Confused about oil changes when buying used

[SteveE]

I'd like to buy a used Passat with less than 50,000 miles and I want to get a lot of miles from it like my current 2001 Passat which has 175,000 mi.

My mechanic, who only works on VW and Audi, says "I would only buy a used VW that had the oil changed every 5,000 mi. or less." But VW recommends 10,000 mi. between changes and everyone seems to follow that for the used cars I've seen. I think that I may have to wait a very long time to find a car that has more frequent oil changes and may never find one.

My question--is my mechanic giving me the right advice or is he being too conservative?

Thanks.

[zollaf]

in an ideal world, you would buy one that has had an oil service every 5k, but in reality you are not going to find one. most will have been done at 10k unless on longlife which is around 20k. at 50k though, the engine is going to have barely been run in, so i wouldnt be too concerned about it at that stage. the problems only really seem to show themselves at higher mileage where the car has been on longlife. i would try to find one that has been serviced every 10k, and then take your mechanics wise advice and have an oil service every 5k. he sounds like he knows what he is talking about and will use the correct spec oil, which isnt cheap, but will take whichever engine you choose onto a large mileage, hopefully without problems.

[Quatrelle]

If you read some of the threads here, oil changes are irrelevant compared to the problems likely to arise if you have a BKP engine....

[vwcabriolet1971]

Just make sure it hasn't had a lot of short journeys with the low milaeage e.g. "mayonnaise" under oil filler cap , pitted brake discs etc