Data for possible new Z3 first time buyer's guide

[mrscalex]

I've started looking at putting together a new Z3 first time buyer's guide. I started off by analysing the typical mileages of cars for sale and tabulating it with % share of that range. It may seem like a strange start point but I wanted to see where it took me. I'm an analytical sort of person

I gave names to each mileage range, only the upper end value is indicated here but you can work it out.

The range names are clearly subjective as will be the choice of ranges. But the data used is a real sample of 140 cars from ebay. Is it representative? It's not a bad start point I think.

So the way to read it is that eg:

• 15% of all cars for sale have a mileage between 30,001 and 60,000 inclusive. I call these 'Very Low' mileage
• 25% of all cars for sale have a mileage between 80,001 and 98,000 inclusive. 'Sensible' mileage.

The only real surprise for me in the data is how many 30-60k mile cars there are. And perhaps that there's not more 130k+ cars.

It's intended to give some initial guidance to a potential buyer in selecting what may be worth looking at further based on headline data in the ad - price, mileage and general condition.

Any value in continuing this? Any thoughts? I'm sensitive to the fact people are (rightly) protective of higher mileage but very well maintained cars. I've tried to select words carefully. The point is every car has it's likely pros as well as cons based on mileage and I'm not trying to judge. It depends on the buyer's criteria not my own preferences.

And no, I don't think I'm an expert. But I've looked at a lot of Z3s for sale in the flesh. And I spend an hour plus a day looking through for sale ads So I'm just trying to share insights from that.

 

[Tracy Dee]

Maybe mileage could be linked with the age of a car .
As to how many miles per year a car has done related to its age.
I bought mine with 74 k on it now it's 79 k it's 20 years old now.

 

[mrscalex]

Maybe mileage could be linked with the age of a car .
As to how many miles per year a car has done related to its age.
I bought mine with 74 k on it now it's 79 k it's 20 years old now.

I agree. But I think with all Z3s now between 15 and 21 years old generalisation is not unreasonable. I tend to look at the mileage not the age though. Which is broadly what the motor trade focus on. Hence I don't really consider miles per annum. A 160k 20 year old car has only done 8k per annum. But that doesn't really help the high miles.

 

[Tracy Dee]

I agree mine looks to be circa 4 k per annum overall but obviously high mileage in early days tailing off as its got older.
It's still the highest mileage car I have ever owned I usually sell to buy a new one around 30k but definitely go before 40 k but that's on newer cars.
As you have said over certain mileages and age it comes down to how a cars been maintained and looked after
Very interesting chart neither the less

 

[andyglym]

Interesting info, the more info the better for me in reality even the "high" milers are not that high even if you consider 10k miles a year = 150k miles for a 15 year old car. This info probably informs us that most were weekend cars.

 

[mrscalex]

Version of the graph with clearer mileage ranges.

 

[mrscalex]

The 98,000 upper range of 'Sensible' may look like an anomaly. But it's due to the psychological position associated with hitting 100k. My perception is it starts a couple of thousand miles before rather than on the nose.

 

[mrscalex]

Interesting info, the more info the better for me in reality even the "high" milers are not that high even if you consider 10k miles a year = 150k miles for a 15 year old car. This info probably informs us that most were weekend cars.

Well with a third of all cars with 60k or less miles then the notion of a weekend car looks likely.

I think the other thing is these are not the most sensible of cars for covering 25k+ miles a year in. It would certainly appear that doing so was a rare thing, not just from this data but from the data I've seen when I check early MOT histories of cars (they only go back to 2005 online but you can still make assumptions from mileage to date, particularly on newer cars). Those sort of miles tend to be reserved for Mondeos and 1/3 Series etc.

My brother has owned his Z3 from new. He did an average of 6,500 miles a year before it retiring from daily use in 2014. And he did that because he had a new job with a longer commute and didn't want to do it in a Z3.

So all good news for us. It means there are a lot of modest mileage Z3s around. And that's on top of famously reliable engines anyhow.