What would you choose? Low mileage or low age?

minimac wrote: Just my experience. I bought a two year old Windstar w/80k.

yah.. but it's a windstar.. eeeek.

I've never purchased a car with less than 97K miles on it. I do go for Volvos, which are known for being durable, but a lot of other manufacturers have long-lived product these days.

My current DD was 4 years old with 97K on the clock when I bought it. I got it cheap, did the 105K maintenance (timing belt, fluid flushes, etc...) and plan to enjoy it for the next 1/2 million miles.

Ignorant wrote: yah.. but it's a windstar.. eeeek.

I never thought I'd agree with you and say "You're Right!"

minimac wrote:

Ignorant wrote: yah.. but it's a windstar.. eeeek.

I never thought I'd agree with you and say "You're Right!"

lot of people agreeing with me these days..

HA!

The windstar was one vehicle, I'm glad my family never purchased. Now an old Aerostar would have been cool, while not very efficient that old 3.0 can go forever and 3 days.

minimac wrote: Just my experience. I bought a two year old Windstar w/80k. My thinking at the time was it was run all the time and it had a new transmission installed. What could go wrong? I went less than 500 highway miles before the transmission went again on a trip. To make a long, aggravating story short, the transmission was replaced(3x) again, torque converter was replaced four times, and was on its way again when it went back (lemon law)to the dealer. I will NEVER buy a high mileage car again. I will gladly replace 30 year old rubber and bushings,and be relatively dependable than take a chance on constantly being stranded due to worn out parts/components.

Only on a Windstar would 80k be considered "High Mileage." That vehicle is a "survivor" of Ford's dark ages. (BTDT). Killed ours at about 77k. Transmission was OK, but we had persistent current leak ("normal," according to the tech) and replaced the alternator two or three times before they found a good one. (Not related to the leak.)

Maintenance. I'd rather have a car with 150,000 well maintained miles vs. 80,000 miles of redline hoonage.