Your RX 350h has been a long way. We ask how, not how far.
Sellers of this one usually open by apologising for the number on the dash, as though distance were the only thing about it worth knowing.
It is the least specific thing about it. What we ask for is the shape of the driving, because a car that built its total in long steady runs was not doing the same job as one that built it in short ones.
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The long runs
How far it went is one question. How it went is the other one.
The dash gives you a total. It says nothing about whether that total arrived in two hour stretches or ten minute ones, and those are two different cars to go over.
This tends to be the car that did the driving. The run up the coast every holiday. The trip interstate to see family that happens twice a year and eats a full day in each direction. The weekly haul between two towns for work that nobody thinks of as a journey because it is just Tuesday. Distance on a car like this arrives in big pieces rather than in a thousand small ones, and by the time you come to sell, the total has quietly turned into the thing you feel you have to explain away before anybody will take you seriously.
You do not have to. But it is worth describing, because it changes what the inspector plans to do with the visit. A car that spent its hours out on a highway and a car that reached the same total in short suburban runs do not present the same way, and knowing which one is sitting in the driveway before anybody sets off means the time goes on the right parts of it. That is not a courtesy. It is how a number talked about on the phone survives meeting the car.
The other half of it is everything a travelling car picks up on the way. Bars that have been on the roof so long you stopped seeing them. A tow bar that has had something real on it. Tyres replaced in a town you were passing through, because that is where they needed doing. A service history that changes name partway along. None of that is a problem and all of it is useful, and every bit of it is better coming from you on the phone than being found by somebody standing in your driveway.
Before the inspector sets off
What we ask about a car that has travelled
Not one of these is about the total, and every one of them changes something about what happens on the day.
- What were the long runs, and how often did they happen?
- The same trip every school holidays, one big drive a year, a weekly stretch between two towns. A rough answer is plenty and nobody is checking it. This is the sentence that shapes the rest of the call, because everything we plan comes off it.
- Where has it been serviced, and does that change partway along?
- A car that travels often ends up being looked after in more than one place, and sometimes in more than one state. That is completely normal. It is worth mapping out on the call, because a history with two or three names in it reads perfectly well once somebody knows why.
- Is there a tow bar, and did it come along on the long ones?
- A bar that has only ever seen a trailer at the tip is a different proposition from one that has been loaded up for a drive interstate. Say which it was. It decides whether that end of the car is something to read quickly or something to spend real time on.
- Are the roof bars or the box still fitted, and are they coming with it?
- Bars that have lived up there through years of weather are worth raising either way. If they stay, they go into what is being bought. If you want them for the next car, take them off before the day rather than after it, and tell us now so that nobody is caught out.
- What is on it for tyres, and did they all go on at once?
- Cars that travel get tyres done when and where they need doing, which sometimes means a pair at a time and sometimes means a long way from home. There is no right answer to this one. It is simply quicker to be told than to be worked out from four sidewalls.
- Has the windscreen ever been replaced?
- On a car that has spent real time at highway speed this is an ordinary question with an ordinary answer, and both answers are fine. Tell us if it has been done, and who did it if you can remember. It is unremarkable when it is mentioned and awkward when it is noticed.
However far it has gone
Three things the total does not decide
- A big total with a reason behind it is a different conversation. You know what the driving actually looked like and nobody else does. Saying it early shapes the whole visit, including the way the battery is looked at, which gets assessed properly rather than marked down on the strength of a figure on the dash.
- What is bolted to it can go either way. The bars, the box that goes with them, the bar on the back, the mats that have been in it since the first big trip. Staying with the car or coming off for the next one, both are ordinary, and both are far easier settled now than on the day.
- The last trip is not one you have to drive. The inspector comes to your home or your work, so a car that has already covered plenty is not asked to go and do a day more of it just to be looked at. Bringing it to us in Thomastown is there if you would rather, and almost nobody with this car would rather.
The ones people open with
Three questions we hear on this one
It has done a lot of kilometres. Is it still worth you coming out?
Yes, and that is the most common opening line we hear on this car. Give us the total by all means, and then tell us what it was doing while it added up. The second half of that is the part that shapes the visit.
Most of it was highway. Does that make any difference?
It makes a difference to the inspection, which is the honest answer. It tells us which parts of the car deserve the time and which can be read quickly, and it means nobody is left guessing at how the car was used. Say it on the call rather than leaving it to be worked out.
The roof bars have been up there for years. Should I take them off first?
Only if you want to keep them. Staying with the car, they are part of what is being bought. Going onto your next one, take them off beforehand and say so now, because a set that disappears after a number has been agreed is the sort of surprise nobody enjoys.
Tell us where it has been and we will price what it is.
Or call us on 03 9000 0075 and talk it through first.