Opinion: here’s why you should buy a car with 500,000 miles on the clock

Age, as they say, is just a number. So too is used-car mileage. Often a large and terrifying number that causes buyers to go pale.

But, according to eBay, big mileage isn’t a number to be feared. New research from the world’s most stressful auction house reveals that, in the UK, there are now nearly six million vehicles on the road with over 100,000 miles on the clock.

That’s just the start. Almost a quarter of a million British vehicles have clocked up more than 200,000 miles, while 2,699 have passed the half-million-mile mark.

Nearly 3,000 cars with 500,000 miles under their belts! That’s an impressive number, not least because it includes three electric cars. (Great news for proof of EV longevity, less great news for whoever was behind them in the charging queue.)

Half a million miles is, in mathematical terms, a whole bunch of miles. It’s over 4,000 laps of the M25. It’s 20 laps of the Equator. It gets you to the Moon and back with plenty in the tank.

Since we’re mathsing, those 2,699 cars in the half-million-mile club have, between them, racked up at least 1.3 billion miles. That’s seven round trips to the actual SUN. Light itself – which, by any standards, boasts a decent turn of pace – takes over two hours to travel that distance. Is this is any way a useful comparison? No it is not.

So which cars are racking up 500,000-plus miles? eBay’s research didn’t reveal make and model, but we’d guess plenty of Skoda Octavias are on the list. According to a (different) recent study, one in every hundred Octavias in Britain boasts over 250,000 miles on the clock, indicating that (a) Octavias are pretty reliable and (b) taxi drivers rack up a whole lot of distance.

Probably a few original Land Rover Defenders in there, too: a couple of years back, it was revealed that 16 Defenders in Britain had passed the 750,000-mile mark. This raises interesting questions about the Ship of Theseus paradox, and also about the state of the drivers’ spines.

Anyhow. eBay reckons its research proves we shouldn’t fear buying a used car with six figures on the clock. In fact, eBay reckons we should be snapping them up, a conclusion doubtless totally unrelated to the fact eBay sells lots of parts to keep these old sheds running.

“People often overlook high mileage cars,” notes its mechanic Laura Kennedy. “But the truth is, a well-maintained vehicle with more than 100,000 miles on the clock can be a bargain. If a car has been serviced on schedule, looked after, and drives well, there’s no reason why it can’t keep going for years.”

That is, admittedly, quite a big ‘if’. Buying a car with 100,000 miles on the clock doesn’t mean you’re getting an indestructible survivor. It might, but equally it might mean you’re buying a hand grenade. The real takeaway from eBay’s diligent research, surely, isn’t ‘buy a high-mile car’. It’s ‘don’t buy a car that’s been horribly neglected’.  

That Britain contains a bunch of high-mileage vehicles doesn’t prove cars go on forever. It proves Britain has many cars, some of which sometimes last quite a long time.

Not too many, though. With some 42.5 million vehicles on Britain’s roads, that means just one in every 16,000 has made it past the half-million mile mark: roughly the same odds as a British person being struck by lightning at some point in their life. Considerably less invigorating, similarly unlikely.

All those cars that didn’t make it to 500,000 miles aren’t in the data. They’re rusting in a field in Shropshire.

But despite the fact that buying a high-mile car in no way guarantees longevity – and may well guarantee precisely the opposite – TopGear.com strongly recommends you give it a shot. Not because it’ll give years of trouble-free motoring, but because it’s a very cheap route into genuine rarity.

Consider this: there are currently some 2,800 McLarens on the road in the UK. Lamborghinis? Nearly six thousand.

Which makes a 500,000-mile Toyota Avensis considerably more exotic than a Speedtail or a Revuelto. Not to mention considerably more depreciation-resistant, and considerably less harrowing when someone prangs it with a shopping trolley.

Point is, if you want genuine exclusivity, genuine heritage, forget that P1. Buy an Octavia with half a mil on the clock.

Sure, the excitement might be less, ‘ooh was that snap oversteer?’ and more, ‘ooh was that a snapped cambelt?’. The odour will be more complex. But just think of the stories that Octavia could tell. True, many of those stories probably involve late-night passengers depositing various bodily fluids on the rear-seat upholstery, but still, an anecdote’s an anecdote.

Defy built-in obsolescence. Buy a knackered old snotter.