Too many Ks?

schplade · 05-05-2008, 03:37 PM

Hey guys looking at buying an au ford fairlane at the moment and I've found one which is on gas which is excellent, but it has 250 000Ks on the clock.

Is this too many to be considered a reliable car? I hope to be keeping it for more then 5 years.

Also what would be consider a good price? The guy wants $7.3k

Carsales Link

Thats the car if anyone wants to check it out further.

Thanks for any input you can offer guys.

Justin

irdonn · 05-05-2008, 04:00 PM

Hi mate,

How does it drive (if you've driven it)?

Works out to about 28500kms a year, do they appear to be genuine country kms? Have you sighted the log books?

Me personally, I'd have it thoroughly mechanically inspected. The ad says 7.3K is negotiable so bargain hard and use the kms and anything that comes up in the report to your advantage.

I'd be concerned about resale if you didn't plan to have it for long... but if your in it for the long haul (you said 5+ years), and it checks out well and you like the car go for it!

Cheers

V3RSAC3 · 05-05-2008, 04:25 PM

dude, my AU Fairmonts done +300,000kays ... and still runs GREAT ...

7.5k is a FANTASTIC price for that! i was offered 7.5k for mine today from a guy at work ... so i'd buy it if i were you, before someone else here does :P

schplade · 05-05-2008, 05:05 PM

I haven't driven it yet and it doesn't have log books, but he does have receipts of all the work he's done in the last year. Which makes me think he's bought it to sell it.

I'll be going for another look thursday or friday if everything goes well with my new job and I'll take it for a drive then.

The Monty · 05-05-2008, 05:42 PM

Go for it, especially on gas, those K's are fine.

FGII-XR6 · 05-05-2008, 06:51 PM

thats nothing falcons do 8 to 900 000Ks as cabs

sanjay · 05-05-2008, 06:56 PM

he'll be having a hard time selling it with high kms. look at the bloke in the FS forum struggling to sell his XR8 which looks awesome with 275000 on the clock for $7500...

...offer him $6k and work your way from there - but generally speaking, no, dont be scared of high mileage on an AU. just remember you too will have a hard time reselling it if its a lemon or even later on down the track with even more km.

V3RSAC3 · 05-05-2008, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanjay

he'll be having a hard time selling it with high kms. look at the bloke in the FS forum struggling to sell his XR8 which looks awesome with 275000 on the clock for $7500...

sorry for hijacking, but could i have the link too that please if it's not too much trouble?

sanjay · 05-05-2008, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V3RSAC3

sorry for hijacking, but could i have the link too that please if it's not too much trouble?

consider it hijacked.

:

http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11218140

HLC · 05-05-2008, 09:59 PM

buy my fairlane.

check the forsale forum.

yours for $13 750.

private9 · 05-05-2008, 10:07 PM

I love Fairlanes, and that one from the pics looks fairly clean. I buy on condition rather than mileage these days, but I'd definitely use the reasonably high kays as a bargaining tool. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get that for 6500.

schplade · 05-05-2008, 10:08 PM

Nice car HLC but unfortunately its almost double my budget... :(

private9 · 05-05-2008, 10:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by V3RSAC3

sorry for hijacking, but could i have the link too that please if it's not too much trouble?

Even though it's got high kays, it's a good combo - ie XR8, red, manual, a few options etc, and it's a pretty damn low price already.

Very surprised it hasn't sold yet, unless of course it's only advertised on a forum rather than carsales/ebay etc, in which case it's no surprise at all!

HLC · 05-05-2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schplade

Nice car HLC but unfortunately its almost double my budget... :(

yeah, but its twice as good, and has just over half as many kays!!!

nah its cool man! that car is a steal for that price. offer him 6. you should get it.

**GasoLane** · 05-05-2008, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schplade

Hey guys looking at buying an au ford fairlane at the moment and I've found one which is on gas which is excellent, but it has 250 000Ks on the clock.

Is this too many to be considered a reliable car? I hope to be keeping it for more then 5 years.

Also what would be consider a good price? The guy wants $7.3k

Carsales Link

Thats the car if anyone wants to check it out further.

Thanks for any input you can offer guys.

Justin

That interior pic doesn't do it justice. This is what it should look like...well mine did 2 years ago

private9 · 05-05-2008, 10:23 PM

GasOlane, it was that exact pic that inspired me to attempt an interior conversion a year ago. One that I still have not started!!! At least I have the parts waiting though!

Mr Hardware · 05-05-2008, 10:56 PM

Friggin bargain. i thought it was GasOLane's there for a minute!

also

GasOLane, do you have a larger version of that shot? i wanna put it on my wall and entitle it 'perfection'.

schplade · 07-05-2008, 01:38 AM

Hey guys thanks for the advice, Im pretty set on buying this car now.

Is there a list of specific things I should be checking for this model?

Also does anyone know of a good place in Brisbane (Northside would be best) to get it inspected? I'm thinking just taking it to RACQ would be the best bet. I dont have a regular mechanic as of yet (2nd car, current is a weak 85 corolla and I do my own servicing).

**GasoLane** · 08-05-2008, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

Friggin bargain. i thought it was GasOLane's there for a minute!

also

GasOLane, do you have a larger version of that shot? i wanna put it on my wall and entitle it 'perfection'.

Bugger, I've lost it...I'll PM you as soon as I find it.

Mr Hardware · 08-05-2008, 01:59 PM

thanks maaate

schplade · 08-05-2008, 03:39 PM

GasOLane: Do you have the 10 speaker sound system in your fairlane? I was just wondering what exactly makes up the 10 speakers? I can't find much info on it.

**GasoLane** · 08-05-2008, 04:22 PM

Actually I've never looked for them all but I think it's 11 speakers. Which would be three in the rear window (inc woofer). One in each door. two under the dash and two tweeters (one in each door/windscreen pillar).

Because mines on Gas I had to move the Woofer from the rear parcell shelf... that was a bit of a pain

.

If it has the premium sound system there is also a tape deck along with the in dash 6 stack CD

atec77 · 08-05-2008, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schplade

Hey guys looking at buying an au ford fairlane at the moment and I've found one which is on gas which is excellent, but it has 250 000Ks on the clock.

Is this too many to be considered a reliable car? I hope to be keeping it for more then 5 years.

Also what would be consider a good price? The guy wants $7.3k

Carsales Link

Thats the car if anyone wants to check it out further.

Thanks for any input you can offer guys.

Justin

Sorry ?
it's just run in nicely so what's the problem ?
I have had Fords in the past run over 600k on the original motor and box , service is everything as evidenced by the car I am wrecking atm ( a 96wagon )

Abacus · 08-05-2008, 05:42 PM

Horses for courses.

I just got rid of my my 2000 V8 Ghia on SVI gas with 160,000km on it. The reason I sold it was that the interior was starting to get a bit shabby, and too many niggling problems were starting to happen.

The car only had 160,000kms on it, but it was at least 80% inner city and metro driving. It was driven every day for 8 years, for at least 3 hours a day. It worked bloody hard for its keep, and those kms probably put more strain on it than 400,000km+ of country driving. Moral is, relatively low kms don't mean the car hasn't had a lot of work, it can mean the opposite.

That being said, the problems I had were probably more to do with the age of the car than the kms.

The main problem with the interior was that mine was dark graphite (the mid grey colour), not the charcoal/black colour. In turn, the problem with dark graphite is that it's a coating on top of black leather, so stuff like the steering wheel and transmission handle were wearing through in places.

The driver's seat was worn through on the door side, although my upholsterer was able to get the matching vinyl. (Be aware, it's only the seat inserts that are leather - the rest is vinyl), the centre console lid was cracking, the air bag cover was cracking and black was coming through in places, and so on.

Niggling problems were starting too happen too regularly - CD stacker early last year and then the transmission last August, 3 power window switches over 6 months, steering rack was getting getting sloppy, air con had an intermittent fault, and so on. The cost in getting this stuff fixed isn't just dollars, it's time. I was losing too much time from my work getting the car fixed.

The straw that broke the camel's back was last week when it developed a really bad miss - it sounded like it was running on 6 cylinders instead of 8. It didn't throw up any error codes. Compression tested OK. Plugs leads and coils OK. Still ran like a pig. 3 mechanics, including the LPG installer, couldn't find the problem.

So what I'm getting it is consider the kms, but also consider the age of the car. The earlier AUs are 8-9 years old now, and stuff is just going to happen, regardless of the kms. If you are going to need the car every day as a daily driver, and you do a lot of driving, you have to weigh it all up.

In the end I got the poos and traded it on a 9 month old BFII Fairmont E-gas. They gave me $8k for the trade, but i reckon I could have got a grand off the BF, so I considered it gone at $7,000. If I had sold it privately, with the faults fixed and cleaned up, I would have taken $9,500.00, so I felt that I got what it was worth. I've posted these pics elsewhere, but here they are again. The old & the new:

FWIW I reckon the AU is the better looking car. I was sorry to see it go, but at the end of the day it was time. I need a car every day and it has to be 100% reliable.

sanjay · 08-05-2008, 06:02 PM

BF is defintely the better looking car but you shouldve swapped the rims over

Abacus · 09-05-2008, 04:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sanjay

BF is defintely the better looking car but you shouldve swapped the rims over

I've got a spare set in the garage, but I intend to put Ghia 17s on it. IMO XR wheels don't look right unless the car is lowered.

Dauphin · 09-05-2008, 12:08 PM

I know you're in Qld but if you can duck down to NSW then you'll find this beautiful AU V8 LTD with low K's and a decent price:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ford-fairlane...QQcmdZViewItem