but still drives fine, only thing that has gone wrong in 5 years is the coil packs, but besides that its never had a problem
i do the servicing on it, once a year, 4 litres of oil goes in, a year later 2 litres comes out,