Years versus Mileage on used cars

sjashinski

Its time to start looking for a car for my teenager. I have narrowed it down to several makes/models and have set a budget for this purchase. What I would like some opinions on is whether it is better to buy an slightly older car with less miles or a new car with more miles. For example, a VW Jetta is on the list and I found an '08 with 75,000 miles and a 2011 with 110K miles for the same price. Which would you chose?

I know there is no one answer but hoping to at least get a framework for making the decision when I am ready to actually buy a car.

Thanks

texases

The most important thing when I did this was the safety rating and equipment. Older cars may have as much as newer cars. I used this site, it ranks all cars, combining available crash test results:
http://www.informedforlife.org/

Michaell

Another issue is how the car was cared for ... if you can get maintenance records for both cars, that might help your decision making.

carboy21

Everything else being the same, lower miles is preferable provided the car has been well maintained .
More the miles, worse the wear for the engine and transmission.

texases

I would like to see at least 8,000 miles/year, much less and I start worrying about the car being driven rarely, without enough maintenance.

Mr_Shiftright

I agree that there's no straight answer here. All new cars are the same but every used car is different, and has to be judged on a number of factors. For a German car, I'd generally choose lower miles, but I'd also take a very careful look at the maintenance record before making up my mind.

isellhondas

If you are concerned about durability I would, for sure take Volkswagen off your list!

For that matter, anything european.