Cars, don't you just hate them

[billyg]

Barb,

if it was me I would sink future money into a Japanese car. Heavy upfront costs but they hold their value for a reason.

Honda do a fair range of 'road warrior' type vehicles that may suit your purpose.

To be fair, a mate of mine has a Focus and does big miles (30,000 plus a year)- only trouble he's ever had was with the aircon unit but it owes him nothing now.
You may just have been unlucky.

On the servicing front my 'B' service for a Landcruiser was £350 including a half price MOT- japanese specialist place.

Only down side I can see with the Jap motors is that when)or if) they finally do go wrong- the parts can be pricey. You take with one hand and give with the other I suppose.

Note to MWJ: please remind me to lay myself about the head liberally with a bat if I ever talk about buying a Merc in future. Tah

 

[RGuk]

I'd go for a japanese car if I had to plump for a workhorse vehicle again (which I don't a.t.m.) I had a whole fleet of them for years and got them serviced at independent garages and sourced parts through nippon automotive, never the unipart lads or main dealer parts counters.
VW have a good reputation, of course, but on balance I've heard less gripes about toyota/honda/mitsubishi than VW group cars. Unfortunately, most cars hit a bad patch at 80-100k, it can't be helped. Alternator, starter, clutch, turbos, etc......nothing you can do. If I've had a car going through this period of expensive tlc I either sell it before or then stick with it up to another two years to get some of my money back.

I had the starter go on my US model honda accord. I was quoted £250 by honda (twice that of a uk model) so I phoned a starter recon firm and asked them to post a recon kit to my garage. £7.80 and £12 labour, it was fixed!

 

[viscount17]

Glad your fixed up (almost). I was going to suggest a Toyota, mine (fingers crossed) has been as good as gold.

 

[Leftie]

my US model honda accord.

It's not the 3l coupe by any chance?

 

[RGuk]

It's not the 3l coupe by any chance?

No, the "old" 2.2 v-tec 4 cyl. (mine was an "M" reg).

 

[TonyN]

Remember watching a top gear and hearing the guys say honda have made about 1 million vtec engines and have never had one returned that didnt work. (maybe slightly wrong or heard differently) but hell that is some going!

 

[RGuk]

I've heard similar stories. I used to go to car shows (japanese performance) and never met a single person who'd destroyed a Honda v-tec engine.....

My old next door neighbour bought an Accord after some "issues" with his BMW 2.2 (badged 320i). They (BMW) took out his engine after they'd discovered it was more or less dead (96k). They wanted to know what to do......(it had been serviced on the button by BMW from new)......and said it wouldn't be helping with any of the replacement cost. He left it with them, engine in boot and said he wanted nothing to do with it if "no help" was the best they could offer. A year later it appeared on the forecourt for sale. There were words!.....it appeared the finance company had come to an agreement with BMW.....

 

[TonyN]

hmmm. I had a vtec engine in my last car (corsa, think it was actually made by fiat) diesel engine. Was super! 1.3cdti atleast 50-60 mpg good on motorway, enough torque to lump me around the welsh country side with a boot full of camping gear no problem. Actually miss it a bit. Going back to a diesel engine as i love prefere torque over power(does that make sense?)

 

[barb]

Hi all
Just thought I'd update you all on the car front. I've come into work today to find that our service is getting rid of our pool car and is leasing a new car instead as the service owns the pool car we have to sell it ourselves, my manager has offered it to me and I have accepted, it is such a bargain .
The car: Skoda Fabia estate (Silver), 1.9 Diesel, 39000 on the clock, 53 plate (2003), fsh, full years MOT and 6 mths tax.
The price: £1500

Silly to say no really and so we will use our mondeo as the main work car until it can not go any further and use the skoda for the longer trips.
Lets just say I'm a happy bunny today
Barb

 

[Leftie]

Good result Barb.