What Is Your Used Car Sweet Spot?

One of my good friends and long-time TTAC commenters asked me this question.

Hey Steve,

If you have a moment, what are the high and low values right now at auction for the following:

2000 Chevy Monte Carlo SS 40K miles gold/tan

2006 Mustang GT premium 27K maroon/tan

2006 G6 GTP folding hardtop 53k black/black

I could only give him one response and it wasn’t, “Go play darts and put some numbers together!”

The answer came in three simple words.

Condition, condition, condition.

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Piston Slap: The Fallacy of Engine Hour Meters?

Ryan writes:

Sajeev Mehta

It appears that you have picked up where Steve Lang left off. That is answering general automotive questions that puzzle automotive enthusiast.

My question, what average speed would be good or bad for a used vehicle? I am in the market for a used truck (3-6yrs old), and have noticed that these newer trucks have mileage and hours tracked in the dash display screen. It is easy math to calculate the average speed for the life of the vehicle. What should I look for?

Or run from?

Best and brightest?

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  • W Conrad I'm not really a truck person, but even I would consider one, I'd never get a CyberTruck in a million years. It's butt ugly.
  • NotMyCircusNotMyMonkeys par for the course teething pains. makes me wonder what it was like 100+ years ago trying it with lead acid at the time. steam cars were also a thing back then :)
  • NotMyCircusNotMyMonkeys people vote with their dollars. im not giving any to a jew hating aspie with a pube beard :)
  • Astigmatism As someone with the means, the home charger, and an EV already in the household: God, no. If I wanted an electric truck, would get the Rivian over this thing eleven times out of ten. Even leaving Musk's personality aside, the Cyber Truck is the automotive equivalent of $1000 designer sneakers - they just make you look like an insecure jerkwad.
  • Marty S This is the same wagon that Queen Elizabeth drove, and was recently auctioned. The wagon (sportbrake) came late to the X-Type and was very good looking and certainly nice with AWD. Unfortunately Jag gave up on the X-type shortly thereafter. The XE, which came years later, was a very different car, and more of a Jaguar, with a supercharged V-6.Jag has now decided to abandon all the ICE vehicles and go totally electric at a much higher price point starting in 2025. They also closed many dealerships. Considering the current sales resistance to EV's now happening (even Mercedes is having trouble selling their EVs), I think this may prove to be a very bad decision by Jaguar and I fear for the brand.