caddyowner

Your 150K v. 50K comparison is pretty unrealistic. What is more normal is a decision among cars that have mileage totals that average under 10K miles per year, 12-15K miles per year, and over 20K miles per year. I suggest folks buying a used car first determine how many miles they will likely put on the car.

- If a person is average and will drive 12-15K per year, it doesn't make much difference what they buy. If they pay more for a low mileage car, they may have more (or some) warranty left and will be able to resell the car for a bit more than an average mileage car in a few years. If they pay less for a higher mileage car, they may have no warranty and could have higher repair (or aftermarket / CPO warranty costs) and will have a lower resale value.

- If a person is a low mileage driver, they may benefit from buying a higher mileage car as they can buy low and later sell the car with normal mileage for it's age.

- If a person is a high mileage driver, they can buy a low mileage car and later also sell it with near normal mileage for it's age. I fall in this category, driving nearly 25K miles per year. I bought a 5 year old LS430 with 30K miles. If I sell the car in 5 years, it will have about average mileage for it's age.

Turbinator

I always prefer cars with lower mileage in general. Less likely there are going to be issues with them. No guarantee, but this is a general blanket opinion.

Turby

kikcaffine

iTrader: (3)

Low mileage FTW. Would you yourself buy a car that had near 200,000 miles on it when you were done? (150k at purchase + 50k of you driving).

SLegacy99

I purchased my Subie with 69k miles on it...that was almost 60k miles ago. I place less emphasis on miles than I used to. Cars across the board are running longer. Even Chryslers.

superchan7

I would go for lower-mileage cars mostly for the typically better interior condition, especially if the seats and other frequently touched surfaces are leather and will show wear easily.

iRock

iTrader: (12)

My vote is for less mileage... I've had bad luck with used cars in the past so I would naturally gravitate towards less mileage