Now, I’m speaking on average, with typical driving habits. Of course things vary.
I’m wondering this because I saw a friend who just purchased a used car with 98k on it. It didn’t seem like a bad deal, but him not knowing much about cars, couldn’t tell that it was in need of front end work. Now a month after purchase he’s out $1100.
If one was purchasing a car with around 100k, and the front end has never been serviced, should you use that to negotiate a lower price considering such work (struts, rods, bushings, etc.) is in the very near future?
There are too many variables. Environmental conditions, road salt, driving through pooled rainwater, and road surfaces all have an effect. Some cars may need little or nothing at 150k miles and others may need suspension work every 30k miles due to crappy roads.
Negotiating front end repairs without knowing if there is even anything wrong with it may not go over well with the seller.
@gdawgs Agree; highway driving on smooth roads can give several hundred thousand miles of trouble-free service.
We sold our 1994 Nissan Sentra at 140,000 miles in 2012 without any front end work needed.
Don’t confuse front end work with replacing CV joins and/or shafts. Those are part of the power train and may need earlier replacement. Front end work is suspension and steering only.
Were the repairs really necessary. Two years ago a friends son took his newly purchased Saturn to a full service McMuffler shop to get an oil change and FREE INSPECTION. The inspection resulted in $1,300 in critically needed work being found. I jacked up the car and removed the wheels to inspect everything and found that the shop had not even removed the rear drums yet they condemned the rear shoes, wheel cylinders and drums. The front pads were replaced and the car has now been driven many tens of thousands of miles with no problems. It is possible, even likely that the $1,100 in repairs was not necessary @Demo_Beta.
I never needed to do any front end work on my Toyota pickup, and it lasted 17 years and 325,000 miles. My Ford needed ball joints and tie rod ends at 13 years and 245,000 miles. I had a Mazda that needed struts, ball joints and tie rod ends at 8 years and 175,000 miles. There are too many variables, as mentioned above. They just need to be done when they need to be done. But sometimes a mechanic needs to make a boat payment.
Any used car should be checked over thoroughly by a reputable shop before any purchase decision is made. Yeah, it’ll cost a hundred bucks or so, but it’s well worth it.
For the record, your friend got off easy. Countless people buy used cars and find out that they’re totally shot and ready for wither a total restoration or a crusher. Many other buy a used car and discover that it’s been in an accident and will never track properly again. I have a neighbor who gets “great deals” time & time again and always gets screwed. He bought a car once… looked beautiful all shined up… but after not being able to locate a strange noise he took it to a shop and they discovered that the rear clip had been riveted on… badly riveted on… by someone trying to hoard rivets. Clearly the car had been in a serious rear-ender.