Hello there first time on the forum. I am looking on craigslist for a privately owned 15 passenger van for a decent price. All i have seen if people selling them for outrageous numbers compared to what KBB says and what i would think mileage would be. However i have found a few that are in the price range they should be but super high miles like 300k. I am trying to find out if the body and inside is good would it be a waste of money or a good purchase thinking that i would eventually have to replace the engine at some point or is that just way too many miles. i thought this would be the better option because trying to but from a dealership used all i am seeing is huge huge prices and i don't want to get sucked into payments. advice or rule of thumb on this please and thank you. -Sam
Is part of the plan to rebuild the engine, transmission, suspension, etc.? That's the kind of thing you're likely to run into buying a 300K mile van.
i think so i mean thats what i am asking in a way that if i find the body type i need and that is good and its cheap but has 300k on it, i would ride it until it needs a new engine and trans etc. and then replace that. Because all i am seeing now is people selling theirs with 250 300k for like 8k or 10k but i found one or 2 that was clean title, clean body in and out and size i need but 300k miles but like for 3500.00. I asked a few people and they said no but i cant help think that that is the way to go on a budget.
You can do that, some people manage to get very high miles and you may get lucky, but the vehicle may also experience a catastrophic failure at any time that will cost $$$$ to repair.
Also would depend if you need that reliability or if it is for camping or tooling around town periodically or second car.
It would be for travel for my band to shows. Im just trying to think of the best cost effective way to go about it.
Call your local mechanic and transmission shop. Ask how much it would be to replace a V8 engine and transmission . Compare that cost to a lower miles vehicle. But I don't think you'll like what you hear. Transmissions usually go out before engines.
