High Mileage, Low Maintenance Camaro?

Posted on Sep 1, 2014 in Editorials | 2 comments

Casey writes:

Hello Sajeev,

I have another question for you. My wife has wanted a Camaro and lately I have been thinking about surprising her with one for her birthday or maybe Christmas, so I have been searching the listings for a nice used example.

First thing I noticed is these cars sure seem to hold their value!

I found a Craigslist ad for a very nice looking, well optioned, 2011 Chevrolet Camaro 2LT with the RS package. “ALL scheduled service and maintenance has been performed by Chevrolet certified technicians,” the ad says and the price seems reasonable.

Then I see the kicker: the mileage is high for the year at 117,800. I know that a documented maintenance history is more important than mileage, so I wonder what impact higher mileage would have on a car like this? What problems could I run into sooner by buying a well maintained, high-mileage car?

Sajeev answers:

How funny. I bought my (then-eight-year-old) Lincoln Mark VIII with 117,xxx on the odometer, too, which was also fairly high mileage for a vehicle normally owned by “old people” who “only drive it to church on Sundays,” but I digress.

And it came with a few valuable service receipts! I’m a big fan of buying high mileage used cars with service records versus a low-mile example with no history — especially dealership records, as they document repairs with detail and note the condition of wear items in their automated reporting systems. Having more information about a used vehicle is never a bad thing!

So what problems will you run into sooner with a high mile, well-maintained machine? That really depends on how much you drive, and how you maintain it.

In theory, the transmission should be a concern, but that’s far more likely with trouble prone/bizarre gearboxes like the one-off Saturn CVT discussed here. And most engines easily surpass 250,000 miles with nothing more than good, fresh oil and regular tune-ups. I assume the Camaro’s powertrain is the same, unless you Hot Rod the thing.

It’s possible that lesser-known wear items such as power window motors, shocks and even floormats could see a shortened lifespan because they’ve already been cycled too many times, but that is far from probable. Perhaps the bias of my relatively trouble-free Mark VIII skews my opinion, but I have zero reservations owning a car like that Camaro.