Why is 100,000 miles bad?

For some reason, in the UK, we deem cars that have over 100,000 miles to be worth far less than those without.

But what is it about 6 figure mileage in the UK that makes buyers cower away. It seems odd that a car with 95,000 miles is seen to be a far more attractive buy than a car with 100,000 miles. The only difference is a couple of thousand miles, which could be done in a year.

Interestingly, the average number of miles per year by the current driver is 5300 (RAC foundation, 2021). There has been a drop of the average mileage covered per car as the number of cars per household has risen. We know there was a sharp decline during the pandemic, and with this changing many people’s commuting habits, it has yet to bounce back.

But even still, in the UK at least, used cars with 100,000 miles seem to be worth far less than those with slightly lower mileage. We have an apparent issue with a car’s odometer displaying six figures. There is no reason for this, as the car is likely to be as reliable as it was 10,000 miles ago provided the service history is up to date.

Our daily family car is sitting on around 127,000 miles and it has been utterly faultless. I even used it for an article about winter tyres. Although it is from a brand which consistently wins reliability awards, it has never gone wrong. That being said, Lexus wouldn’t advertise a 100,000+ car on any of their dealerships. Indicating there is some apparent curse with them.

On much older cars, the issue isn’t as problematic – but still buyers are put off by the reading. Whilst the actual valuations don’t differ too much the older you go, the perceived value still occurs. I find myself doing it, too. When browsing Auto Trader for the 92nd time a day, I will be instantly put off by 100K mileage cars from the vast majority of manufacturers. There is no real explanation I can gather for why I feel that way.

Let’s look at some stats

It isn’t just me, CarGurus found that only 13.3% of Brits would consider purchasing a petrol car with over 100K on the clock. That number is a little higher for diesels with that figure sat at 15.5%. But with electric vehicles, that number is only 8.9%, presumably because the technology is still relatively new.

What is perhaps the most surprising piece of data, is that buyers would be put off from buying a petrol car if the mileage was over 60,500. For diesels, slightly higher at 64,000 and EV’s a lot lower at 49,900. There is no data regarding both statistics for hybrids, but with Lexus and Toyota being firm runners in that category – the numbers should be higher. Or would they?

Now, my current personal vehicle is a Mercedes C350e plug-in hybrid. As far as the powertrain is considered, it has been wholly reliable with no hiccups. Yet, all I seem to see on the online forums are those who always chant the same rhetoric – “I hope you’ve saved up for a battery replacement as it will cost more than the car”. Simply put, no it won’t. I won’t bore you with the detailed cost of a replacement, but a second-hand battery can be had for around £1,500. Those who have never owned one seem to see this as the biggest barrier to buying one. There was a well-documented case of a 2014 E-Class hybrid ‘needing’ a replacement battery. There are no specific details on this but I can say that my car is on 74,000ish miles is a 2016 – yet it has been trouble-free from that perspective. If my car was sat at 100K, I can see it being incredibly difficult to sell.

We know that batteries do degrade over time, and this hurts the reliability aspect and therefore the amount of mileage or ‘wear’ the battery has, is a huge concern. With the automotive landscape changing rather rapidly, will we see a glut of cheap, high-mileage EV’s and hybrids? Will EV’s reach an ‘end of life’ stage and be destined for recycling?

We can’t say for certain on what will happen. But would you consider a high-mileage hero, fossil fuel or electron fuel?