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Thanks to modern technology, you no longer have to worry about buying a used car from the last decade with 99,000 miles on the odometer.
The automobile has been around for more than a century, which means automakers and the suppliers that support them have had plenty of time to hone their craft. The result of that continuous improvement is a fleet of modern vehicles that can travel more than 100,000 miles with little more than routine maintenance. Here are five reasons why you might want to consider a high-mileage option when shopping for your next used car.
Modern cars are built to a higher standard
As technology has improved, so has the quality of cars. Advanced computer technology now makes it possible to quickly develop and test components in the virtual world before a single part is built. And when that part makes the transition to production, it does so with extreme precision thanks to technological improvements in the production process. For example, Toyota says it can produce parts with very tight tolerances,down to a thousandth of a millimeter. It is about 1/100 the thickness of a standard sheet of paper.
Today's assembly lines also feature robotic tools and strict quality controls that ensure vehicles roll out of the factory exactly as they were designed.
Synthetic oils are widely used
Not only has the quality of car parts improved over the years, but so have the fluids used in them. Many new cars now use synthetic engine and transmission oils, which offer several advantages over their conventional counterparts. These include better resistance to failure, improved lubrication and the ability to perform over a wider temperature range. In addition, most synthetic oils contain detergents to keep the parts clean, as well as additives such as zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate to reduce wear, making them last well over 100,000 miles.
Detailed vehicle history data is available
It is impossible to collect the entire history of a car through visual inspection. Fortunately, figuring out whether it's a cream puff or a lemon is as easy as running a car history report. Online services like CarFax and AutoCheck collect data from manufacturers, dealers, auto repair shops and police departments to give you everything from service visit data to accident reports and recall information. A CarFax report, which costs about $45, also includes the mileage, so you can see if the odometer has been tampered with, as well as any place the vehicle was registered – important if you want to weed out candidates who once lived in Rust. Belt.
Modern technology is ingrained
It's unlikely that a car with more than 100,000 miles on the odometer is a year or two old, but that doesn't necessarily mean the technology on board is outdated. Cabin tech really took off in the mid-teens, when features like 360-degree cameras, blind-spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto became commonplace. As long as you don't go looking for the very latest, you should be able to find the features you want in a high-mileage car.
High mileage used cars offer tremendous value
After more than 100,000 miles, a car has pretty much reached the bottom of the depreciation curve, so the purchase price will likely be a fraction of what it once was. And at that price, the car is unlikely to depreciate significantly during your ownership.
