In the car-by-car breakdown, HJ is pretty sparing with the cars that he is prepared to recommend (let alone highly recommend). I got to thinking about this recently as I am looking into buying a previous shape Honda Accord. It is very difficult to find much adverse comment about these (save that they are a little bland..)and perhaps like the Primera, they seem to tick almost all the boxes. HJ is positive about it, but it doesn't rate a recommended tag.
HJ highly rates the Mondeo, but I am such a huge fan of Japanese reliability (my current Nissan and two previous Mitsubishis were almost faultless)that I am tempted by the Honda. It is also perhaps more likely to have been looked after well and driven sensibly ( a more mature person's car?)
Any views anyone?
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That Accord was built in Swindon, so is Brit-Jap rather than pure-Jap. The Type R was good. But the rest of the range were fairly bland. I don't get a lot of feedback on them for the numbers, which is probably a good thing. But the car in this class that stands head and shoulders above everything else in all the surveys for reliabilty is the pure-Jap Mazda 626.
HJ
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Although there are quite a few reports of auto-box maladies on the 626.
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Reckon the 2.0 Sport Accord would be quite good to drive, nice engine, though a new 2.0 Zetec Mondeo of the same age, mileage and price would be a better bet.
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I've got a pure Jap 626 and it is a great car. Not thrilling to drive but I am very confident that it will get me where I want to go. Mine is the 113bhp 2 litre. There is also a 134bhp version which is a bit quicker, but the cloth and internal isn't as nice as mine.
Mine cost me £1650 at auction on a R98 with 104k. Its now got 125k and still runs very well. Uses a little oil, but no more than other cars. Total cost to date has been, set of brake pads (£25). SEt of HT leads (£70). Set of plugs (£40 - expensive platinum plugs), New sump and sealer (£100). Plus of course the 4 monthly oil changes. Apart from that it has sailed its MOTs and only has a bit of a sticky throttle on cold startup.
Only faults I have with it is no heated mirrors and no boot release button on boot (either key or internal lever). I'm keeping it until it suffers a major expense (more than about £500 to fix).
I did look at the honda, but its quite small inside and doesn't have a large enough boot on the hatch.
Plus honda's at auction go for a grand more.
Jonathan
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Total cost to date has been, set of brake pads (£25). SEt of HT leads (£70). Set of plugs (£40 - expensive platinum plugs),
Those Mazda parts are expensive! I recently bought for the Mondeo, (expensive 40k-mile lasting platinum) plugs, ignition leads, rear shoes, oil and filter all for £81 from my local Ford dealer!
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I have had a T reg Accord for 3 years and 40k miles.
As Which? pick up on, the fuel economy is not great on the Accord and it is not particularly easy to get in and out of. Apart from that trouble free except for the "lights on" sensor when opening the door.
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The Americans seem to rate them highly. Saw a thing on CNN today saying Accord was best family sedan.
Also noted this a while ago:
money.cnn.com/2004/12/08/pf/autos/residual_value/
Don't know how much US and UK Accords have in common, and it might be very dangerous to assume similar residuals here, but it shows somebody certainly loves Hondas.
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You don't want an auto 626 (uses the Ford CD4E - the autobox from Hell). Auto Accord is not that great either (the ratios are a bit odd). Best auto would be the Primera.
Accords seem to be reliable - but note that parts are more expensive than for a Nissan and there are fewer 'pattern parts' around. I have swapped a couple of lambda sensors on the Accord - seems to be a weak point (the genuine part is about £250 IIRC).
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Wifey has an auto Almera, which I guess uses similar mechanis to the Primera. Hers is the 1.6 SLX.
Two things I don't like about it. At 6ft 4 inches the drivers headroom isn't that great, even though every inch of the seat adjusts. Plus there are no stalk controls for the stereo, something that even the van has got!
Very refined to drive and soooo different to that Kia Rio she had for a week or so when hers was being fixed. Probably cheap but truely and awful car.
H
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I've got an 02 plate 2.0 SE Accord, which is now up to about 60k miles (bought it on 9k miles) and i'm a very rough driver (it gets road rallied occasionally!)
So far (touch wood) it has not had any faults and appears pretty bomb proof and is well built, has a quality feel about it and the boot is enormous.
The ride is a bit boat like when pushed hard, and it bottoms out too easily on undulating roads. Performance is ok, but you have to keep the revs up to get anywhere so fuel economy is crap (it's a big heavy car).
It is streets ahead of the W reg Mk2 Mondeo I owned previously (bought with 10k on sold with 60k on) which although better handling was slower, broke driveshafts everytime you span the wheels, destroyed CAT's everytime you went over a pot hole and had wheel hubs which unscrewed themselves!
In short the Honda is built well with good materials, the Mondeo is built as cheaply as possible and looks and feels it. The Parkers Car Guide reviews are miles out!
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Would agree with much said above. I have owned my 99S (built December '98, from the first couple of months' production) 2.0LS auto saloon since September last year. When I bought it (in Guernsey) it had done 17k miles, and although now it has only done 34k, 15k has been in the last 6 months as I returned to the mainland in May.
I can honestly say the car has performed faultlessly. In the last 15k miles it has been serviced twice and had an MOT (when it obtained UK registration) and has never let me down or needed anything outside service consumables. The tyres have required rotation due to the speedbumps that prevail all over Berkshire and I get the tracking checked every 6 months, but that's been it. About 2 months after I bought it the "Check Engine" light came up and it transpired that the oxygen sensor had failed, but this was put right by the dealer under warranty.
It is a rather bland car but in the right colour (silver or dark metallic blue or green) and on the right wheels (I binned the original steels and awful plastic covers and replaced them with OZ Touring alloys, but it's a matter of personal taste) I think it looks quite classy. It is very easy to drive (I never realised how useful cruise control was until I began driving from Newbury to Sunderland regularly on business) and while the handling isn't up to Mondeo standards it's perfectly acceptable. In fact, after a week and 750 miles in a Skoda Fabia I returned to the Accord on Tuesday and the power steering has much more feel and weight than the Skoda's. It's also exceptionally quiet - not just the engine, but the interior quality (no rattles) and effective door/sunroof sealing also contribute.
So it's a good car from a reliability perspective and should be a pretty painless ownership prospect. On the downside, the rear room isn't as good as the Passat or New Mondeo (or even the New Civic), some of the plastic trim scuffs easily (on the pillars by the seatbelts, and in the boot), none of the engines are particularly economical (I'm lucky to get 35mpg from mine - the VTEC engine has no real low-down torque so isn't suited to an auto - but on the plus side it's never dropped below 25mpg). You get the usual high spares prices (although I get mine serviced at a specialist now it's out of warranty) and the standard Pioneer stereo has hundreds of tiny buttons - a pain to operate.
One other thing to note - the cambelt change interval is an unusually long 72k miles or 8 years - I haven't heard of any premature snaps but I won't be leaving mine that long. The 36k service is pricey, so try and find one that has had it done already.
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Rich,
Well we've established the Accord is pretty good, but is it a patch on our first cars?
I seem to remember struggling to keep up with that 340 of yours in my white Metro on Windsor CC scatters!
Its been a while, but if you want to catch up on old times send me an email.
James
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It is a very nice car, but I have known bodywork repair costs to be very silly money.
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