How many miles are too many miles?

[techweenie]

G450X - good point. The number of SCs that have had the speedometers swapped out is very high. I also watch for Euro/ROW cars with MPH speedos.

It’s super rare that those swaps are documented.

[OK-944]

Another point to remember about mileage...is not to just assume you can divide total mileage by age to get a true year to year average. This is where good documentation comes into play, to determine whether, for example, that 200K '79 SC saw roughly equal miles per year since new...or did most of those miles occur in the first ten years - and did the car end up sitting for any significant length of time since?

[Unobtanium-inc]

Miles in general is one of those really touchy subjects and usually very un-realistic. To me the fact that most German cars tend to amass high miles is a testament to what great cars they are. Ever wonder why every Maserati Bi-Turbo and Delorean are advertised as "low miles", it's because they never ran right and didn't get driven. While a comparable 80's 911 has 300,000 miles, because it got driven, and no dry rotted belts because they got changed.
Another example of the strangeness of what are now collector cars but were sold as just nice cars, I have a 99 Benz C43 AMG, a pretty rare car and I'm the 2nd owner. The first owner was a DR in Atlanta who bought it and drove it, as a result it had 105,000 miles when I got it, it now has about 113,000 after 12 years with me. But the AMG wheenies say my car is high miles. It's a 20 year old car!
So to answer the original question, if you're buying a car as an investment or super collector car, buy a very low miles example, and keep it parked. But if you want to drive your car, find the one with a zillion miles and drive it like you stole it. It is has 300,000 miles on it I bet you won't have to worry about little stuff breaking, it broke at 200,000 miles and was replaced. You should never be afraid to drive your car in fear of putting miles on it. My rule is to never have a dog or a car I'm afraid of, as a result all my cars are drivers and my dogs only terrify mice.

---Adam

[trader220]

Funny that on an air cooled 911, the miles don't bother me that much so long as I have done my homework on the condition of the car and its history. As has been said repeatedly here, the ODO's are notoriously wrong, so on lower miles cars I need to see a progression of paperwork to make me believe the miles. Beyond that its all about condition.

In terms of other German cars, the miles scare the piss out of me. Having been around Audi's for decades the high miles cars are just prone to nickle an dime you to death. My DD is a big Lexus GX470. I have 114k miles on my 05 and I plan on keeping well past 200k maybe 300k. Almost nothing breaks on the car. Other than regular maintenance all I have done is to rebuild the front calipers, period, end of story. Regular maintenance consists of oil changes, and other consumables, and at 90k miles a timing belt and water pump. I would shudder to think what my costs would have been on an Audi Q7 or Mercedes GL over 115k miles.

Air cooled 911's are unique in that respect. Especially the G-body and older ones. They're not exactly complex cars, and they grossly over engineered in many respects.

The bummer for me is I am sitting on a very very nice 88 coupe with 68k miles on it. Someone will pay a lot more for it if I sell it with 68k miles rather than run it up to 80, or over 100k. I have to make a choice as whether to keep it or not.

[Matt Monson]

I care mostly about the miles on the chassis and then how many miles since the last engine and gearbox rebuilds.

I wouldn't consider a chassis over 200k mi unless it had been gone through and all the bushings and bearings, struts and brakes, etc. have been replaced less than 50k ago.

I want an engine to also have 50k since it's last rebuild (with receipts) and 30-40K on the gearbox. This only applies to a car with a chassis over 100k mi. I wouldn't rule out something like a 125k mi SC that was on the original engine with 50K on the gearbox. But put that same engine and gearbox into a 175k chassis and I'm not interested unless the chassis has been refreshed.

[fxdp]

you hope to get what you pay for

in that respect mileage doesn't matter

i will say though, the digits on mechanical odometers on 911s tend not to line up -
and im told its super easy to tamper with them

so the odometer reading is merely 1 piece of a puzzle so to speak

i love the swarmy phrases people use to describe mileage

"75k miles no reason to believe its not original miles"

closer inspection finds the car was busted in half lol the fromt part had 250k the rear part has 170k

nice thick coat of paint though

funny stuff happens as the values have rocketed up

[Macroni]

for me
65 to 73: mileage irrelevant
74 to 94: Under 100K
95 & above: Under 60K