Buying high mileage fiestas?

[SteveS]

I got 185,000 on my modded Mk 1 Fiesta before my sister's boyfriend totaled it. And that was a 1978 car, back when American cars were routinely traded at 24,000 miles because they were junkers by then. It was my autocross car and daily driver. Had it not been wrecked, I don't think anything would have gone wrong other than normal wear parts.
The last couple of F150's I've had have also gone almost 200,000 miles before either being totaled in a wreck or traded, and were still running fine at the time with no evidence of problems.
We've owned a Toyota and a Scion that we took 160,000 or so as well, and both are still running perfectly well for their new owners (we sold them to friends).

High mileage cars can be fine if they've been maintained well.

The Fiesta ST is due for a tuneup (plugs, belts, etc.) at 100K miles, and a timing belt at 150K. So sometimes a higher mileage car will need those done.

 

[Snrub]

well, considering that it's a sport trim, I would be partial to buying new. clutch wear highly depends on the driver - if the driver is clueless, they can wear down most of the friction material in as little as 3,000 miles.

Realistically clutches are designed to last near the typical life of the vehicle. Sure it's possible to ruin them, but IMO the risk often gets overstated. I had a Mazda RX-7 Turbo with ~140k miles, plus ~15 hours on track, a RX-8 with ~60k miles with >40 hours of track time and my Miata race car has ~120k miles with >45 hours of track time (~40 wheel to wheel racing). All of these had/have the original clutch, had unknown prior histories and as indicated underwent conditions well outside of the design parameters.

 

[Intuit]

I’m definitely comfortable working on a car as far as most stuff goes concerning the suspension, general engine stuff etc. I guess my biggest fear is something hard to get to or really important going. Mainly the clutch or god forbid something turbo related, really anything that could possibly be hard to see that it’s starting to go.

With the stoutness of the fiesta I’m pretty sure as long as a car didn’t have the absolute hell beat out it I’ll be fine. And the potential of 4, 5, 6, or even 7k of savings would be great. Just the thought of buying a high mileage car goes almost everything I was told. But I’m sure if I am smart and patient I should (hopefully) turn out alright.

All day any day, I'd rather purchase a 100,000 mile manual shift over a 100,000 mile auto shit. (not a Freudian, pun intended)

Continuously romp on an auto and it will take a premature shit. As long as you know how to drive a clutch, that won't be the case. The engines behind torque-converter based transmissions also see a lot more RPMs over the standard and newer automatic clutch-based transmissions.

The very definition of a modern vehicles, more especially cars is that, everything can be time consuming to get to. I'm a person that hates having to move 'A', 'R' and 'Q' out of the way, to get to 'B'. But I've settled on the fact that this is just how it is now. As long as you have backup transportation and the time to spare when required, you can buy pretty much anything you want.

Things I look for with any used vehicle, is whether it's been hacked-on (a.k.a. "modded"), wrecked, rusted, and that the oil has been maintained. Compression testing is a fair measure of an engine's health, though people have been known to cover up issues with thicker oil; such as 20w-50.

 

[warthog_312]

Realistically clutches are designed to last near the typical life of the vehicle. Sure it's possible to ruin them, but IMO the risk often gets overstated. I had a Mazda RX-7 Turbo with ~140k miles, plus ~15 hours on track, a RX-8 with ~60k miles with >40 hours of track time and my Miata race car has ~120k miles with >45 hours of track time (~40 wheel to wheel racing). All of these had/have the original clutch, had unknown prior histories and as indicated underwent conditions well outside of the design parameters.

This depends largely on driving habits and location. My 8 mile commute takes an hour each way, I never see third gear. First second neutral, gridlock. So I know my clutch will wear significantly faster than someone that has a 50 mile commute but is all highway in 6th gear.

 

[Ludeem1]

When I was looking for mine there was a lot of high mileage ones, anywhere from 60-100k and I almost bought one with 100k, but I found a loaded one with 56k for 13k. Great condition, only thing after the first oil change I noticed the axle seals leaking on both sides other than that it’s been perfect.

 

[danbfree]

Just my quick $.02 for OP, I would summarize by saying the FiST actually handles high miles very well in general... the stock motor can handle double it's stock power if a big turbo is put on and given aux fuel, so if it's always had it's stock turbo, then the engine is bulletproof, especially since any defects would come out way before then... Also, our trans and clutches can handle double the power too, the one thing is the gearbox can sometimes have issues and often comes underfilled from the factory, but a simple test drive will reveal any unusual whine or clunk, just change the fluid immediately with 2L of good gear oil even if it seems good... Also keep in mind there are little model year updates, including a recall of all '14's to some early '15's, make sure that's been done, look for rubber hose instead of hard plastic lines coming off the coolant tank, but check out the model year changes at this old thread HERE Big things after that recall is change to Sync3 for '16+ ('16's need updated USB hub for Apple CarPlay, '16+ Android Auto ready), revised suspension for '17+ and rear camera for '18-'19 although it can be added to '16-'17 for $100 or less... Also, sunroof sucks on this car, love sunroofs in general but on this car they are small, eat into head room, mostly behind your head and add weight up high that has shown to add body roll too Good luck!

 

[ZachRacing]

I don't feel like starting a new thread as its basically the same thing as this right here, but more specific, so I'll write it as a reply...

There are 2 good FiST's for sale in my area right now, and I don't know which one to go for: Low Mileage or high Mileage

2015 Fiesta ST with 43,000 miles
-previous owner is a woman
-very clean car
-a bit over my budget
-tuxedo black

or

2014 Fiesta ST with 75,000 miles
-3,000$ cheaper than option 1
-but previous owner is unknown
-car is clean for its age/mileage
-it's blue!

Should I play it safe and go for the 2015 or save money by buying the 2014?

 

[Snrub]

I don't feel like starting a new thread as its basically the same thing as this right here, but more specific, so I'll write it as a reply...

There are 2 good FiST's for sale in my area right now, and I don't know which one to go for: Low Mileage or high Mileage

2015 Fiesta ST with 43,000 miles
-previous owner is a woman
-very clean car
-a bit over my budget
-tuxedo black

or

2014 Fiesta ST with 75,000 miles
-3,000$ cheaper than option 1
-but previous owner is unknown
-car is clean for its age/mileage
-it's blue!

Should I play it safe and go for the 2015 or save money by buying the 2014?

It's a tough call. Presumably $3k is ~25% of the value of the cars? Is there any maintenance information available on either car, even if it's just via carfax? Knowing "who" the previous owner is doesn't help much, unless you know something about how they maintained the car, ownership experience, etc. eg. when I bought my car I knew the person who owned the car didn't drive it in the winter, had full maintenance records, over maintained the car, had 3m paint film, etc. I was willing to pay a bit more and travel to buy it. I believed him when he said he hadn't taken the car to the track, although I'm certain he drove it hard at times (low mileage though). In your case, knowing a previous owner was a women significantly lowers the odds that the car was taken to a race track. Can you confirm definitively that the engine was never overheated?

 

[Dpro]

I don't feel like starting a new thread as its basically the same thing as this right here, but more specific, so I'll write it as a reply...

There are 2 good FiST's for sale in my area right now, and I don't know which one to go for: Low Mileage or high Mileage

2015 Fiesta ST with 43,000 miles
-previous owner is a woman
-very clean car
-a bit over my budget
-tuxedo black

or

2014 Fiesta ST with 75,000 miles
-3,000$ cheaper than option 1
-but previous owner is unknown
-car is clean for its age/mileage
-it's blue!

Should I play it safe and go for the 2015 or save money by buying the 2014?

Prices? Honestly if your not stating the actual prices its hard for us to gauge if and what is to much.

 

[Erick_V]

Can you confirm definitively that the engine was never overheated?

Prices? Honestly if your not stating the actual prices its hard for us to gauge if and what is to much.

Both being 14-15's I was worried about this. My car is at 43k and I had a Blackstone Oil Analysis done at 40k and everything came back great and I'm not nice to my car at all. Fully bolted, e30 and autocross for over 2 years. The engines seem to be pretty stout. I would personally take the '14 because I wouldn't be afraid of repairs or maintenance as these cars are pretty cheap to work on. Also, prices would help too. Would suck to find out you overpaid big time.

 

[ZachRacing]

Prices? Honestly if your not stating the actual prices its hard for us to gauge if and what is to much.

You’re right it would definately help if I put the prices but I assumed it would be different since it’s canadian $... here I’ll put the prices anyways:

The 2014 with 75k miles: 9,995$
The 2015 with 43k miles: 13,500$

To help you gauge the prices, most ST’s on the used market right now in Quebec are between 10k-18k...

 

[ZachRacing]

Both being 14-15's I was worried about this. My car is at 43k and I had a Blackstone Oil Analysis done at 40k and everything came back great and I'm not nice to my car at all. Fully bolted, e30 and autocross for over 2 years. The engines seem to be pretty stout. I would personally take the '14 because I wouldn't be afraid of repairs or maintenance as these cars are pretty cheap to work on. Also, prices would help too. Would suck to find out you overpaid big time.

I’ll take that into consideration... I mean if you think about it, its not that much more mileage, considering modern cars (especially this 1.6) are built to last hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

[Snrub]

It's a tough call, the prices of both seem appropriate for the mileage. I think I found listings for the cars you're talking about. Both look nice. I see a molten orange one for $800 more than the blue one, but a little lower mileage. It might be worth looking at too.

You're lucky to be FiST shopping in Quebec, there is lots of selection.

 

[xxiaze]

I purchased a high mileage 14’ (92k mi) for an incredible price... mechanic special with aftermarket suspension issues (loose bolt, lol) and I’ve only done basic maintenance since purchase.

since purchase, I’ve done compression test at 97k and it held perfectly in all 4 cylinders.
Clutch still excellent and tight.
wheel bearings bad in front.
Synchros in 2nd seem slightly slack, but other than that transmission seems perfect.

I would highly support the high mileage FiST purchase. I almost bought one for 15k with less mileage.... but bought my current one for half the price. Wouldn’t look back... very happy.