{"id":1347,"date":"2014-09-14T12:42:34","date_gmt":"2014-09-14T16:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2021-02-13T16:27:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-13T22:27:21","slug":"the-secret-to-buying-a-300000-mile-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.logikalsolutions.com\/wordpress\/thank-you-sir-may-i-have-another\/the-secret-to-buying-a-300000-mile-car\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret to Buying a 300K Mile Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve bought more than one vehicle from the Internet.\u00a0 Sometimes through car sales sites and other times on eBay auctions.\u00a0 People always ask me “How can you know you aren’t getting a pile of junk?”\u00a0 It is pretty easy.\u00a0 My real question to them is “Why aren’t you buying on-line?”\u00a0 You still pay the vehicle tax for your area when you register it so it isn’t like you are taking textbooks from children or cops off the street.<\/p>\n

Vehicles I’ve bought on-line fall into two categories.\u00a0 Nice cars and old Jeeps.\u00a0 Old Jeeps are project vehicles.\u00a0 I only look at XJ Jeeps with 4.0 motors or Grand Wagoneers with the AMC 360 V8 engine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently I only have one XJ which I hardly get to drive.\u00a0 Not because it doesn’t run but because I travel out of state for months on end.\u00a0 You have to immerse yourself in the culture of old Jeeps before buying one, and you have to like working on a vehicle.\u00a0 NO!\u00a0 I’m not interested in any more project vehicles.<\/strong>\u00a0 I don’t have the time and haven’t finished my shed.\u00a0 It still needs sub-floor heating, insulation, central air compressor and most importantly a BendPak frame lift.\u00a0 Some day I will get it done, but no time soon.<\/p>\n

Finding a car which will run 300K<\/h2>\n

Finding a car which will run 300K without major repairs is quite easy.\u00a0 Here are the steps:<\/p>\n

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  1. Log on to at least three but preferably five car sales Web sites like AutoTrader.com, Cars.com, etc.<\/li>\n
  2. Choose a make and model you are interested in.\u00a0 Update the search results to include “any distance” and vehicles over 200,000 miles. (some sites only have over 100,000 as an option.)<\/li>\n
  3. Sort your search results, if any, by highest mileage.<\/li>\n
  4. Create a text file with text editor or word processor or spreadsheet.\u00a0 Make note of how many you find for each model year with north of 250,000 miles on them.<\/li>\n
  5. Repeat the above step a few times per week for 3-5 weeks because cars come and go.<\/li>\n
  6. Sort your list by count.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The model year with the most entries is the one you should be interested in.<\/p>\n

    Once you’ve identified the model, next is year and lower miles<\/h2>\n

    If that model year isn’t quite new enough for you move down the list until you get a new enough model year which has had quite a few high mileage units for sale.<\/p>\n

    Now you need to do your actual vehicle search for that make\/model\/year and the lowest miles\/price ratio you can find.<\/p>\n

    Just now I did a quick search for Toyota Avalon 2000-2015 vehicles north of 200,000 miles and priced $11K and under on AutoTrader.com.\u00a0 It shows 52 vehicles matching my criteria.\u00a0 Years 2000-2006 seem to be pretty well represented on the first page of results.\u00a0 I’m not looking for another Avalon right now.\u00a0 I picked a 2006 up not long ago.\u00a0 Bought it on-line while I was on the left coast and picked it up a bit over a week later when I got home.<\/p>\n

    What have I had to do?<\/p>\n