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What does your odometer say to you...........

SteveTX

Passed Driver's Ed
In a large pre-owned car market like Dallas/Fort Worth, it's interesting to note that one of the strongest driving forces for determining the value of a used car is mileage - miles on the "clock". In my experience a one-year old car w/28,000 miles on it will looked on as damn near equal in value when compared to a two-year old alike model with the same mileage.

Mileage is the baseball bat dealers use to beat you down with their low-ball offer on your trade-in, and conversely it is treated like an offering at an altar when that same dealer is trying to sell it to another buyer.

The reason I bring this up is more about my curiosity of how other consumers think about mileage. Before my '08 Tornado Red Rabbit, I had not kept a car past 35,000-40,000 miles on it for over 20 years. Maybe it was an autoimmune response to how lousy reliability was in American cars in the late-80's, early 90's, who knows.

But times change, economics change, and I ended keeping my Rabbit for over 34 months, and accumulated <GASP> 56,000 miles on it before I traded for my new '11 Tornado Red GTI. I intend to watch the odometer on my GTI go into the six-digit realm over the next several years.

Now I'm just wondering what the odometer says on your GTI right now.

SteveTX
 

Ricky Bobby GTI

Say What!!!
7300 here.
 

flyguy27

Ready to race!
a tad over 4k purchased 3/25/11
 

ElectricEye

Autocross Newbie
Less than 2000 miles in nearly six months of ownership.
What that says about me is that I'm a nine to fiver with a short commute to the train and no life.
 

danielj1

Go Kart Champion
6.5k miles in 12 months. My last car was 32k miles in 4 years (the longest owned and most miles I ever put on a car in 20 years of driving).

The joys of living in a compact city like Seattle. When I lived in Atlanta I drove 25k a year.

I used to sell Fords and took in a 3 year old Taurus with 170k miles :eek:
 

santorina4

Ready to race!
I have 2,400 miles on the odo and I've had the car for 2 months now. I don't keep cars long either and decided to do a lease on this one.
 

Hilfloskind

Go Kart Champion
Mine just hit 15k miles yesterday, as a matter of fact. I bought it early/mid-August of 2010 (first 2011 be be delivered to and sold in my region).

It tells me it's been a lot of fun and that there is no reason to expect that the 3 yr/36k B2B warranty will really be 3 yrs for me...more like 2 yrs. Another reason not to panic about mods. I'll be long out of warranty before it becomes a cause for concern (if it ever even does).
 

CGTI

Ready to race!
According to the EPA
The number of miles driven per year is assumed to be 12,000 miles for all passenger vehicles. This number is based on several sources. Calculations from EPA’s MOBILE6 model show an average annual mileage of roughly 10,500 miles per year for passenger cars and over 12,400 miles per year for light trucks across all vehicles in the fleet. However, these numbers include the oldest vehicles in the fleet (vehicles 25 years of age and older), which are likely not used as primary vehicles and are driven substantially less than newer vehicles. Since this calculation is for a typical vehicle, including the oldest vehicles may not be appropriate. For all vehicles up to 10 years old, MOBILE6 shows an annual average mileage of close to 12,000 miles per year for passenger cars, and over 15,000 miles per year for light trucks.

FHWA’s National Highway Statistics contains values of 11,766 miles for passenger cars and 11,140 miles for light trucks across the fleet. However, as with the MOBILE6 fleet-wide estimates, these numbers include the oldest vehicles in the fleet. EPA’s Commuter Model uses 1997 data from Oak Ridge Laboratories for the number of cars nationally and number of miles driven which produces a value of just over 12,000 miles per year. Due to the wide range of estimates, 12,000 miles per vehicle is used as a rough estimate for calculating the greenhouse gas emissions from a typical passenger vehicle.)

Dealer, much like insurance companies will use these statistics to establish costs/values. So in the eye of the dealer a 28K car in 12months is like a 2+ year old car in miles. Not saying its right or wrong. Just saying. It works in my favor as I am at or below avg on all my vehicles.
 

DD89

Ready to race!
10002 in 13 months and never gets boring getting in my car and driving :)
 

norsairius

Go Kart Newbie
Bought my car used in mid-October 2010 with 19k miles on it. Now it has about 30k miles on it. So about 11k miles in 6-7 months, haha.

About 160 miles a week for commuting back and forth to work, 700ish miles round trip every time I go home, and then whatever misc. driving I do on the weekends.

Great car for road trips. Solid on the road and comfortable. Good gas mileage helps too! I honestly can't think of many cars that would be better at such a price (if there are any at all).

Really, this car is so good, haha. Fun to drive, plenty of pep, AND economical. Who'da thunk it.
 
just nailed the 8K mark... in 11 months.

I have another car for trips to wally world and home depot and going out...

I love the GTI more now... than ever....
 
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