Hi
If you were banned from buying a Honda Accord, what would be your next best choice?
Background
Following a write-off, I now need to buy a car in a slight hurry. I need it for heavy motorway mileage c.20,000+/year plus some London driving. I am looking for something that is super-reliable and holds up well towards the end of its life so as to get cheap, comfortable motoring.
I am told that Honda Accords are super-reliable, so my plan was to buy one fairly young, look after it (with quality oil and 6K gearchanges etc) and drive it until it stops.
So until today I was thinking: Honda Accord, diesel, low-ish mileage, auto gearbox, reverse sensors, ideally estate, ideally dark grey or dark blue colour and cruise control). The auto gearbox would be invaluable for London driving.
However I can't actually find what I want.
After much online research I finally found 6 cars that would have done, but when I phone the dealers all six of them had been sold... TODAY!
Eventually I found an automatic ES diesel saloon at CarShop (Northampton) with 70K miles on the clock reduced to about £10K, but it's battery almost immediately died (a sign of dodgy electrics, no?), the automatic gear changing was *horrendously* clunky (almost frighteningly so!), the breaks were ineffective and shuddered under foot, the tyres were basically bald, and the interior was scratched (not critical but a sign of lack of love!), and the power steering leapt around in a disturbing manner under near full lock (possibly due to low battery voltage). All in all... frankly terrible.
So now I'm thinking I will have to abandon Honda - there just dont seem to be enough of them out there, right now.
I am told that BMWs are extremely well made, but to be honest I am too prejudiced against BMW owners to become one myself.
Likewise volvo are just too damned dull.
What I liked about Honda is that they are kind of class-less, wont get up anyone's nose... and fractionally macho with it.
But I was thinking of a nice little Audi A4 instead... A bit middle-class but I could probably live with it. But I don't know how *reliable* they are.
- Any views/suggestions?
J
If you were banned from buying a Honda Accord, what would be your next best choice?
Background
Following a write-off, I now need to buy a car in a slight hurry. I need it for heavy motorway mileage c.20,000+/year plus some London driving. I am looking for something that is super-reliable and holds up well towards the end of its life so as to get cheap, comfortable motoring.
I am told that Honda Accords are super-reliable, so my plan was to buy one fairly young, look after it (with quality oil and 6K gearchanges etc) and drive it until it stops.
So until today I was thinking: Honda Accord, diesel, low-ish mileage, auto gearbox, reverse sensors, ideally estate, ideally dark grey or dark blue colour and cruise control). The auto gearbox would be invaluable for London driving.
However I can't actually find what I want.
After much online research I finally found 6 cars that would have done, but when I phone the dealers all six of them had been sold... TODAY!
Eventually I found an automatic ES diesel saloon at CarShop (Northampton) with 70K miles on the clock reduced to about £10K, but it's battery almost immediately died (a sign of dodgy electrics, no?), the automatic gear changing was *horrendously* clunky (almost frighteningly so!), the breaks were ineffective and shuddered under foot, the tyres were basically bald, and the interior was scratched (not critical but a sign of lack of love!), and the power steering leapt around in a disturbing manner under near full lock (possibly due to low battery voltage). All in all... frankly terrible.
So now I'm thinking I will have to abandon Honda - there just dont seem to be enough of them out there, right now.
I am told that BMWs are extremely well made, but to be honest I am too prejudiced against BMW owners to become one myself.
Likewise volvo are just too damned dull.
What I liked about Honda is that they are kind of class-less, wont get up anyone's nose... and fractionally macho with it.
But I was thinking of a nice little Audi A4 instead... A bit middle-class but I could probably live with it. But I don't know how *reliable* they are.
- Any views/suggestions?
J