![]() ![]() The the average car in the United States is now nearly 12 years old and fully one-quarter of cars are over 16 years old, It’s common to see quality used cars with over 100,000 miles now, but typically below 150,000. In the 1990s, it was commonly thought that most cars were worn out after 100,000 miles or 10 years, but improved quality standards have boosted the longevity of vehicles. The higher mileage a vehicle has, the more mechanical wear it has, which might mean replacing parts sooner or a series of expenses as components wear out. The older a vehicle is, the more its component parts may age and the more difficult it can be to get spare parts for, though mainstream brand cars shouldn’t have too many difficulties. Q: Does mileage matter on used cars? What’s more important, age or mileage?īoth mileage and age matter, but how a vehicle has been maintained matters more. That may cost some money over time, but $5,000 is still less than one-third the cost of buying even the cheapest brand-new 2021 car and even most late-model certified pre-owned cars. These cars can also provide hassle-free transportation for a long time to come provided they have been maintained and buyers continue to invest in maintenance. Vehicles over 10 years old are at or near the bottom of their depreciation curve, the time when a car is too old to be considered new but too young to be a “classic.” It’s in this area where some of the best values can be found, but you have to be willing to shop around, inspect carefully and live without some modern features. We did the research, but we still recommend you investigate your choices further before purchase and, as indicated above, pre-purchase inspections are recommended. We also left off some models due to higher-than-average recall incidents.Īlthough we can generally provide guidance on which models may be the best value or the most reliable, we cannot make any guarantees about how individual cars will perform. We focused specifically on providing maximum value and reliability for the price, prioritizing models which are known for durability and low cost of operation, but also tried hard to provide a variety of models to suit different tastes. The Saturn Astra, another GM car from the same era based on a European Opel design, does not. The Pontiac Vibe, a badge-engineered sister to the Toyota Matrix, enjoys good service support. Defunct brands often lose value, which can make them a good buy later on, but it can also depend on the model and the manufacturer. In all cases, the vehicles’ manufacturers still exist and there’s generally adequate parts and service support. Some of the vehicles on our list come from defunct brands. For example, the 2005-2007 Saab 9-2x may make a great used car but there isn’t enough data to properly gauge its reliability due to its low sales numbers when new and it’s too hard to find for most buyers. Older models, with fewer data points, required more evaluation or were generally left off for lack of available data. We sampled hundreds of used car listings from Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Phoenix and Seattle. In addition to these criteria, the vehicle had to have average transaction prices under or near $5,000, be manufactured after 1996 and be generally available in five major geographic markets. To determine our list of the best vehicles under $5,000, we cross-referenced a broad range of reliability and quality scores, evaluations by vehicle testers, thousands of long-term reports and reviews from owners and factored in our own long-term experiences with these vehicles as new and used cars. Potentially high maintenance costs and expensive tires.A two-seater, it lacks much cargo space. ![]()
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