Honda Dealerships

[SpookyGal]

I am searching, though not financially able to yet purchase my Jazz. My last one came from a Honda dealer in the Thames Ditton Group. They did only Hondas.
Now, Honda garages do not seem to be Honda. They all seem to sell different makes and have been bought by other companies.
The 2 near me only seem to have 1 or 2 secondhand Jazzes and want to charge £600 or £700 to bring in a car from another dealership that meets your criteria/price range, so you can test drive it. Either that or buy online, sold as delivered and no test drive.
But, I test drove 4 different Jazzes when I got my last one. That could add another £3000 to the bill.

How does everyone navigate this? Please be kind as it is 15 years since I last bought a car, so things have changed.

[CRC]

It's a big problem and it obviously depends on your budget and whether or not you're looking to spend a significant amount of money on a newish car with some sort of warranty or if you don't mind spending less on an older car and just accepting that you might, possibly, have to spend some of the money you've saved on putting a couple of issues right.

However, the key point about the Honda Jazz is that they are renowned as being one of the most reliable cars ever made so you may well not have any issues ever.

We bought our 2003 model privately when it was 9 years old and had 28,000 miles on the clock, and 14 years later, it has 129,000 on the clock and the £600 that the dealer wants purely to get one for you to test drive, would easily pay for all the "non consumables items" that it's needed in those 100,000 miles.

Look on Gumtree, eBay and Facebook marketplace to see what's out there for your budget, but be aware that Facebook Marketplace has more scammers and conmen than genuine sellers in my experience.

Oh, and most people in the know refer to main dealers as "stealers" ..... for good reason, unless you're very lucky.

Carefully read the ads for Cat N and Cat S which means the car has been written off because the "official cost of the repair" probably exceeds more than half the value of the car. The car never loses that black mark, regardless of how well it's been repaired and your insurance company might get a bit awkward over it.

Go careful...... it's a minefield out there.

[Westy36]

£600 to bring a car in? Are they mad? Surely it would be much cheaper for you to travel to where the cars are. Also, you can buy outside of the dealer network to increase the options. Autotrader, carGurus and the like will give you more choice locally.

@ CRC - Now that's proper budget motoring! Good work. 

[CRC]

It has been so good that car.

Outside of tyres, oil changes, brake pads etc, the only things I've had to do are both track rod ends and drop links (around £50 for all of them), Febi bottom suspension arms (£70 the pair) and an aftermarket cat and exhaust (£230 and the cat would probably still be okay but it was pinched in a main car park at lunchtime) and that's about it.

I've changed the plugs and gearbox oil, but you'd have to do that on any car, but discs, drums, rear brake shoes are all still original. A couple of batteries have been bought but those are consumables really.

I replaced the brake line that runs across the axle and gets corroded, but the wheel bearings, gearbox bearings and clutch are all still fine (which amazes me when I see how my wife pulls away from a standstill 

[Nicksey]

It has been so good that car.

Outside of tyres, oil changes, brake pads etc, the only things I've had to do are both track rod ends and drop links (around £50 for all of them), Febi bottom suspension arms (£70 the pair) and an aftermarket cat and exhaust (£230 and the cat would probably still be okay but it was pinched in a main car park at lunchtime) and that's about it.

I've changed the plugs and gearbox oil, but you'd have to do that on any car, but discs, drums, rear brake shoes are all still original. A couple of batteries have been bought but those are consumables really.

I replaced the brake line that runs across the axle and gets corroded, but the wheel bearings, gearbox bearings and clutch are all still fine (which amazes me when I see how my wife pulls away from a standstill 

How much different the hybrid Jazz is to your 1.4 though. Lets hope we can say the same in years to come.

[RichardA]

£600 is a lot to transfer a car between branches. Was this a non-refundable deposit subject to the car being as advertised?

I take it the dealers are within the same group - i.e., one branch of Yeomans Honda to another, not Yeomans to Lookers, as the latter wouldn't normally happen.

[Karoq]

Buying a car at a distance is quite common now, as dealers cannot afford to miss a sale. I have bought two cars from afar. I live inPoole. Many years ago I both a Volvo from Teddington and P/X'd my Honda CR-V.

Later, I bought a Yeti from Cheshire and P/X'd a Mitsubishi.
The way it works is this:-

You find a car you want on line (Autotrader is best) Ring the dealer and tell them what you want to part exchange. They should give you a rough idea of what they will offer.  Then if agreeable to both you take many detailed pics of your car, inside and out from every angle.
They then agree a price and the deal is that either you go to them or in my case they delivered the new car to me and if they are. happy with your car and you with theirs the deal is completed. If either party is unhappy it is called off.You will probably have to pay a delivery cost if they come to you.
If you have a HENDY group branch where you are, They sell most makes including HONDA and move cars between branches I THINK(!) at no cost.
I have a Honda dealer privately owned group near me with branches all within 40 miles of Poole.
Being a group they do have good selection of cars.
https://www.horizonhonda.co.uk/locations/8615/horizon-honda-poole/
I have known them for years and they are excellent. If they have a car you fancy, give them a ring & see if you can sort out a deal.
Good luck.

[John Ratsey]

If you prefer to buy from a dealer then there's the list of Honda approved used cars at https://usedcars.honda.co.uk/en/honda/jazz?warrantyProgram=22#result-tools-top which makes it easy to compare the prices of what's available.

[CRC]

It just goes to show how car prices have inflated hugely over the last 14 years.

14 years ago, we bought our 9 year old, 28k miles Jazz for £3,000.

On the Horizon site, the cheapest Jazz is now a 2016 model (10 years old) for effectively £11,000 ..... which is more than our 2003 model would have cost when it was brand new and close to 4 times as much as we paid back then for a slightly younger model with similar miles.

[Kremmen]

You're right

A new Jazz in 2007 was around £11k

With inflation that figure now would be £19k according to the BoE site

But a Jazz is now typically £30k

Yes, specs have improved, but .....

[coldstart]

But a Jazz is now typically £30k
Yes, specs have improved, but .....

We should keep in mind the ever increasing demands on exhaust emissions, fuel economy and safety features!
These advances do come at a price. Please be honest: Would you prefer to suffer an accident in a 2007 Jazz over a 202x Jazz? - (stupid question, I know: I'd prefer to not be involved in any accident regardless of the car)

[Synchrotron]

It just goes to show how car prices have inflated hugely over the last 14 years.

14 years ago, we bought our 9 year old, 28k miles Jazz for £3,000.

On the Horizon site, the cheapest Jazz is now a 2016 model (10 years old) for effectively £11,000 ..... which is more than our 2003 model would have cost when it was brand new and close to 4 times as much as we paid back then for a slightly younger model with similar miles.

I just bought my 2012 mk2 Jazz with 98k miles on the clock for £3.4k, and I thought it was a bargain, having been searching yearningly on Autotrader for a couple of years! 

My 2003 Toyota Yaris, which had done 94k miles by 2016, and had served me beautifully up to this point, only cost me £1.2k back then, which I think would be around £1.6k today, accounting for inflation. That felt like a reasonable price at the time, not a bargain.

So yeah, second-hand car prices have gone insane, for a long list of reasons.

And yes, I appreciate the extra safety features, and I do feel much safer driving in my Jazz than I did on the Yaris (which is *very* light), but a lot of what newer cars (post-2015-ish) have is not just safety, I think, it’s bloatware, and a lot of it is designed to become obsolete very quickly. I find that the mk2 has the perfect amount of tech and safety for me, and I’m not sure I would have gone for a mk3+ even if I could have afforded one. But that’s just me! 

At some point I hope I will be able cast all that aside and go electric, make my peace with all the software and the fact that I won’t be able to tinker with things myself… not yet, though.

[SpookyGal]

But a Jazz is now typically £30k
Yes, specs have improved, but .....

We should keep in mind the ever increasing demands on exhaust emissions, fuel economy and safety features!
These advances do come at a price. Please be honest: Would you prefer to suffer an accident in a 2007 Jazz over a 202x Jazz? - (stupid question, I know: I'd prefer to not be involved in any accident regardless of the car)

Just had an accident in my 54 plate mk1 Jazz. I was very aware that the dealer that sold it to me told me one of the other guys had a massive crash in a, at the time, new mk2 and walked away with barely a scratch. So, I would hope they are even safer now. But yes, rather not have another accident.