My beloved 2005 Honda Accord Diesel is to be a victim of Mr Khan's ULEZ in October. And it has suddenly developed a horrid electrical fault that has disabled the central locking, given a 'glow plug' fault code, put the car into limp mode, and done this to the dashboard. youtu.be/S9V0oMWVC9o - this happens even when the car is locked. Probably not worth even taking to the garage, is it.
I've had it - having searched this forum for my posts - almost ten years, and it cost me £2,850 and I should think I've spent £1,000 on it, outside normal servicing. The only time it let me down the AA recovered it for a 'gear box whine' that turned out to be an unbalanced wheel. Oh and when the garage had fitted a non OEM fuel filter - another long AA recovery. Can't blame the car for either of those. That's got to be some of the cheapest motoring ever.
So, what next? Suggestions please.
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The seats in the Accord are literally the most comfortable place in the world. Slightly tempted to go for a similar vintage petrol...
It has to be ULEZ compliant, and a decent size estate car. Budget? I'm not sure where the market is at the moment. I guess between 2-10k.
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There are those who say Civics are very good. Can't get excited about them myself, but allegedly they are excellent.
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Thanks Brompton, life's been pretty busy.
Stuartli, thank you; I'd tried that, but sadly it doesn't seem to have fixed it. Indeed I have to leave the battery disconnected for fear that the alarm will run the battery flat. I did hope when I reconnected it this morning that it would have fixed it.
Mark, you're right. It will be a hard act to match let alone beat. The challenge is to find a single-owner 4/5-year-old car with 130k on the clock that is ULEZ compliant and has just had a load of money spent on it on servicing parts. Reckon I'll have to spend about 5k.
Civic too small, I think, Runfer?
Outgoing motor is a 2.2D. I'm after some power. Even that struggled up motorway hills when fully laden...
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102189196161 £3k for a 2007 petrol version of the one I'm binning. Seems a lot for a 13-year-old car. Seems Honda stopped making the Accord?
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202012237359303 £6k for a 2016 Avensis. 100k miles, recent turbo and DPF. New shape, I think? HJ regards the new shape as a huge improvement inside.
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103039680167 one for RF, but honestly, 2k for a 15-year-old-car?
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202010265465942 £7k 2016 125k Skoda Superb, a decent-sized machine I think? HJ seems to rate it for size, comfort etc.
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103049732635 £5k 2016 140k Mondeo. Soooo boring (ly reliable?). Those seats don't look that comfortable? I'm looking for reasons to reject it... it's a Ford Mondeo.
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202103099950144 £5.5k (private sale) 2017 150k Another Mondeo; with starship miles and recent t-belt and water pump.
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202101218204169 Crumbs, a 2007 A6 Quattro with an engine of some size - 3 litres! That would be a way to blow 4k... and the fuel bill to match.
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202011246442043 £3.5k 2014 157k Insignia with a new 'reconditioned' (which just means second hand, right?) engine, t-belt etc. Somebody has just spent a third of the value of the car on this recently. Not sure I can face another Vauxhall after the '99 Vectra I had for a while... just too basic inside.
www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202102279533865 £4.6k 2014 131k Mazda6 - they seem cheap. I briefly had a Mazda once, again, cheap interior, and it smelled of air freshener. They may be better these days? And maybe it's unfair to condemn an entire marque on account of a £400 car with a funny smell...
Nothing French or Italian.
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>> www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202010265465942 £7k 2016 125k Skoda Superb, a decent-sized machine I think? HJ seems to rate
>> it for size, comfort etc.
Estate car of choice for the doggy owners due to huge boot. I have personal knowledge of one, three years and two months old, 2.0 litre diesel manual 66k miles up, water pump failed. Skoda paid for pump, user paid for labour, cam belt and idler. Been faultless otherwise, user intends to buy off lease and run for another 3 years or more then sell onto the uber drivers in Peterborough.
They may or may not be able to clean 6 or more years of dog out of it, but I doubt they will bother
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 12 Mar 21 at 11:07
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I'm quite tempted Zero by that Skoda. £20 annual tax too?!
What is it about that particular one that's not quite grabbing me. Out of focus photographs? Grey on Grey?
I did enjoy the HJ observation: only a Rolls Royce also offers an umbrella in the door compartment.
It's got to be a diesel; I've a completely full tank of diesel in the Honda... :o Last thing I did was to fill it up and drive it round the corner to park it.
Sadly my Avensis appears to have sold ('deposit taken'). Also, the boot size is a bit small. I fill the Honda up sometimes (1707/626 litres), and something 10% bigger - Skoda (1950/660 litres) - rather than 10% smaller - Avensis (1609/543) - has got to be the sensible solution.
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"only a Rolls Royce also offers an umbrella in the door compartment"
Obviously never driven a Vauxhall Ampera then!! They are somewhat rarer than Rolls Royces...
This link downloads the manual tinyurl.com/yg3odn4y see p 52.
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>> I'm quite tempted Zero by that Skoda. £20 annual tax too?!
>>
>> What is it about that particular one that's not quite grabbing me. Out of focus
>> photographs? Grey on Grey?
Think its an ex taxi.
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>> Think its an ex taxi.
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Why?
They have two other Superbs listed. This one is £621 below market price (accordingly to Autotrader) the other two are about on average market price. But the photos for this one are pants. They're shot in the late afternoon as it's going dark.
Has it not sold because the photos are so unappealing, and so it's been reduced?
Or are the photos hiding something?
Or does no car look good in grey? (And I've passed on several white cars... really you need your own valet to run one of those appealingly.)
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Nope, not a taxi. Lease company. Clearly leased to somebody who really cared about the car. Which I concede could have been an airport limo driver. Not a scratch on it (one very small scuff on one alloy). I’m ashamed to be taking it to the streets of London where it will rapidly deteriorate.
Once they’ve serviced it, and fitted a new cam belt, repaired the alloy wheel and replaced the washer bottle lid and a catch on a piece of trim in the boot. How they make money I have no idea. He claimed they’d lost money on it.
They were really awful photos of the car though weren’t they. Probably why it hasn’t sold.
Any recommendations for how to spend an hour in Doncaster before my train?
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Sat 13 Mar 21 at 12:08
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>>Any recommendations for how to spend an hour in Doncaster before my train?
Just keep safe and don't make any eye contact, you'll be fine if you get away before dark...
;-))
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>> Any recommendations for how to spend an hour in Doncaster before my train?
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....have you got a banjo with you......?
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Any recommendations for how to spend an hour in Doncaster before my train?
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My advice, don't.
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>> Any recommendations for how to spend an hour in Doncaster before my train?
>> >>
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The station is near the river Don. I don't know if there any paths along there but it may be worth it if the weather is good. Will be quite industrial around there I guess.
Last edited by: zippy on Sat 13 Mar 21 at 14:04
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Thanks Zippy, already well on the train by then! I found the Don (indeed I found the Don in Mexborough near the dealer where I’d already whiled away three quarters of an hour), the Minster (Gilbert Scott, sadly shut), an Italian deli just opposite it, and errr, Peacocks have rather a fine building. Is there much more to Doncaster? Obviously prosperous in its Victorian heyday - presumably thanks to the railway.
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I am not really familiar with the area.
I happened to be there and Scunthorpe in 2019 to visit a client there on behalf of a colleague who couldn't make it. Stayed for a couple of nights.
I remember quite liking the place - lots of big sky, friendly folk and cheap beer.
Did you like the motor - it certainly looked ok for the mileage!?
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>> Did you like the motor - it certainly looked ok for the mileage!?
Like? That's one way of putting it... It's a lot of car for little money. Took me less than two seconds to decide as I spotted it in the (large) carpark as I walked past it. Absolutely immaculate. I feel ashamed to take it and park it on the streets of London where it will inevitably pick up dings and scrapes.
Still think the dealer's photos were rubbish. If your only way of selling cars is online (as it is at the moment) then you have to get the photos looking absoutely spic and span. You don't plaster a car with 'turbodiesel' posters and fill it with paper mats, nor let the leg of the photographer get into the photos. You make sure that the entire car is visible in a shot.
And it doesn't have drug-dealer black rear windows; they are tinted, but it's the sunblind (who'd have thought they were a thing?!) that has been lifted up that makes them look black.
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>> user intends to buy off lease
Last couple of lease companies that I have dealt with glance absolutely refused to sell the vehicle to the person leasing it or to a member of their family.
Apparently it’s to do with tax treatment if there is any intention of the lessor to by the car as the leasing company gets significant tax and VAT advantages.
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I'd go with your second link, the avensis.
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Stuartli, thank you; I'd tried that, but sadly it doesn't seem to have fixed it>>
Sorry, it didn't work. However, you mention that the battery is disconnected anyway. The point is that the live terminal should remain in situ for the short period of time.
Done a bit of Googling...
itstillruns.com/reset-warning-lights-dash-7722528.html
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I wouldn't heed any advice from anyone who says: "Touching just the negative or positive terminal will not cause an electric shock, but touching both at the same time will".
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Stuartli
Thanks. The problem isn't the engine management light, I've a reader that can reset that (somewhere). The problem is that everything has gone a bit bonkers - if you look at the video above. I might disconnect the live as well as the neutral though. Something needs resetting...
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Re the dashboard display, try disconnecting the negative earth battery lead for 10 minutes or so to reinitialise the setting.
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Come on Mapmaker, your last car buying decision was quite obviously genius.
Bet you can't do it again.
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If looking for a 10yr old ICE motor I'd be looking at N/A petrol models personally.
Some are duds (2.5 Subaru 4 is prone to HG failures around 80-100k apparently) but most are pretty reliable.
Sensors and electrics are often tiresome causes of vehicular death even when mechanicals are good - ?means French cars are out
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>>If looking for a 10yr old ICE motor I'd be looking at N/A petrol models personally.
Probably an Avensis if it were me.
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Sounds a bit like symptoms of flooded electronics to me. Have you any wet carpets or other signs of water leaks?
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Manatee, thank you; yes I agree, it was my first thought. I think it was extremely wet at one point on Wednesday night. It does sometimes leak through a passenger door a bit, but hasn't done for a year (don't understand that one).
I think the car is now behaving as it has dried out. And if I drive up tomorrow to see that Superb then it will have done 300 miles, burnt half the tank of diesel I've paid for which will be pleasing, and it will be dried out and working perfectly.
I still need a new car later this year because of ULEZ... and anyway this one is no longer trustworthy.
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TL:DR
If you are getting rid of your Accord and there are no more recent Accords on AutoTrader than 2015, why not get a Toyota?
Why Toyota? Well, it seems that as a generalisation they are boringly reliable. YMMV.
An Auris, or a Corolla? Perhaps a Prius? All those Minicab drivers can't be wrong? Can they? Or the Toyota's posh cousin - the Lexus?
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I think Mappy has bought the Skoda Superb Estate. Blooming massive they are. Very highly regarded as offering exceptionally good VFM.
Hope it works out ok.
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>> I think Mappy has bought the Skoda Superb Estate. Blooming massive they are.
The boot is uge. Only the MB E estate comes close. The Superb would have been my no 1 dog hauler of choice if it wasn't for the VW auto box.
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I wonder how much bigger the boot is than the octavia?
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19 chihuahuas or 3 Westies
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To answer my own question,
Octavia 610/1740 Litres
Superb 660/1950 Litres.
Closer than I thought.
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Yes.
Make that 14 chihuahuas.
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>> To answer my own question,
>>
>> Octavia 610/1740 Litres
>>
>> Superb 660/1950 Litres.
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>> Closer than I thought.
Not really, stick your head in both, and the space difference is immediately obvious. Both the Superb and the Octavia have practical boot space, ie is squarer.
Or stick your head in a MB E class boot space, and as your thoughts echo around the huge cathedral like interior, wonder how how the Superb has an even larger load space.
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Yes indeed, the inside of an E Class is something of a religious experience. An epiphany perhaps?
;-)
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>> Yes indeed, the inside of an E Class is something of a religious experience. An
>> epiphany perhaps?
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>> ;-)
Hair shirt maybe? crucifixion perhaps?
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>>Or stick your head in a MB E class boot space, and as your thoughts echo around the huge cathedral like interior, wonder how how the Superb has an even larger load space.
Then waken up to the huge potential bills for keeping a 2nd hand MB E Class on the road for a number of years.
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>>Or stick your head in a MB E class boot space, and as your thoughts echo around the huge cathedral like interior, wonder how how the Superb has an even larger load space.
Then waken up to the huge potential bills for keeping a 2nd hand MB E Class on the road for a number of years.
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Sort of worth though FB, like a taste for good whisky and fine shoes...
;-)
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...well, the boot is obviously big enough for there to be an echo.....
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Not really, stick your head in both, and the space difference is immediately obvious. Both
>> the Superb and the Octavia have practical boot space, ie is squarer.
I'm only quoting the figures, it's less than 10% with the seats up.
I'm afraid I've not got either to hand to stick my head in.
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>> I'm only quoting the figures, it's less than 10% with the seats up.
Volume in litres is a seriously unhelpful measurement fit only for taking a boot full of loose leaves to the dump. Some reviewers use flight bags, which is much more useful for getting an idea of how useable the space is.
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Not just the boot. There's enough legroom in the back to bottle it and sell it to Brobdingnag.
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Well, a couple of tanks of fuel in (at 80 litres and claiming to be averaging 55mpg that's a reasonable way, and I had a full tank in the Honda to burn through first), it's a nice car. Cruises very happily on the motorway. Not quite as much oomph as its predecessor, I think.
That boot isn't huge though. It's utterly, totally, completely cavernous. Not just the boot. With the seats down there's as much space in the footwell behind the driver's and passenger's seats as in any self-respecting car.
I can't say I've fallen in love with the car yet though, not like the Honda. Odd really. Maybe it's the seats, the Honda felt like being in the womb. I do like applecar though, very convenient.
It can be stalled though; feels more like a petrol than the diesel that it is.
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Yes it's odd isn't it? I've had cars like that. Cars that in theory should tick all your boxes but that you just don't quite gel with. Then you get others that shouldn't be perfect, but somehow just are.
Lots of car savvy people rave about Volvos for example, and in particular how comfortable they are supposed to be, but I never really got on with the ones I had. ( A 940 and an 850 ) Both of them gave me backache on long runs to be truthful, despite my being about as average in size and build as it's possible to be. Didn't bond with my Xantia either and I positively hated my Espace. A Galaxy that I had, in contrast, was a great thing.
Mundane Mondeos never failed to surprise and delight too though, and I'm pleased to say that very happy with my/our current "stable" of cars.
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I do love the 800+ miles between refuellings though...
Maybe I paid too much for it actually to love it... no way am I going to get my depreciation down to the less than £20 per month that the last car managed! I was far more in love with a cream-coloured W123 Merc wagon that cost me £400 - until it got nicked.
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I need a new car - Mapmaker
