How do you know if a used car has mostly freeway miles?

[baydude]

I see almost all used ads on craigslist say it's mostly freeway miles. How do you tell if its true or not?

 

[MixMasterTang]

No way to tell for sure (unless they tracked themselves with GPS and recorded the stats), but chances are if it's a higher mileage newer car the likelihood of it being highway mileage goes up. It's hard to rack up 20k a year with just city driving (but there's no way to tell 100%).

 

[Zenmervolt]

You don't really.

If you're an experienced mechanic or have been working on cars for a long time, you can generally tell if a car's had a rough or an easy life, but as for verifying whether the miles are truly "mostly freeway" there's not really anything you can do.

ZV

 

[tamm]

No way can you tell for sure. Best bet is to figure out the carfax data on the car. If the person was putting on alot of miles per year and the MY is fairly new then to some degree those are gonna be highway miles

 

[KentState]

There are a couple things that my clue you to highway miles. Brakes are probably the most straight forward. Depending on miles, if they are on the original rotors and pads with higher miles, then it's mostly cruising. If they have had many pad and rotor replacements with lower miles, then it's been in either stop-and-go or city driving. I would also say interior is a another good gauge. Seats wear quicker from ingress/egress for example. Also more of a sand blasting look of the paint on the front occurs more from highway driving.

 

[tortillasoup]

The easiest way is to have a car with very high miles and it being a late model vehicle. A vehicle with a calculated 30K miles per year of usage would most likely be a vehicle with a lot of highway miles. Yes it's possible for the vehicle to have been idling a lot in traffic but then you'd have a more worn out seat and other features...

If a car has 90K miles on it and it's 3 years old and it looks like it was beat to hell, then I'd stay away. However if it looks like it's in really good shape, perhaps the guy was a courier or some job that requires a lot of long distance driving.




Now as for a vehicle that claims to have a lot of highway mileage on it but was parked the rest of the time, if the calculated annual mileage is low, then it's impossible to tell its usage patterns.

There are a couple things that my clue you to highway miles. Brakes are probably the most straight forward. Depending on miles, if they are on the original rotors and pads with higher miles, then it's mostly cruising. If they have had many pad and rotor replacements with lower miles, then it's been in either stop-and-go or city driving. I would also say interior is a another good gauge. Seats wear quicker from ingress/egress for example. Also more of a sand blasting look of the paint on the front occurs more from highway driving.

All excellent points!

 

[JulesMaximus]

I would just assume everything in the ad is bullshit and have a mechanic look it over if you're really interested and want it to last a while.

 

[kitatech]

Check the service records...it might give a clue...Maintenance history is likely more important to you the buyer than the mileage.

 

[T2urtle]

I see almost all used ads on craigslist say it's mostly freeway miles. How do you tell if its true or not?

craigslist is full of STUPID people that use "BUZZ" words that have no clue what it means.

I see a lot of "$5000 FIRM OBO"

Highway miles is another common saying, "owned by a mechanic" but check engine light is still on...

They just copy n paste what they think work, there is almost never any meaning behind ANYTHING other then receipts.

I've seen "low highway miles" before as well. These kids now think they are hot stuff, selling and flipping cars that they dont even bother register to their own names because they watch a lot of fast n loud.


There is almost no way to tell if a car has mostly freeway miles unless its a few years old and 300k. I wont put any extra value into anything. That car is the same as any other car on CL, find the lowest listed price of the similar car and work from there.

 

[pauldun170]

There are a couple things that my clue you to highway miles. Brakes are probably the most straight forward. Depending on miles, if they are on the original rotors and pads with higher miles, then it's mostly cruising. If they have had many pad and rotor replacements with lower miles, then it's been in either stop-and-go or city driving. I would also say interior is a another good gauge. Seats wear quicker from ingress/egress for example. Also more of a sand blasting look of the paint on the front occurs more from highway driving.

My car is 13 years old on its original rotors and maybe its 3rd set of pads. Its definitely got that sandblasted look in the front. Interior doesn't show much wear except for filthy floor mats.

It spent most of its life being beaten on in local driving. Lots of short trips.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

Seats wear quicker from ingress/egress for example. Also more of a sand blasting look of the paint on the front occurs more from highway driving.

This. Also years x typical mileage. A 2013 with 75k miles, pristine driver seat, replacement rubber, and chipped to hell front fascia probably didn't live in the city.

 

[exar333]

There are a couple things that my clue you to highway miles. Brakes are probably the most straight forward. Depending on miles, if they are on the original rotors and pads with higher miles, then it's mostly cruising. If they have had many pad and rotor replacements with lower miles, then it's been in either stop-and-go or city driving. I would also say interior is a another good gauge. Seats wear quicker from ingress/egress for example. Also more of a sand blasting look of the paint on the front occurs more from highway driving.

This for sure, assuming you are looking a vehicle under 50k or so miles. OEM pads and rotors with a decent amount of life, with decent or higher-miles tells you it was mostly cruising (not stop/go type traffic).

The best way is to know the person you are buying from, but that's not commonly an option, right?

 

[exar333]

This. Also years x typical mileage. A 2013 with 75k miles, pristine driver seat, replacement rubber, and chipped to hell front fascia probably didn't live in the city.

This as well.

Generally, a newer car should have a better interior due to less traffic in/out but cruising should keep it pretty nice. The paint will likely have taken more of a beating with chips/etc but not always.

 

[desy]

Also, ask HOW it got the miles
Commute to work? where did they live and where did they work, needs to be plausible

 

[tamm]

Also, ask HOW it got the miles
Commute to work? where did they live and where did they work, needs to be plausible

Frequently people will come up with bulletproof backstories, and by bulletproof i mean whose gonna actually go verify whether they work lol.

So OP what car are you looking at exactly. Instead of considering the highway miles as a decision maker, why not do a PPI from a mechanic or dealer?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

My 2011 Civic had 71k miles when I put it up for sale. All highway miles commute but damn it was hard to get any bites on the ad.

 

[tortillasoup]

My 2011 Civic had 71k miles when I put it up for sale. All highway miles commute but damn it was hard to get any bites on the ad.

how much did you list it for and finally sell it for?

 

[AznAnarchy99]

how much did you list it for and finally sell it for?

I started it high at 12k. Eventually moved it all the way down to 10,500, which was my bottom line.

I ended up selling it to a friend for 10,500.

 

[Zenmervolt]

This. Also years x typical mileage. A 2013 with 75k miles, pristine driver seat, replacement rubber, and chipped to hell front fascia probably didn't live in the city.

Eh...

My father puts 40,000+ miles a year on his cars, almost all highway (he's a regional sales rep for a semi parts company and has a 3-state territory). The single most worn part of his cars is always the driver's seat. The fabric/leather doesn't wear through, but there are significantly more wrinkles and crushing of the driver's seat than any other seat, and dad's not an overly large man (5'10", 190 or so).

If someone's sitting in the driver's seat for 5+ hours each day, the foam's going to get worn out pretty fast. He also has a tendency to wear a spot on the driver's door armrest with his elbow. When he replaced his last vehicle at about 5 years old and 200,000 miles, the interior was pristine except for a well-worn-in (not worn through) driver's seat and a completely threadbare spot on the driver's door armrest.

I don't think the tires will tell you much. They're pretty much just mileage dependent; city vs highway miles really don't matter too much for the tires.

I'll agree with the brake pads and rotors, though that's going to be really hard to tell unless the car has receipts for all maintenance.

ZV

 

[tortillasoup]

I started it high at 12k. Eventually moved it all the way down to 10,500, which was my bottom line.

I ended up selling it to a friend for 10,500.

how long did you list the vehicle for? How desperate were you to sell? I mean $10K isn't unreasonable for that vehicle and it's understandable if there isn't anything particularly special about the car.

 

[KentState]

My car is 13 years old on its original rotors and maybe its 3rd set of pads. Its definitely got that sandblasted look in the front. Interior doesn't show much wear except for filthy floor mats.

It spent most of its life being beaten on in local driving. Lots of short trips.

You don't list miles or car model so not sure what point you are trying to make.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

how long did you list the vehicle for? How desperate were you to sell? I mean $10K isn't unreasonable for that vehicle and it's understandable if there isn't anything particularly special about the car.

I needed to sell it within about month/month and a half. I actually started getting more hits about 3 months in.

 

[tortillasoup]

I needed to sell it within about month/month and a half. I actually started getting more hits about 3 months in.

It took me several months to sell my V6 Tundra but at least I got the price I wanted for it. My truck was unusual in that it only had 33K miles on it and was an '07 Model, basically a single owner (technically a two owner), the truck was very clean, I put new tires on it, only 2WD, Double Cab, and so I knew I there was a specific buyer for the truck. I knew I couldn't sell it to yuppies who wanted 4WD and I knew selling it to some poor laborers who wanted $16k for the truck wasn't going to happen. Instead, I had to find someone who was probably a contractor who had some money but not so much money that they'd buy a new truck outright.

The first person I almost sold it to in Jul '14 was an electrical contractor but he backed out at the last minute. I had to wait until Sept. before I was able to finally sell it to another Electrical contractor. The only good thing about waiting another 2 months was that I was able to increase the selling price above what it cost to pay the vehicle registration fees I had to pay that July. I ended up selling the truck for $20,500 in Sept. instead of $20,000 in July.