what would be a good mileage range, assuming the car is second hand, to look for? and what would be a year model that isnt too old? my dad has been giving me some advice here but i'd like to hear outside opinion since im pretty sure both of us arent too into cars
if u wanna save money, the higher the mileage the better, pay no attention to mileage and all attention on maintenance. after 60k miles from new is when a lot of things start needing to be replaced, and even more so at 120k
to put things into perspective, my 330ci has 124k miles;
here is a list of about 66% of the things both i and the previous owners have done to it since ~40k miles. some things done more than once. A lot of this is nitpicky
preventative maintenance done by enthusiasts, which most people never do-- most people just pay shops to fix-as-needed. driving a car until a problem becomes blatant usually paves the way for more problems to arise sooner
My 2001 bmw at 120k miles ($6k usd) is more mechanically sound than my friend's mom's 2015 impala at 50k miles (tf ik uhhhhhh at least $22k usd). there's a small list of things wrong with that car, but it's still driven because "that light on the dash doesn't matter, it still goes when i need it to." i don't trust people who have a check engine light on in a car they're trying to sell and say "it's an easy fix, not a big deal, it drives just fine" unless i know the reason for the cel is only emissions related. if it's an easy fix then fix it before trying to sell the car loser
of course brand, model, age, etc. all play a role as well. some things will need replacing strictly because it's old as stuff. bmw builds cars for people who either A) have the money to pay for the proper upkeep, or B) are enthusiasts and willing to put in the work for the performance - they all come juiced from the factory which is why they don't respond worth a stuff to mods - whereas honda builds cars that are idiot proof and meant to last, essentially coming de-tuned from the factory for reliability; my coworker's tsx (acura is honda) made mad gains (relative to stock power ofc) off a tune / headers / exhaust
another thing i might as well mention is engine type - a straight 6 like in my car can go +300k miles without an engine rebuild (might not be in my case since i rev the piss out of it), since that configuration is perfectly balanced, whereas half of the used suburas for sale on this planet have a head gasket ready to blow/already blown at only 100k miles with their signature gay flat 4 layout
tl;dr - bored at work, just rambling on between typing up documentation for some file server. got like 3 hours of sleep lmao-- mileage: doesnt matter, year: nothing older than '80 i guess
idk about the selection down there in aus but in the usa if you don't want to worry about repair costs or maintenance the go-to is usually any common toyota or honda, or any w-body chevy/pontiac/buick/gm. but if you're willing to put in the research and have access to even basic tools you can get p much whatever within reason
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