Community › The Bump Month Clubs
New Discussion
Options

NBR- What's good mileage for a 2003 car?

AshleyC0117AshleyC0117 member
in April 2012 Moms

I know NOTHING about cars except that me and my husband are debating buying one in the near future because we've been spending a ton of money on rental cars/zip cars and I foresee this continuing because we're about to have 2 dogs + 1 baby. 

I live in the city and would use this car for weekend trips only.

We were looking into getting a new VW jetta wagon and now someone we know (but not a close friend) in our neighborhood is selling their 2003 VW passat wagon which is basically the same car... except this one is a 2003, which I feel like was one day ago but apparently 2003 was almost 10 years ago. 

The car has 74,000 miles on it. It's priced cheaper than what we're getting for our tax refund this year which is what is tempting me to buy it... but then I wonder if a 2003 car is old and crappy by now.

So, people that own cars... any thoughts?  

Report Reply to Post

Re: NBR- What's good mileage for a 2003 car?

  • Options
    stacieann15stacieann15 member
    I have a 2002 that has 115000 miles on it. When we got it in 2006, it had 63,000 on it.  :)
    Report Reply
  • Options
    kasper923kasper923 member
    I have a 2003 and I have 205,000 miles on my car.....that's not good but I've had absolutely no problems.  I think you average 12-15,000 miles per year.
    Report Reply
  • Options
    sweetdreams2000sweetdreams2000

    The mileage sounds pretty good on it.  A normal driver puts 10-15K of miles on their car per year. . . so given that it's 9 yrs old it seems like it is below the norm for mileage.

    If you're interested in it, I'd recommend getting a mechanic to check it out though.  And ask the seller if they have maintenance records for it. 

    Also, do you plan on putting a lot of miles on it for your weekend trips?  I know for a lot of cars (not sure about VW specifically), 100K is a milestone for maintenance/tuneups, etc.  So if you're planning to put a lot of miles on it for your trips, you could hit that point fairly quickly.  If not, it sounds like a good car to keep aroudn for a few yrs.

    Report Reply
  • Options
    BigAppleBiggerBellyBigAppleBiggerBelly member

    No car advice here (though my last car was a VW and was awesome...in '03) but I'm glad to know we're not the only ones considering buying a weekend car.  I'm guessing that hopping on buses and trains won't be as easy with a baby.

     That sounds like a great deal to me.  Where would you be parking it?  We are definitely not buying new because I don't want to get upset over the inevitable street parking scratches and dents on a pristine paint job.

    Report Reply
  • Options
    AshleyC0117AshleyC0117 member
    imageBigAppleBiggerBelly:

    No car advice here (though my last car was a VW and was awesome...in '03) but I'm glad to know we're not the only ones considering buying a weekend car.  I'm guessing that hopping on buses and trains won't be as easy with a baby.

     That sounds like a great deal to me.  Where would you be parking it?  We are definitely not buying new because I don't want to get upset over the inevitable street parking scratches and dents on a pristine paint job.

    Yea, as much as I love being a non car owner it's getting to be less and less realistic. We'd be doing street parking for sure... There's actually pretty decent street parking here in Park Slope so we'd just have to move it once a week for the alternate side day. An old car is appealing for this reason but I just don't want it to have alot of problems.

     Im also pretending that because our tax refund exceeds the price of the car that the car is free, haha 

    Report Reply
  • Options
    acbeemanacbeeman
    That is great mileage. Generally, you can figure a car should have between 10-12k miles per year it has aged. So you would be looking between 90-110k mikes average. The miles of that Passat would be considered low miles. Make sure you ask the seller if they have done the timing belt and water pump (or it will set you back a few grand in the future). Also make sure the Turbo hasn't been replaced, if it has ensure it was done under warranty by VW or you'll run in to a whole slew of problems.
    Report Reply
  • Options
    snoangel79snoangel79 member
    I've been a "car girl" since before I could drive. That is really good mileage for a 2003 I'm assuming local driving only because normally people put on at least 10k a year. See if you can bring it to your mechanic to check it out. Sounds like a good deal, not sure what you are paying but from your description it does sound good. VW can be a little more expensive to repair compared to Ford, Toyota etc. I think they are decent cars though (not nearly as good as a Honda or Toyota though in reliability). I used to want a Jetta though back in the day "it seemed like the coolest girl car" <:>
    Report Reply
  • Options
    kkfeb04kkfeb04 member
    I can just tell you what my mileage is on our cars and that is with DH's 80 mile daily commute.  We have two 2002 cars bought a month apart brand new.  The first was the Impala in Aug. 2002, it now has 107,000 and that includes about 25 trips to Mass, Florida, Virginia.  Our coupe has 145,000 and is not driven on trips but DH does drive it to work 5 days a week.
    Report Reply
This discussion has been closed.