Many people refer to a car as having either high mileage or low mileage. What do those factors mean and how are they calculated? Margaret
Like tall and short, fat and thin, fast and slow, heavy and light, old and young, “High” and “Low” are not a specific number. They are either “above” or “below” a fairly wide range that is deemed to be “normal”.
They don’t kick-in at a benchmark; they are both relative and progressive.
For the sake of argument, let’s agree the majority of private cars are likely to do at least 10,000 kms a year, and are unlikely to do more than 20,000.
So that’s the normal range. A car that does more than 20,000 kms a year could be regarded as relatively “high-mileage”, and less than 10,000 kms a year could be deemed relatively “low-mileage” (while recognising that 1 km more or less is a moot point, while half or double those figures would be clear...and extreme).
Also, high and low mileage can be judged on an annual basis (giving quite a strong indication of operational use), or on a lifelong age basis (a clue to the overall wear and likely residual life). And the annual/age options can, of course, be assessed in combination.
Though cars can have very variable lifespans (depending on how well they are made, the conditions they operate in, what they do, how they are driven, how they are serviced maintained etc.), the world has a general rule of thumb that cars have an “economic design life” of about 15 years.
Not an absolute figure; just a “normal range”. And if we plump for the middle of the annual mileage “norm”, that gives us 15,000 kms x 15 years = 225,000 kms lifespan.
Allowing a “normal” range either side of that guideline, a car that dies or requires a major overhaul at less than 150,000 kms might be deemed abnormally “low” and a car that is still running well at more than 300,000 kms is notably “high”.
