Looking to buy 2014 CX-5 Touring with 200k miles

[Himeji]

There is a small used car dealer about 1.5hrs away from me that is selling a 2014 CX5 for $3k. It has 200k miles on it. The car was a trade in. The VIN shows that it's had 3 owners. The last one was for about 20k miles ago. No rust according to the dealer.

Since this is a dealer, they have no idea how the car was taken car of. I have some mechanical knowledge. I do my oil changes. I have a Blue Driver scan tool. It's about a 4 hour time committment for me to check out the car myself with the scan tool. My main concern is if the engine and transmission still have life in it. Also, with direct inject there's probably carbon deposit. I might be able to clean that out myself but I've never done that before.

There is only one or two repair shops in the area where I might be able to get a prepurchase inspection but I doubt they will have any way to tell if the enigne or transmission has metal shavings in it.

Any advice on what I can do to determine if this is a deal to consider or not?

 

[HyFlyer]

$3k seems like a pretty good price

See if a Mazda dealer could look up the vin for any service history?

Take a couple of sample bottles and some 1/4 plastic tubing to suck an oil samples out of the engine and transmission dipstick tubes and send them off for analysis. (Idunno if you could talk to an analyzer company such as Blackstone for an expedited service since it usually takes several weeks to get it processed) . UOA might show wear metals present if the dealer hasn't done a fresh oil change.

The last owner keeping it for only 20k miles could be suspect (in my mind). Was it time to make the problems someone else's problems? It could just as easily be fine and just moving on to a better situation.

At the end of the day, at $3k price point, that's a low enough cost to deal with some issues and even if you moved it on in 20,000 miles it likely wouldn't hurt too bad.

And post back what you find out! You've got me hooked on this story now haha. I can wait to read the next chapter .

 

[hoopics]

Can you tell from the Carfax in what towns / areas the prior owners drove the car? Just bought a used CX-5 yesterday, and had great luck reassembling the service records for one by calling the three dealers in the town where it'd been getting its state inspections. All three dealers were happy to check their systems bases on VIN. Two had no service records. One had records confirming the car had been in every six months like clockwork, but also might have suffered from the TSB on valve seal leaking. I passed on that car and bought a different one with a cleaner history.

 

[GFrosty]

Big concerns for me would be: engine, timing, water pump; transmission, transfer case, diff; suspension.

Perhaps you can get a bit of the engine oil and the transmission oil, to get an analysis done. Of course, that'd take time, and it might well sell before then. Perhaps a compression test. But if those tests show no obvious ugliness, then it'd reduce the risk a fair amount.

With the suspension, I'd get it up on a rack and have a good "yank" and inspection on every suspension and steering bit, looking for slop, wear, damage. Unless something's fairly bent, likely the worst-case would be all the bushings, bushings, ball joints, shocks/bearing/mount.

At $3K, there's a lot of wiggle room for having some work needing to get done. But so long as it's not a tanked engine or tanked transmission, the cost of such maintenance would be relatively known. That $3K is quite possibly going to buy you the need for some (or a lot of) suspension/bushing bits, possibly water pump, belts/tensioner, possibly timing service (if clear wear), hoses, plugs, and all fluids (of course).

Not being a shade-tree mechanic myself, I can't think of much else one might do to evaluate a well-used example like this.

 

[Himeji]

Thank you all for the input so far.

I just called the closest Mazda dealership to where the car is being sold. They have records for only a few times from 2013 to 2018. The dates aligns with the second owner. It was mostly seen for state inspection and none for any mechinical repair. Mazda never found any need for big repairs. It looks like if there were any repairs it was done somewhere else. The one red flag would be oil leaking from the oil plug.

2013: State inspection and oil change
2014: Wheel balance
2017: State inspection. They found that oil was leaking from the oil plug. The owner declined fixing that. It may have just been loose, but if that was the case why didn't Mazda just tighten it. Also something about dampers. I think it may have been for the real tailgate.
2018: State inspection

 

[Snorting2.5]

My Skyactiv Mazda 6 has nearly 200k miles on it. I have confidence in this drivetrain being capable of literally doubling that mileage with minimal standard maintenance. I am also fully tuned for 91 octane. These are fantastic cars, you can hardly ever go wrong with a Skyactiv. I would certainly give that CX-5 a serious consideration.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

When you do a scan see how long ago the codes were reset. I know where this is located on OBD Link/Fusion but not in Blue Driver.

I think I see the one your are looking at. Red? Looks overall in pretty good shape. A few external cosmetic issues but for $3k can’t complain.

It might actually be a 2.0L ‘13 AWD since VIN tag shows 3/13 but with the way Mazda has set years on things it could very well be a ‘14 2.5L. My ‘15 was built 4/2014

VIN lookup at NHTSA does show it as a ‘14

Kinda odd discrepancy between two sites. .. their site has it at $6k w/180k miles but then again other ad site they use is now at 200k miles and $3k

 

[theblooms]

Absolutely pay for a pre-purchase inspection. Even if it costs you $150, if there's major issues like say Bluetooth rear trailing arms, you just saved $3,000.

 

[yrwei52]

There is a small used car dealer about 1.5hrs away from me that is selling a 2014 CX5 for $3k. It has 200k miles on it. The car was a trade in. The VIN shows that it's had 3 owners. The last one was for about 20k miles ago. No rust according to the dealer.

Since this is a dealer, they have no idea how the car was taken car of. I have some mechanical knowledge. I do my oil changes. I have a Blue Driver scan tool. It's about a 4 hour time committment for me to check out the car myself with the scan tool. My main concern is if the engine and transmission still have life in it. Also, with direct inject there's probably carbon deposit. I might be able to clean that out myself but I've never done that before.

There is only one or two repair shops in the area where I might be able to get a prepurchase inspection but I doubt they will have any way to tell if the enigne or transmission has metal shavings in it.

Any advice on what I can do to determine if this is a deal to consider or not?

A used 2014 CX-5 with 200K miles for $3,000? IMO if you test drive the car and can’t feel anything wrong (engine smoothness、noise, transmission shift, suspension noise、looseness, etc.) on the local road and highway, you should just go get it. You can’t expect too much on a drivable $3,000 vehicle nowadays. And at 200K miles anything could go wrong at any time. Luckily the 2014 CX-5 with 2.0L / 2.5L NA without CD has no major flaw on design, and should be very reliable. The transmission can be reliable too depending on how lucky you’re and if the ATF has been changed along the way.

I usually don’t want to buy a used car as there’re too many variables and unknowns. You should check the oil on the dipstick which may tell you some stories. If it’s low and dirty which most likely means the engine is burning oil. If it’s full but clean which could mean the owner had added fresh oil to hide something. Further, you can easily remove the spark plugs to verify engine conditions. For $3,000, if the car drives fine it could easily get sold fast and you don’t have too much time to check into more details.

 

[ColoradoDriver]

When you do a scan see how long ago the codes were reset. I know where this is located on OBD Link/Fusion but not in Blue Driver.

I think I see the one your are looking at. Red? Looks overall in pretty good shape. A few external cosmetic issues but for $3k can’t complain.

It might actually be a 2.0L ‘13 AWD since VIN tag shows 3/13 but with the way Mazda has set years on things it could very well be a ‘14 2.5L. My ‘15 was built 4/2014

VIN lookup at NHTSA does show it as a ‘14

Kinda odd discrepancy between two sites. .. their site has it at $6k w/180k miles but then again other ad site they use is now at 200k miles and $3k

It absolutely can be a 2.5L 2014. Mine has a build date of 01/2013 for example.

 

[Snorting2.5]

A used 2014 CX-5 with 200K miles for $3,000? IMO if you test drive the car and can’t feel anything wrong (engine smoothness、noise, transmission shift, suspension noise、looseness, etc.) on the local road and highway, you should just go get it. You can’t expect too much on a drivable $3,000 vehicle nowadays. And at 200K miles anything could go wrong at any time. Luckily the 2014 CX-5 with 2.0L / 2.5L NA without CD has no major flaw on design, and should be very reliable. The transmission can be reliable too depending on how lucky you’re and if the ATF has been changed along the way.

I usually don’t want to buy a used car as there’re too many variables and unknowns. You should check the oil on the dipstick which may tell you some stories. If it’s low and dirty which most likely means the engine is burning oil. If it’s full but clean which could mean the owner had added fresh oil to hide something. Further, you can easily remove the spark plugs to verify engine conditions. For $3,000, if the car drives fine it could easily get sold fast and you don’t have too much time to check into more details.

There's a handful of Skyactiv owners with more than 300k miles on this forum. I can only imagine the anguish one might endure, worrying about what might go wrong as you drive hundreds of thousands of miles on a vehicle that - literally - hardly has anything go wrong on it.

 

[Himeji]

I passed on the car once I was able to take a lookat at it. Most of the photos in the ad was taken from a distance. Up close, it was in rougher shape.

 

[GFrosty]

I passed on the car once I was able to take a lookat at it. Most of the photos in the ad was taken from a distance. Up close, it was in rougher shape.

I don't blame you, there.

As with anything, the devil's in the details.

Purchased my own 2016.5 GT AWD from a seller that was more than 1000mi distant. But they had great photos, a lengthy description, and my purchase's down-payment (to hold the item) was dependent on one requirement: that the description be every bit as correct and accurate in assessment once I got there to examine it as it claimed. Turned out, it was. The shop knew the specific car, had done most of the maintenance, had all the records, and it was in fine shape. But, had the description been insupportable, I'd have passed on it too.

You'll probably find one out there, where only one or two owners have taken great care of the thing, and it'll be well-maintained with proofs of that maintenance. Even if it takes months to find that "right" one.

Good luck.

 

[Kedis82ZE8]

Assume it was this one?

2014 mazda cx-5 for sale by owner - Hillsborough, NH - craigslist

Adult owned and operated. Absolutely no rust or rot, non smoker, no pets. Good tires and brakes. Needs oil change and tune up. This is a great deal and priced very fair. Clean title in hand. Drive...

nh.craigslist.org

 

[yrwei52]

I passed on the car once I was able to take a lookat at it. Most of the photos in the ad was taken from a distance. Up close, it was in rougher shape.

Thanks for the update.

I believe If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.