High mileage Dino

Honestly, they wear out like normal cars. They are really the engineering of the 70's. The engine, gearbox, suspension, electrics, and brake system will wear out. If it's not been properly maintained, it could get rather expensive to reverse father time. Any car of that period that has 150K miles on it certainly has some engine wear and most likely is looking at a valve job if it hasn't received one already.

The biggest problem is that parts and service for a high mileage car can quickly make something "cheap" very expensive. If there are multiple problems, it can become overwhelming unless you're prepared for a complete restoration.

Still, if you are adventureous, it could be a good experience. What I would look out for more are rust, body repairs, rubber parts of every kind being oxidized, poor or abusive maintenance and repair, missing parts, and interior problems. Those can get really, really expensive to restore.

The best thing to do is get it checked out by someone who really knows what to look for and look at the repair records of the previous owners.

But, a well maintained and well taken car of Dino is no different than any well taken care of car of it's period. That means... think of it like any other 1970's car with 150K miles on it.

 

John had near 200,000 miles on his Dino GT, motor had been done but everything else needed to be done. It was his daily driver and I drove it just 2 week before his death, seemed fine to me but everything was worn to some point and car would have been better if things were replaced.

Mileage is not the end of the world if you can do the work but if you have to hire someone, it will get very expensive very quickly. Suspension, steering and brakes are time consuming if you are paying hourly rates. Pulling the motor on one of these is no more difficult than any other mid-engine car. I would not let high mileage stop me but the more miles the harder I am going to look at everything and the lower the price.

 

Call me cynical, but I would be willing to bet there are more cars out there with this type of mileage than we could imagine. Between rebuild, crooks, and replacement odometer's, I would have to believe people drove these cars at some point when value wasn't affected by miles or miles didn't affect value..

 

You have a point. A lot of these cars were abused in the 80's. And, they are easy to jerry-rig the speedo by simply disconnecting the cable. Records can be pretty easily falsified or may be nonexistant.

I hot wired my Dino one day because the ignition key broke. I was shocked how easy it was! I put in a fuel cut off switch under the seat in case some idiot got the same idea.

Like I said, these cars are really from the late 60's and early 70's. Exotic as a mid engine car may have been back in those days, today it seems rather old fashioned and simple in comparison.

 

Age v Mileage reported in Ads in UK over the past 35 odd years for which I have collated data. It always raises a wry smile when low mileage cars start appearing as prices move up. (nil years means I don't know the age of the car, not that it was new)
Image Unavailable, Please Login