LIVING THE HIGH LIFE

A high mileage scares most people away from a used car, but John Evans promises that some are bargains, not money pits

- John Evans

It all started with a 390,000-mile Toyota Prius – a 2011 60-reg 1.8 VVT-h T Spirit, to be precise. A friend spotted it in the classifieds and reckoned that at £3150 and with 12 months’ A breakdown cover, it was worth a look. Personally, I reckon he was swayed by the seller’s use of that oldest trick in the book: “First to see will buy.” Still, I made the call, and you know what? “First to see” had done exactly that.

It set me thinking about high-mileage Prii (the plural of Prius, apparently). There are just so many of them. Is it the UK’s most plentiful leggy motor? Very possibly, although there are tons of mileagey Ford Mondeos and Volkswagen Passats, too – unsurprisingly, given their fleet associations. However, it’s the Prius that keeps popping up in the small ads, due in the main to its popularity among private-hire vehicle (PHV) drivers and operators.

My friend’s Prius may have sold overnight, but it took me a second to find another with the same mileage.

IS BUYING A HIGH-MILER A GOOD IDEA?

There's nothing special about a high-mileage car; most cars can do well over 200,000 miles if looked after. Proponents argue that they're good value for money and that running one helps save the planet by extracting the most value from the CO2 produced in its manufacturing (ignoring its higher emissions, of course). However, seriously high-mileage cars are generally old cars with, unless they're a Volvo or a Mercedes-Benz, poorer levels of crash safety. Being older means they're slower, dirtier and generally less refined than newer cars, too. All that said, there's no doubt that running a well-bought high-mileage car does feel like you're beating the system.