Hello all.
After a long search for a small automatic for my wife (who is learning in an auto) we settled on a 2006 Jazz with a CVT box.
However our 1st 2 weeks of ownership have been a bit rocky so far.
She has 120k on the clock & was priced at £1899 from a trader with a recent MOT & service. The higher mileage was initially off-putting, but peering through the front wheels you can very clearly see some nearly new brake discs & MOT history has signs that she's been well looked after. I've always been of the opinion that low mileage is nice, but a 70k car from London would probably have had a harder life than a 120k car from elsewhere. We ended up getting her for £1699 (invoice still says £1899, but dealer took £200 deposit & only put £1499 on card machine for the balance). On test drive she drove lovely, but on the way home after buying I experienced the judder when pulling away from standstill. A quick Google offered up the simple solution of fluid change & (after almost leaving it with an independent who was going to charge £135 & didn't really want to do it as it might make it worse) Honda dealer carried out a flush & fluid change for £150. No judder now.
However, we now have the dreaded water ingress. Puddles in the spare wheel well & the rear foot well carpet also soaked. Again seems to be a common problem on here & there are visible cracks in the sealant in the roof gutter. Honda garage will investigate the leak for £105 (think they dismantle interior trim & hose it down) & have been told that if it's the roof sealant, it'll cost another £150 to fix.
Have to say that Honda main dealer pricing does seem to be reasonable as that sealant isn't a small job.
So in theory we could have a waterproof & judder free CVT Jazz for £2100 which may seem steep, but after seeing most of the small automatics available in our budget, not many were well looked after & there were a lot of potential headaches with a few (nearly looked at a Fiat Panda, but when we called it was at a gearbox specialist in Stoke On Trent as nobody seemed able to fix it locally).
We also have another problem, albeit related to the water ingress - the spare wheel won't budge. Most likely that the screw thread on the retainer is rusted solid. A bit of wiggling of the wheel & a torch shone through the gaps shows that the bracket it fixes to is coming away from the boot floor. I'd already come to terms with the fact that I may end up attacking the boot floor & under the tailgate seal with a wire brush, some Kurust & a spray can (as nobody should see my crap spraying anyway), but I won't be able to weld the spare wheel mount myself.
Sorry it's all so long winded, but here's the question. Are we right to persevere in the hope that Honda fixes the water leak for £250 (as leaks in more than just the roof sealant will push that price up) or should we be kicking off at the trader we bought it from & looking for the under 30 days refund under the 2015 Consumer Rights?
Our justification is that this looks to be mechanically sound & something else could be a bigger money pit & even another Jazz will probably be letting water in & juddering. But you all on here will have the combined experience to know whether life after should be relatively trouble free or if it sounds like we've been caught with a nail.
Thanking you in advance for your assistance (& patience if you've read all that).
