Australians are just as silly about mileage as the Brits, and probably more expensive about it. A six-figure odometer reading still sends plenty of used-car buyers into mental collapse, as though a car with 160,000 kilometres has one foot in the grave and the other on a tow truck. That panic looks increasingly daft.
Fresh eBay UK research says 81% of motorists hesitate at high-mileage cars and 72% would not buy anything over 100,000 miles. Fine. The numbers are British, but the neurosis travels well. Australian buyers do exactly the same dance, clutching their pearly necklaces over kilometres while ignoring service history, tyre quality, crash repairs, and whether the poor thing has been maintained by someone with at least one functioning brain cell.
The reason this matters here is simple. Australia is a used-car market full of myths. People still behave as though mileage alone tells the whole story, when the real question is how a car has been serviced, driven, repaired, and generally treated. A well-kept high-kilometre car can be a bargain. A low-kilometre garage ornament can be an overpriced misery box. The odometer is not a moral verdict. Remember our story of the low milage Roll-Royce Silver Seraph that was rendered useless by a faulty whift-by-wire unit. Sure it was 26 years old, but the part cannot be had for love nor money even on a car with a mere 10,000km.
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The mileage panic is not clever
eBay says the average Brit defines a high-mileage car as anything over 96,000 miles. Convert that into local language and the whole thing becomes even more absurd. Australians have spent years treating anything with a healthy kilometre count as toxic waste, even though modern drivetrains routinely last far longer than the folklore suggests.
That is especially true in a country like Australia, where long distances are part of normal motoring life. We do not all live five minutes from the office in a village full of damp stone walls, hideous warm beer, and pasty-faced moaners. Plenty of local cars rack up kilometres because they are used properly. That is not a defect. That is transport doing its job.
The Prius proof matters here too
To make the point, eBay bought a Toyota Prius with 293,000 miles on the clock and plans to keep it alive with new and certified recycled parts. That is a smart stunt, because Prius has long been the frumpy patron saint of high-mileage hybrid drudgery. Taxis love them. Practical people love them. Mechanics who prefer boring reliability to mechanical melodrama tend to love them too. Those expensive battery replacements? Most never materialised.
Australian buyers should pay attention to that. We have our own fleet of old Toyotas, hybrids, diesel workhorses, and family hacks quietly doing huge kilometre numbers every day. The gap between what buyers fear and what cars can survive is often enormous. Some of the best-value used cars in Australia are being ignored simply because the dashboard looks experienced (to buggery).
Hybrids and EVs are not dropping dead either
The DVSA figures eBay obtained also show hybrids and EVs joining the inglorious high-mileage ranks. That matters here because Australia is still full of battery doom merchants muttering oncoherantly about electrification as though every hybrid and EV turns into radioactive compost at the first sign of a six-figure odometer. The evidence is not playing along.
No, this does not mean every high-kilometre EV or hybrid is a flawless trophy. Nor does it mean mileage is irrelevant. It means the blanket fear is a nonsense, and will continue as EVs become ubiquitous. Australians shopping for used electrified cars should be looking at battery health, service records, tyre wear, suspension condition, and whether the previous owner was a civilised adult. Not just at the number glowing on the dash like an accusation.
The GCB take
This is not really a UK story. It is a buyer psychology story, and Australia suffers from the same mansplained disease. We are terribly good at extrapolating one visible number as a proxy for everything else, mostly because it saves us from thinking too hard. Mind you most buyers can’t be arsed thinking beyond the most rudimentary of details.
A cared-for 180,000km car can be a smarter buy than some underused, under-serviced garage ornament with half the distance and twice the hidden grief. Australians should know that by now, especially in a market where new-car prices are behaving like they have been left in the sun too long.
I use my own motorcycle as an example. It is a 2014 Kawasaki Z100ABS. It is an evil-looking super-sport with only 22,000km on the clock. Yes it has every receipt since new and yes it is a bargain barely run in. There are so few older vehicles still loved and cared for even if not used. This will get all the attention as well it should, but a high milage bike of the same year is still a bargain because it will come at fewer shekels.
The used-car bargain is not always the one with the prettiest odometer. More often, it is the one that has been looked after, driven properly, and priced by someone living in the real world. If buyers here stopped having to take to their beds at the mere mention of kilometres and started reading the service book, they might save themselves a bit of dosh.
More Stories
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- Toyota Prius Still Does The Job Better Than Half The Fancy New Stuff
- Used Cars, False Economy, and the Odometer Panic Buyers Need to Get Over
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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