Gearbox problem?

[bxcfilm]

I'm not a Honda owner yet, but tomorrow I'm going to look at a 2002 Jazz, manual box. Low mileage and looks tidy from the photos online.

The owner has told me about a problem:

"I just spoken to my husband and he wanted me to let you know before you come that sometimes he had a problem with shifting to the 3rd gear and apparently if you don t have a certain speed it sometimes slips into neutral. I didn t realize that because I was driving on motorway so I never had that problem"

I'm obviously wondering if that's potentially serious. Can anyone give me some pointers?

I would appreciate it. Thanks,
Brian

[JohnAlways]

Well if it was me then I would walk away.
That old with many about without gearbox problems about better to keep looking.
Possibly it will also have the free floating front suspension at that age which seems to be a headache to some garages (but not sure on that one).
Get it repaired and it would give good service I'm sure but would most likely cost more than the price you are paying.
Save the £400 repair plus the cost of purchase and you can up the age of your purchase.
I don't know your circumstances but gearbox problems are not good news because of the labour charges.

[Jocko]

I would agree wholeheartedly. There are tons of nice clean Jazz's out there.

[guest1372]

If the car only cost £300 and you could manage third the way they have then it would be OK, but you'd probably be better off spending £600 on one without that issue.

It's not something that would be economic to repair unless you could swap the gearbox yourself.
--
TG

[Jocko]

We had a car once, and you had to hold the gear lever in 2nd. Bad enough, but it only had a 3 speed box! But it was cheap and we lived with it for the time we had it.

[MikeG1944]

I concur with the others; I'd tend to walk away. At least the seller was honest, but that may be the reason he's selling it; got a quote for getting it fixed and would have cost more than the car was worth. I guess if he was selling it at scrap value (£50 or so) it may be worth fixing?

There are so many out there of that era, running with no problems, you shouldn't have any problem finding one at a fair price.

Mike.

[bxcfilm]

Thanks to everyone who responded. I decided not to go and see it. While thinking about the replies, it occurred to me that as 2002 is the start of the Jazz's (isn't it?), there might have been a few little problems in the 2002 model which got ironed out in later years (by, say, 2004 or 2005).

Does anything come to mind?

[guest1372]

It had been the #1 selling car in Japan for a while before launch in the UK.
2002 6 spoke alloys corrode more than the 2004 9 spoke style.
Apparently the front suspension control arms were rejigged fairly soon after launch, but I've since discovered that it's just the elastomeric part of the bushes that were changed.
Later cars are more likely to have an 3.5mm aux input, steering wheel audio controls and folding mirrors.
--
TG