One thing that i realized today is that my car is a very solid car, the floors were perfect, hood was perfect? but the cracked dash pad, steering wheel, and chunks missing out of the seat were clues that this car was a 100,000 mile car. What should people look for when determining their milage? 100,000? 200,000? And god knows if any maverick reached 300,000 miles Are the 200,000 mile cars the ones with the rusty floors??? (It probably determines how they were taken care of.) Just something i had on my mind.
The things you mention are more a matter of age, then mileage. Where the car spent most of it's years will make a difference. How it's been driven, and how well it was taken care of will make the most difference. My '72 either has 230,000 or 330,000, I have no idea which, but either way, I've put nearly 100,000 of it on myself in the past 4 years, and the car really isn't any different now then it was then as far as overall condition. I just drive it, clean it every now and then, maintain it mechanically, and drive it some more, it just always pretty much stays the same. By no means is it a super nice car, but it serves the purpose I intend it to just fine. My uncle has a 2000 F150 with over 400,000 on it, and it always surprises people when takes it to have the oil changed and what not. It's in better shape then trucks I've seen with half that mileage, just because he takes care of it. There are people out there that can trash a vehicle in a hurry, and I've just never really understood it.
Mine had less than 55k on it when I got it, but it looked like this (stolen from a thread I just started elsewhere...)
My wife's great grandmother drove it only to church and to visit her daughter, my wife's grandmother, on a monthly basis. And to the grocery store which was a mile or so up the road. It got beat to death by her being WAY too old to drive, and driving it IN TO garages. No IN to garages, but IN TO garages. And garage sales. I still find random pieces of china under the fenders. She was too old to drive and kept hitting the gas instead of the brake. Now you all know why I have all the gray fenders and hood, etc.
My car was perfect speedomter read 55,000 miles only 1 crack in dash pad and one rip in the seat. No rust or anything. But after i messed with it the interior is trash and its starting to rust a little in the floor.
The bad thing about those AZ/CA cars it that there is still all that sun and IR rays. So when you first find the car, there is no rust, but all the stuff is crusty, just waiting for someone to touch it. then you sit on it or touch it and it turns to crunchy plastic dust. Mine was the same way. But it was garage kept for the last 20 years, near the gulf coast. I still can just touch the dash and a new crack appears.
It came off my wifes prelude, had to use them to get it home...lol In retrospect I probably would have been better off and less suspicious looking if I had just left the tags off.
