I am curious if there is a statistical curve for the kilometres travelled by cars of a certain age? So let us say that after so many years, the mean is 200,000 km, what percentile would have less than 100,000 or 50,000? I presume the curves must be different for each type of vehicle (sedan, 4WD, van et cetera)
What's a kilometre? We only do miles here. ;-)
Not sure where you're going with this or what you hope to establish. I dare say that now that MOT certificates are held on line the DVLA could access the data but I'm not sure how easy it would be for anyone else to get the figures.
Tim
Anonymised MOT tests and results
Published by Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency. Licensed under [Open Government Licence] Open Government Licence. Openness rating: Open Data Certificate: Raw Level NII Transport All MOT tests and outcomes, including make and model of vehicle, odometer reading and reasons for failure, since the MOT system was computerised in 2005.
Since the March 2012 release the dataset has included a unique reference ID for each individual vehicle. This allows users to track individual vehicles through all the tests it has undergone.
Agreed. And I note that the Subject line referred to 'Mileage' rather than 'Kilometrage', so the OP is subconsciously using the correct units.
Since posting, I found a spreadsheet, giving mileage bands. It appears that (in UK) 5% of cars do less than 2000 miles per year. They would be quite desirable. However, if you go through car sales websites, you find hardly any for sale. Presumably a 20-YO car with less than 40,000 miles is something the owner wants to keep (because it is still perfectly driveable).
A car that has never 'got up to temperature' because it is only driven a few miles a day will probably have a lot more problems than one that has done an average mileage per annum.
It mainly depends on how many owners and of what type. Most new cars start off as business owned. Ant may clock up the majority of their miles in a short time before being traded in. Private owners tend to do fewer miles per year.
Oh - it's still the case that perhaps the majority of cars get 'clocked' at some point. Especially high mileage relatively new ones, after escaping the dealer network.
Thing is it's very difficult to be certain of a 20 year old car's true mileage. Unless one owner with a complete and genuine service history.
Old MOTs do record the mileage - but many cars do a vast milage before the first MOT is due.
Quite a few cars round here are used infrequently. Owner commuting by PT. There's a Porsche (second car) which usually needs the AA to get it started, as the battery is flat. But does do a longish journey when used.
Depends what you mean by "up to temperature", if you mean it literally, most seem to manage it (on the gauge at least) in a mile or so.
If you meant figuratively (as I suppose you do) then I agree. Even more so if it is accompanied by lack of maintenance, usually because it isn't perceived as "necessary" due to the low mileage. Neighbour recently scrapped a 20 year old car with 35K miles (definitely genuine) on it, mainly because the cam belt snapped* due to a seized water pump - but in addition it had collapsed suspension rubbers, a corroded exhaust, brakes that barely worked enough to scrape an MOT and a broken rear spring. That latter having happened just before the belt snapped, think the car was trying tell him something :) :)
*After several "teeth" fell off and got stuck in the cogs, turns out the belt had never been changed from new...
As above, and most new cars will have a relatively high mileage as even private owners will tend to justify the expense by using the new toy. Some older cars will have one ?probably elderly? owner who drives rarely and is used for a shopping cart, others may be too beat-up to risk on a long journey. So on the whole I would expect the curve to flatten as the car gets older.
Now it's recorded as part of the MOT it is perhaps easier to look for suspicious irregularities. Although now the first MOT is not to be for 4 years the chance to clock the initial high milelage will be greater.
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We have a 10 year old Nissan Micra with 50K on the clock. It has yet to let us down and passes the MOT every year. Btw, it looks and drives like new.
1 owner from new is very rare. Most people that buy new cars consider any car over 3 years old to be so out of date they can't be seen in it.
The 1st owner did 60K in 3 years. The 2nd did 50K in next 5. The 3rd did 40K in 5 years. It's now on 4th owner and has got 168K.
You have to turn the question around: A driver has a given mileage need, what car will he use for that?
I drive a lot on motorways, looking around me as I am bored, I'm surprised how new the other cars are. Cars from previous millennium are a rare sight. I wonder, what happened to those not-so new cars? My car is 1995 Saab, it's immaculate, quiet and refined. Admittedly, only get 35mpg. Most of the cars around me on motorway are diesels.
Form new car advertisements, diesels have almost become the default. Either that or tiny turbo engine, no more large engines.
US department of transport published a report in 2002 claiming that 3.5% of cars had tampered odometers. Since then most are electronic, but I suppose they can be hacked by those with the know-how.
There are a number of reasons for that.
More than 60% of new vehicles are purchased by companies. Their accountants have a responsibility to keep costs to a a minimum, and in most cases the cost per mile for a diesel doing high annual mileages in the first three years of ownership will be lower than an equivalent petrol vehicle.
Companies need to keep the emissions impact of their fleet low; again, a diesel is more likely to do this. In many cases, vans, and sometimes cars, are speed-restricted via the ECU to achieve further reductions. (This is going to cause 'amusement' for buyers along the line!)
The downside to all this is the particulate pollution our cities are suffering however.
Chris
The Bugatti Veyron.
The 2009 scrappage scheme.
The Chancellor may be changing that.
Those who can only afford an older car were unlikely to have traded in a old car for new.
There were many people with older, second cars that they had owned for a while, who could afford a new one.
Yes. It's obviously far more profitable to clock a relatively new car than an old one. And plenty repmobiles do what a private owner might consider to be a lifetime's mileage before the first MOT. The auctions are full of such cars. Which soon appear at a non franchise dealer as a low mileage one owner car. ;-) This has been going on since cars were invented - and no government has ever even attempted to stop this fraud.
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