When shopping for a used car, it can be easy to focus on the wrong things. For example, you may pass over a perfectly good vehicle just because you’re not thrilled with the color. You might also get too enamored with a car just because it has low mileage.
Wait, Isn’t Low Mileage Good?
If all things were equal, yes. However, mileage never tells the full story. It’s important to know that the average driver in this country puts about 14,000 miles on his or her car yearly.
This means that a five-year-old car should have about 70,000 miles to fall in with the average. Anything significantly higher than that could be cause for concern. The same is true, however, if that number is much lower.
Why Low Mileage Could be a Red Flag
Let’s take that five-year-old car as an example. With 70,000 miles, you know the previous owner or owners drove the average per-year miles. Now let’s say that car only has 40,000 miles. That per-year number is only 8,000. Sounds great, right? Well, it may actually be too good to be true.
A car with so few miles could mean it wasn’t driven that much and sat for long stretches of time without being used. This is an excellent way for parts and systems to deteriorate. Lack of use could also indicate that the previous owner didn’t think regular maintenance was terribly important.
Don’t Discount a High-Mileage Vehicle
Once again, let’s use that five-year-old car, and let’s say it has 90,000 miles. That’s 18,000 miles per year, which is pretty high. However, what if we told you that it was impeccably maintained? That the last owner never missed an oil change, tire rotation, or filter replacement? Would that change your mind?
Visit Troutman’s Chevrolet Buick GMC near Harrisburg to see all of the used vehicles in stock.
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