Mileage can still have a big effect on the value of a used car. A lower mileage than the average you’d expect from a car of a given age makes it more expensive; higher makes it less expensive.
For example, the retail price of a three-year-old petrol-engine Volkswagen Golf with 10,000 miles is £20,000. The same car with 30,000 miles drops to £18,100; 60,000 miles falls to £15,200 and 100,000 miles brings the price down to £12,300.
Used car valuation provider Cap-HPI sets prices from daily data from trade sales, auctions, rental and leasing companies, and specialist remarketing companies. It then provides pricing guidance for all cars to the motor trade and is also used by many consumer websites offering online valuations. The values it provides for an individual model of car are adjusted for age, mileage, and condition.
But, says Derren Martin, Cap-HPI director of valuations, more people are wising up to the fact that cars with higher mileages are not necessarily bad news.
“Over time people have probably become more accepting, and that’s mainly down to reliability. Some cars can run and run. Mileage is a factor, I would say it’s one of the main factors, but it’s not as important as it maybe was a few years ago.”
Many three-to-four year-old cars now have low mileages because of sitting idle during the pandemic, and then a slow return to commuting by car. For petrol cars up to two years old, Cap’s average mileage reckoning has gone down from 11,000 in 2019 to 9,500.
The recent supply problems with new cars and the consequent rise in interest and values of used cars has changed both dealer and public perception of high mileages. Franchised dealers have lost the steady supply of three-year old cars returned from a leasing or PCP deal, and have had to buy in older stock of a different make to the ones they sell. Those older cars inevitably tend to have higher mileages.
Franchise dealers used to look away from ten-year-old cars, but again because of shortages have changed their views. “You see plenty of 2013 and 2014 cars on the road, and they’ll have more than 100,000 miles. Is that OK on a ten-year-old car? Absolutely,” says Derren.
Buyers have tended to think that a lower than average mileage means a car has had less wear and tear, so is a better bet for the future, but it depends on how that happened.
It could have sat on the driveway during and after the pandemic, but could also only have been driven for very short journeys around town. That would give the clutch, gears, brakes and battery more of a pummelling than cruising more miles along motorways, its engine fully warmed up and without much gear-changing.
Electric cars – low or high miles?
You might think that electric cars will have been racking up lower mileages because historically they have had shorter ranges, but not so, says Derren (excepting that the overall volume for Cap-HPI stats is lower than combustion-engined cars and that these are electric cars going through auctions).
“When you get to between two and three years-old, the EVs actually have higher mileage than petrol. Still lower than diesel, but higher than petrol.” This is working out to an annual average EV mileage of 10,600 miles, compared to 9,500 miles for petrol (which in itself has gone down from 11,000 in 2019).
Of course, a lot of EVs are bought by company car drivers because of the tax benefits and high mileage used EVs aren’t hard to find. Teslas with more than 100,000 miles are common, and across the world some have been reported at 300,000 miles.
A quick search of a well-known used car supermarket site showed up a Jaguar I-Pace which had covered 61,000 miles in four years, and a Kia e-Niro with almost 54,000 miles in two years.
While it’s accepted that there’s less to go wrong mechanically on electric cars (software glitches are more common) and that batteries are known to last over very high mileages, the great unknown is battery condition, as over time the ability to hold the original full charge/range will lessen.
More important is to know how an electric car has been charged up, for example how often it has been fast-charged which generates heat – or whether it has been ‘topped up’ or ‘run down’ consistently (the best advice is to charge them only to 80% on a regular basis).
“That’s a really hot topic at the moment,” says Derren. “And something that there isn’t really enough data or a uniform way of measuring the state of health of the battery. It’s not just the number of times it’s charged, it’s how you charge it.”
While there are companies who will test the efficiency of a used car battery, the prospect of most dealers providing a battery health report with a used car is some way off. The only way a consumer can check is to charge the car fully and compare the range displayed to the one originally quoted, but this could vary dependent on weather conditions and usage.
At the other end of the fuel popularity stakes, a used diesel car with a high mileage can still be just right for some people. Used diesels usually have higher mileages than petrol or electric cars, as they have long been traditional workhorses used for long journeys.
Most buyers will accept a higher mileage on a diesel car and buy at a lower price. They are built to take it and usually will have gathered those miles on motorways. For people who live in rural areas, a diesel still makes a lot of sense, but if you live in a city – especially one with a clean air zone, such as London’s ULEZ – a used diesel is probably not for you.
Be wary of old hybrid cars, which are quite likely to have been used as taxis, or private hire cars. The Toyota Prius is the prime example and is famed for being able to withstand stellar mileages, so be careful if you’re being offered an oddly low-mileage example.
Mileage checking
Because it impacts value you need to be sure that the mileage displayed is the true mileage. If buying from a franchised dealer you can assume it is what it says, but further down the food chain ‘clocking’ or the practice of dialling down the mileage on a digital odometer still goes on. Look up ‘mileage correction’ on the internet. Some of it will be legit, but mostly it’s not.
If you have doubts, a vehicle history check will cost you about £10 and will report mileage, previous owners and whether it’s had an accident or is stolen.
You can also get the lowdown on how a car’s mileage has been built up over the years for free by using the gov.uk MOT history check facility by putting in the registration number. This will tell you the date of each MOT test and the mileage it was taken at. “If it goes up a lot over a year period compared with others that could be a bit of a bit of a pointer to what that car’s been used for in that year,” says Derren. “If that looks a little bit strange it’s probably just something to be wary of.”
Checking the service history of any used car is vital and also provides a track of a car’s mileage. Traditional proof of each service used to be a date stamp and note of the mileage in the service book which comes in the bundle with the handbook, but this is dying out.
If the service record is digital, you should still get a printout to check both the mileage and the service history. If it’s not offered, ask for a printout. Data privacy rules (GDPR) don’t prevent you asking the garage that previously serviced the car you’re looking at to print out a simple list of what was carried out when.
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