Is 100,000kms too high for buying second hand?

[J_D 2.0]

I wouldnt touch one over 50k km's unless its had 5-7500km oil changes, which would be rare to find. Do a search of sidi engines with sludge and know that's what you could be purchasing. If you had 15% more $$$ to spend, you could buy a new crate engine to go with the car purchase, store it for when/if needed and sleep easy. 3.6l crate engines are so cheap (compared to v8's) it's painful.

Your overdramatising it. The alloytec isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be. The early ones had the timing chain drama but that was fixed early in the piece.

The videos you see on YouTube of oil sludging will be from people using inferior quality oil or not following the correct service intervals, like thinking they can do 15,000km service intervals when they only drive half a kilometre to the church on Sundays.

I‘ve only done standard service intervals (15,000kms) on my 2009 SV6 from when I bought it with 50,000kms on it. It’s now got 330,000kms on it and it’s still going.

As long as it’s got logbooks for regular servicing it should easily have another 100,000kms under it before it’s even a possibility to have any major issues.

 

[tommy_z]

I don’t see the need to go overboard with the half yearly / 7500kms oil changes as long as you use a decent full synthetic oil and don’t exceed the 15,000kms for 9 months.
I do have a lot of stop start driving but my overall driving in 9 months would be around 10,000kms and I use Mobil 1 so I can’t see myself running into issues.
Horror stories you see on YouTube with sludge would be those who don’t maintain their car properly or use substandard engine oil. Shouldn’t use the stories of a few to say the Alloytec from VZ to VFII is awful.

 

[Skylarking]

As long as it’s got logbooks for regular servicing it should easily have another 100,000kms under it before it’s even a possibility to have any major issues.

Log books don’t fully tell you how the vehicle was driven. If it was serviced every 9 months and only did low kms, was that lots of short trips or a few long trips? Even if it’s done 15,000 kms in the 9 months, it’s probably less of an issue unless it was continuous city stop start traffic … but how would you know which it was …

And that’s the issue in not not considering all aspects which you can’t work out without speaking to the previous owner. Buying used is always a bit of a crap shoot…

PS: and who knows what quality oils were used in the vehicle’s life… heck dealers seem to use same oil in multiple cars and I doubt it’s the best… probably the cheapest mixed use oil that meets minimum specs... Not the best oil that enthusiasts want to use…

 

[J_D 2.0]

How the mindset with cars have changed over the decades considering 100,000 too high.

For the ridiculous expense of new cars these days I'd want a service life of at least 350,000km, yet people are fussing over 100k.

Back in the iron block (202, 308, Buick, Ecotec/304 days etc) I used to consider anything under 280,000km as a good used car buy provided it had been well maintained.

I used to run my dailies into the ground and average about 450,000km before I moved them on. I bought my Mrs a Kia Sorento Diesel that already had 180,000km on it as a daily and she drives 120km a day and relies heavily on it.


These days it seems that everyone seems to think 100,000km means that the cars already past a large chunk of it's service life. Is it a reliability thing or a mindset shift?

I feel it's due to our disposable society. Once somethings a few years old it's worthless and needs replacement. Most of my mates do leases now becaue they don't like keeping a car more than 3-4 years at a time because it's "outdated and old" by then.

I grew up in the era where a family would buy a car and then keep it in the family one way or another and hand it down over decades for a good 400,000km

IMO 100,000km is barely broken in.

Here here! I’ve always done the same as you in my earlier days and bought cheap second hand vehicles and run them into the ground. Most of them already had well over 200,000kms on them and would last al least another 50,000-100,000kms before I’d send them off to the wreckers.

That was on old 1980s vehicles too (VH and VN Commodores, RA60 Celica, GH Sigma, LA Lancer). The only ones I had major issues with were Fords (EA Falcon and Ford Territory). Just don’t buy a Ford and you’ll be fine! Lol.

 

[J_D 2.0]

Log books don’t fully tell you how the vehicle was driven. If it was serviced every 9 months and only did low kms, was that lots of short trips or a few long trips? Even if it’s done 15,000 kms in the 9 months, it’s probably less of an issue unless it was continuous city stop start traffic … but how would you know which it was …

And that’s the issue in not not considering all aspects which you can’t work out without speaking to the previous owner. Buying used is always a bit of a crap shoot…

PS: and who knows what quality oils were used in the vehicle’s life… heck dealers seem to use same oil in multiple cars and I doubt it’s the best… probably the cheapest mixed use oil that meets minimum specs... Not the best oil that enthusiasts want to use…

I’d be much more suspicious of a low mileage vehicle (for the age) than a high mileage one. Most people would look at it the other way around and view the high mileage one as the car to give a miss but if a 10 year old vehicle only has 50,000kms on it there’s a fairly good chance that it’s only been doing short trips and can have sludge issues if the owner hasn‘t serviced it properly or used inferior oil.

A high mileage car on the other hand is almost certain to have done mostly highway kilometres and even if they used inferior quality oil it’s a lot less likely to be an issue as the VOCs get to burn off so even inferior quality oil would most likely last the 15,000km service interval.

 

[Banjo79]

Your overdramatising it. The alloytec isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be. The early ones had the timing chain drama but that was fixed early in the piece.

The videos you see on YouTube of oil sludging will be from people using inferior quality oil or not following the correct service intervals, like thinking they can do 15,000km service intervals when they only drive half a kilometre to the church on Sundays.

I‘ve only done standard service intervals (15,000kms) on my 2009 SV6 from when I bought it with 50,000kms on it. It’s now got 330,000kms on it and it’s still going.

As long as it’s got logbooks for regular servicing it should easily have another 100,000kms under it before it’s even a possibility to have any major issues.

Maybe. But when Holden themselves tell owners to service at 7500km under all but perfect conditions, I think it's a reasonable statement. This is the company that says diff is sealed for life and trans at worst will need servicing at 75k, so in fact they themselves seem quite pedantic about engine oil changes.

 

[vc commodore]

Buying a 2nd hand car, no matter the kays is always a gamble....

You could get a car that is 5 years old, with 50,000K and the thing is a lemon....Needs more money thrown at it than what it is worth.

The flip side is you could buy a car that is 5 years old, with 200,000 K on it and it'll be the perfect car...Doesn't need a cent spent on it...

Talking to the owner....Most (not all I might add) will tell you what you want to hear...ie always change the oil at 5,000K....All fluids are the best money can buy....Only drive it to and from work (even though you have a drag strip running every 2nd weekend 5 minutes down the road from you).....blah blah

For me, a clean car is really suspicious....It says to me, what are you hiding....The type where you can get your tea off the engine...The under body is clean....ie no road grime....An uncleaned car in these manners show if you have an oil leak and where it is.....And yeah I know some are going to say, my car is well looked after and has no leaks....But having some signs of usage shows honesty....Cleaniness has signs of hiding problems in my eyes

 

[J_D 2.0]

Maybe. But when Holden themselves tell owners to service at 7500km under all but perfect conditions, I think it's a reasonable statement. This is the company that says diff is sealed for life and trans at worst will need servicing at 75k, so in fact they themselves seem quite pedantic about engine oil changes.

Well sealed for life is complete bs. It’s sealed for the warranty period and after that they don’t give a shite. The real problem is owners not reading their handbooks properly or having selective bias in thinking they can go 15,000kms without an oil change on their stop start city driver.

It’s quite nice to have the 15,000km option for those that can do those service intervals (like me) where it’s mostly highway driving. The important thing is people understanding that 15,000kms is an option under the right circumstances and not thinking that it’s perfectly fine to do 15,000kms in all scenarios because that’s the longest service interval.

 

[Banjo79]

Buying a 2nd hand car, no matter the kays is always a gamble....

You could get a car that is 5 years old, with 50,000K and the thing is a lemon....Needs more money thrown at it than what it is worth.

The flip side is you could buy a car that is 5 years old, with 200,000 K on it and it'll be the perfect car...Doesn't need a cent spent on it...

Talking to the owner....Most (not all I might add) will tell you what you want to hear...ie always change the oil at 5,000K....All fluids are the best money can buy....Only drive it to and from work (even though you have a drag strip running every 2nd weekend 5 minutes down the road from you).....blah blah

For me, a clean car is really suspicious....It says to me, what are you hiding....The type where you can get your tea off the engine...The under body is clean....ie no road grime....An uncleaned car in these manners show if you have an oil leak and where it is.....And yeah I know some are going to say, my car is well looked after and has no leaks....But having some signs of usage shows honesty....Cleaniness has signs of hiding problems in my eyes

You've just made me realise I've been subconsciously thinking like this all along without knowing why! Thanks for that doc. It obviously doesn't always pay to think (or not think) like that, but your right, there is something about an overly detailed second hander that can sometimes reek more than the over used air freshener itself.

 

[Pollushon]

When I was growing up no one cared about kms, they just bought the car they wanted. If something broke, you fixed it. Then along came the Camira and the 4 banger revolution (2 litres is for milk and juice ) and suddenly we saw cars that needed major work every 100k and had complexity. I personally have only owned two cars that came into this category, a Saab and a Volvo but not for long

The old Magna and VY I have now are super high km but have never let me down once. I don't doubt I'll double those kms, because they're simple, solid beasts and cause the VY is literally a new car bodyshell and cradles aside