Looking for a car for the father-in-law.

It has to be big, comfortable, fast, reliable, economical, high quality, have leather seats and be cheap to run. Costing under £2k. Easy….

AnyWay, I was thinking Saab 9-5 as I’m a bit of a Saab nut and know the pitfalls of the various diesels and you can usually get a well sorted one off UKSaabs classifieds.

But being in Aberdeenshire it’s always a trek to go and buy something so this Honda Accord came up locally.

05, 93k, Dealer SH up to 78k. 2.2 CDTi, Leather etc.Owned by retired mechanic. Full Mot. £1499. Going to see it tonight.

Any pointers?

I’ve got a 55 plate, getting rid of it through the scrappage scheme. Suspension is knackered and going to cost around £800 to sort.

So check the suspension at the front, also check the power steering rack isn’t leaking, when test driving drop down the gears and accelerate hard as a common fault on these is a blocked fuel filter which is a major pain to change. abs sensor faults are common – problem with this is that it’s easy to cover the fault light on the dash with tape as ours is (to get it through mot). Check the discs and pads are okay as they eats through discs.

Only selling for about £800 on eBay btw last time I looked. Although ours has done 170k.

Oh yeh as per below cracked manifold is common so if there’s exhaust gas smell in the car at idle that’s what it’ll be. Part is cheap but another pain to replace.

It’s been a while since I owned the Accord CDTi but did well of 100k in my two.

Cracked manifolds (probably sorted by now) and turbos letting go via over boosting were the two problems I had on one which are common faults. The first one was absolutely fine when it was sold with over 100k on the clock

There are two very, very different versions of that car.

Pre-Facelift, these are riddled with faults, honestly I owned a pre-facelift Accord CDTi and it was easily the worst car I ever owned for letting me down. Electrical problems (the cars electrics are actually sound, it’s people hacking it to bits to try to fix some of the other faults that break them) exhaust manifolds crack sending fumes into the cabin, the top spec versions come with an touchscreen sat-nav system that shits it’s DVD drive so you can’t use it – the same screen runs the radio and climate systems too. Headlamps fill with water, MOT fail, electric boot (estate) breaks all the time, causing mostly electrical faults when people try to fix it – there’s others too, shame really because when it works, it’s a lovely old bus, they’re huge – much bigger than Mondeos and Vectras, when they were new they would have been lovely.

The post-facelift version is a lot better, but still not perfect – some common faults that are more than just common, they’re just faults.

Post-facelift Petrol Saloons are probably as close to being fault free.

I think the facelift came about 2005 so the one you’re looking at is on the cusp.

I’d certainly prefer a petrol 2.0 or 2.4 MVII. We still have our 2.4 petrol MKVIII, it’s almost ten years old and everything still works fine

We were looking at accords, went with a volvo V70 D5 instead.

More car for the money I reckon, and very well put together. The only car I’ve worked on that the little plastic clips etc don’t snap when you take it apart, and screws etc still come undone without rounding off 15 years after they were put in.

electric boot (estate) breaks all the time,

yep ours is broken, wasn’t relevant to the op though as not an estate.

Oh and headlamps are woeful, got to the stage that I dread driving the car in the dark. New osram nightbreakers made very little difference.

It has to be big, comfortable, fast, reliable, economical, high quality, have leather seats and be cheap to run. Costing under £2k. Easy….

Any pointers?

Yeah, lower your expectations!

Thanks guys. Food for thought. I’d prefer a petrol too but the FiL does a big mileage….

Plastic clips that don’t snap – sounds like a Saab.

How do you tell it’s a facelift?

Here’s the ad:

Ad

Lower your expectations!

Indeed. I should have the ironic, rolling your eyes emoticon in there.

I think you can get most of those qualities with an old Saab or Volvo. I had a high mileage S60 D5 and it was great.

Drive it. Check for following if you want to be picky:

1) drive shafts can go approx 100k. Make sure no front end vibration at speeds under load or acceleration. nSF usually go first.

2) they can sometimes be smoky (especially when cold) so check it isnt too smokey sl

3) make sure all gear changes are slick and the clutch pedal isn’t available too heavy. original clutches van show wear from towards 100k depending on how they’ve been driven. Make sure it doesn’t slip in 2nd or third under load

If you are buying from a trader the car SHOULD be ok, it helps to buy from a decent person in the trade and not a desperado with a coke n hookers / gambling etc habit

Good cars. Torquey 6 speed engines and proven reliability

And apologies, I’m on my first pint and writing on a phone…

Thanks Muzz

Good points. It’s from a retired bloke who’s the second owner.

It’s a 5 speeder so pre facelift I guess.

There’s a decent S60 D5 I’ve found as a backup.

Scratch that.

Seller seemed dodgy. Just before I got there received a text saying he’d been offered £1600 so wouldn’t be taking less than the asking.

The service history stopped at 50k and the rest that had been promised didn’t materialize. It drove well enough, clutch and driveshafts seemed fine but suspension past its best, definitely. Mot advisories included corrosion on subframe and crossmembers. Just a bit tired and poorly kept. Stark contrast to the immaculate 100k Civic 1.6 VTec I recently bought for the mum in law. Full Toyota history. Owned by an accountant from new. Felt like a new car.

Told him to take the £1600 he was being offered.

Anyway, thanks for the input everyone. Just shows that if you’re buying cheap, you can’t be in a hurry.

Glad you gave it a miss.

After my experience I wouldn’t touch a pre-facelift Accord, mine was 7 years old when I had it and it didn’t seem to go a week without something breaking, that one was nearly twice as old.

On the plus side, it was a saloon without nav, so as long as the headlamps worked and the exhaust wasn’t leaking It could have been okay, but doesn’t matter now.

There are some real gems out there for little money. My Grandad sold his 3 series (E30) way back when for £600 because that’s what the first caller offered him, it was immaculate, full BMW history, 70k miles, 2 owners, took kit. The kicker was he told my Gran years later he was going to give it to me but thought the insurance would be too high.

Yeah I’m sure there are some gems out there but the problem with Aberdeen is it’s kinda out on a limb and there’s very little choice up here. You generally have to travel a long way to buy cars. I’m often going to Birmingham or Yorkshire or whatever. Bought an Abbott Racing Saab from Brighton once too.

Generally I look for one owner FSH type cars or ones owned by owners club types who are generally obsessive about their vehicles.

The Accord had OK lights and we didn’t die of CO poisoning and it didn’t smoke but there’s always another one.

Get yourself a nice Volvo V70

I have a 53 plate diesel auto xc70 (4wd version) with nearly a quarter of a million miles on it and it’s a Cat C but she is a beauty in every way!

the immaculate 100k Civic 1.6 VTec ….Full Toyota history

Ermmmm 🙂

Just to round this off:

Got an ’07 Volvo S60 D5 manual. 73k. Full history. One (fastidious) owner from new. £2k.

Job done. Thanks everyone.

Nice 🙂

Just to round this off:

Got an ’07 Volvo S60 D5 manual. 73k. Full history. One (fastidious) owner from new. £2k.

Job done. Thanks everyone.

Awesome car for a great price. Do u mimd if I cast what insurance and road tax are costing on a motor like that?

VED is £220.

Insurance is pretty subjective.

I’m 50 odd, live in Aberdeenshire, have 7 yrs ncd and (surprisingly) no points on my licence. Under £200 for me but I’m not insuring it myself. Dunno what the father in law is paying.

Before anyone mentions it, we’ll get the handbrake shoes checked/replaced before the rear hubs get munched.

Flush the box (if auto) and planning on keeping it.

Flush the box (if auto)

Errrm…

Got an ’07 Volvo S60 D5 manual

Go petrol for older Hondas. Our CRV CDTI engine died at about 120k. Older petrols seem to go on and on forever.

Got an ’07 Volvo S60 D5 manual

Oh yeah!

Make sure the drain holes on the scuttle board below the windscreen are clear of crud. I had a very very expensive fix on my old S60 when they clogged and water got into the engine management system.
I loved mine, the D5 is a great engine.

Drain holes? Good shout. Thanks.

That was a problem on the Rover 75 / MGZT as well.

ot an ’07 Volvo S60 D5 manual. 73k. Full history. One (fastidious) owner from new. £2k.

They are storming cars for the money. I bought a D5 V70 a couple of years ago with a fsh and 150k for similar money. Mileage is now over 180k and feels like it will do many many more miles.

I think Honda buys in the diesels, personally I would only ever buy a petrol engined Japanese car (have had 5) as that way you are getting all-Japanese mechanics/quality/reliability for your money

I think Honda buys in the diesels, personally I would only ever buy a petrol engined Japanese car (have had 5) as that way you are getting all-Japanese mechanics/quality/reliability for your money

Pretty sure this is nonsense. I think the 2.2 i-CDTi and subsequent diesel engines have been engineered by Honda. The older 1.7 diesel might have been sourced elsewhere.

They used to buy in diesel engines (Rover for the excellent 2.0 TD L-series in the Accord the same shape as the R620, and Isuzu (then GM) for the 1.7CDTi in the EP4 Civic), but after that, the 2.2 CDTi was certainly their own. See here…

The 2.2 was Honda’s first ever Diesel engine, the accord was the first place they put it – it’s given as the reason why it wasn’t up to their usual level of brilliance with engines first go. I’m not sure how much of the original engine is left in current versions though.