Honda Reliability [*split topic from Corrosion Issues ...again! post*]

[guest221]

...get the Fiesta (ideally a 1.6 Titanium with the Mountune upgrade!)

Say what?

Ford Fiesta 1.6 S1600 3dr + £1300 Mountune pack (140bhp, 7.9secs) = £18,017
Renault Clio 200 with the Cup chassis  (198bhp, 6.9secs) = £18,120

A proper hot hatch for £103 more? Money well spent I say.

Titanium is spec is cheaper and better equipped then S1600 and Clio.

And how useful is that extra second off the 62mph sprint in the real world? The Fiesta will outhandle Nicole's handbag-on-wheels, (tea)cup chassis or not.

And have you seen the El-Cheapo Clio's interior? Looks like Renualt top dog Carlos Gosen has taken inspiration from partner Nissan's back catalogue

[guest150]

Just take a look around and see how many older Hyundai. Daweo, Fiat etc you see driving around - in fact if you want to see one over 6 years old your best bet would be to visit you local scrapyard. 

Now see if you can spot loads Honda models even back to 'F' reg and you will soon see that the old adage 'you get what you pay for' is very true.  The problem is most buyers of cheaper cars dump them at the 3 year mark when they start giving problems and the flood the second hand market, further driving down secondhand prices for those models. Even cynical Jeremy Clarkson has been known to say that a Honda car will outlast the universe.
 
And if you think the Jazz i-DSi is 'asthmatic' and the V-TEC is 'silly nonsense' then I have to disagree as I have nothing but praise for the V-TEC cars that I have driven, in fact if Carlsberg built an engine it would have to be based on the superb Honda V-TEC system.  Most people have running problems with the i-DSi because of EGR valve problems, and these are common to all cars.

The quality in a Honda is not at the superficial level of 'nice trim', 'great radio', or 'loads of extras' but is in the engineering, and goes down to the smallest nut and bolt in the car being of high quality. 

Read in forums about the problems people have with 'other cars' before judging Honda too much, modern cars are highly technical pieces of kit, often owned by people who never look under the bonnet and judge them by their paint colour or whether they have alloys or not.

I have always found that the 'you always get what you pay for' saying to be true. However it's not always the case. In fact I would even go as far as saying that with my first 2002 built Jazz that I got more than I paid for. The build quality was pretty much faultless and any small issues that I did have were dealt with in a professional and reassuring manner by my dealer.
My current 2007 Jazz  is a different matter all together. Corrosion issues, steering issues, rattles from trim etc. I've also had a poor response from Honda Customer service department.

[guest238]

...get the Fiesta (ideally a 1.6 Titanium with the Mountune upgrade!)

Say what?

Ford Fiesta 1.6 S1600 3dr + £1300 Mountune pack (140bhp, 7.9secs) = £18,017
Renault Clio 200 with the Cup chassis  (198bhp, 6.9secs) = £18,120

A proper hot hatch for £103 more? Money well spent I say.

Titanium is spec is cheaper and better equipped then S1600 and Clio.

And how useful is that extra second off the 62mph sprint in the real world? The Fiesta will outhandle Nicole's handbag-on-wheels, (tea)cup chassis or not.

And have you seen the El-Cheapo Clio's interior? Looks like Renualt top dog Carlos Gosen has taken inspiration from partner Nissan's back catalogue

You have to compare apples with apples - titanium is luxury spec; S1600 the sportiest model and nearer the Clio 200.

And Fiesta will lose value quicker then Thierry Henry can say "Bobby, what is cheat is your language?".

[Rory]

 
And if you think the Jazz i-DSi is 'asthmatic' and the V-TEC is 'silly nonsense' then I have to disagree as I have nothing but praise for the V-TEC cars that I have driven, in fact if Carlsberg built an engine it would have to be based on the superb Honda V-TEC system. 

I thought the I-DSi quiye suited Jazz and I think the V-TEC doesn't - it's lack of low-end torque is ridiculous.

Sure, it's great at 4000+RPM, but, let's face it, your average Jazz owner doesn't drive around town with the engine screaming.

[culzean]

 
And if you think the Jazz i-DSi is 'asthmatic' and the V-TEC is 'silly nonsense' then I have to disagree as I have nothing but praise for the V-TEC cars that I have driven, in fact if Carlsberg built an engine it would have to be based on the superb Honda V-TEC system. 

I thought the I-DSi quiye suited Jazz and I think the V-TEC doesn't - it's lack of low-end torque is ridiculous.

Sure, it's great at 4000+RPM, but, let's face it, your average Jazz owner doesn't drive around town with the engine screaming.

I drive a 1.4 GD Jazz with i-DSi, I love the engine characteristics and I think it suits the sort of driving the Jazz was designed for much better than the VTEC, when I posted that I was merely disagreeing with someone who said all Honda engines were crap.  The VTEC is one of the worlds greatest (if not THE greatest) and most reliable mass production engines when used in the right car.

[dogbiscuit]

I thought the I-DSi quiye suited Jazz and I think the V-TEC doesn't - it's lack of low-end torque is ridiculous.

Agreed. I’ve had my Jazz 1.4 i-VTEC for 5 months and now I want the 1.4 i-DSI engine back. To get any life out of the i-VTEC you need to rev it and have the pleasure of watching your fuel economy plummet. No wonder the Jazz trip computer has an over optimistic average mpg readout so you can kid yourself things aren’t that bad.