(I've already written this introduction on a general Honda forum so I will copy it here too)
I'm CarJackManDoe from a forgotten country in the middle east.
Short background: I bought a used Honda Jazz few days ago as my first car and I'm pleased to join your ranks.
Little bit about myself, I'm a student near the end of my studies so I thought it would be a good idea to buy a car for transportation. I was somehow getting by with public transportation but the ever increasing demand for travel and the decreasing convenience of public transportation forced me to search for a car.
Because I had a tight budget (in a very pricey car market) I chose to look for models from 2000 to 2010, then I narrowed down the models to fit living in the capital with tight parking spaces and my requirement for reliability, I ended up with Honda Jazz or Toyota Yaris.
After several months of searching and checking different cars on the local used-cars forum (yes I took my time searching and looking for the best candidate) I stumbled upon a 2003 Jazz currently with it's 3'rd owner and with only 130 km. I hastily googled for "things to check in Jazz before buying" but couldn't find anything and thought to myself "well I can't find anything specific probably because this model is so good. I checked the car myself and was very surprised by the mint condition of the interior and good condition outside (few scratches and little dents from parking lots). I also took the car to a certified car mechanic to perform a thorough test and he gave me an "ok" on the car, though he mentioned few small things and one of them was a noisy rear wheel bearing... Only now, after I'm investigating further I found this guide
https://hondakarma.com/threads/hi-guys.182480/#post-2290306 and that thread from here
http://clubjazz.org/forum/index.php?topic=304.45 which warns for a rear bearing problem that I think I should've paid more attention to while buying.
Anyway, a bit about the car - its a 2003 manual 1399 Jazz as the owner (and the mechanic) told me everything mechanically is stock, only the radio was changed for an LCD screen with aux and Bluetooth (still not sure if I like it because it has a "generic" look to it while the factory tape/cd player is more fitting).
I drove it only for a few hours and noticed this one thing - a pretty noticeable humming/howling noise (strong enough that you need to talk loudly to others in the car but not too strong that you need to shout) while driving over 90-100 km/h coming probably from the rear. I'm not sure how bad that is because the mechanic did a pretty thorough inspection and he mentioned it as a "small/side" problem which should not concern me too much.
Now to the most surprising part for you, forum readers, is the price - as I saw from the posts over here a reasonable price for a car like this would be something in the region of 1K euro ? I got mine for about 4200 EUR (or 4600 USD) and it was under it's "market value" and generally a good deal compared to other options I checked in the months before... Yeah, it's tough out here.
That was my intro, in the next few days I plan to wash my car thoroughly inside and outside (and in the engine bay) and take this opportunity to
inspect the car mechanically as much as I can, things like checking engine oil, steering oil (does this car has one? with the electronic steering?) and maybe other fluids and other parts to see what needs to be replaced/topped/fixed.
Do you have any suggestions on what to inspect in particular?Do you have any thoughts on the issue with the rear bearing/noise in high speeds? Should I inspect it myself? take it to a "general mechanic"? or take it to a honda certified mechanic?
I'm already looking for a bearing from amazon like this one
https://www.amazon.com/Febest-Honda-Rear-Wheel-42200-Saa-G02/dp/B00C6MZ7J4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493935126&sr=8-1&keywords=jazz+Rear+Wheel+Bearing Do you think I should order it? or should I check with a mechanic?
Thanks for your time and suggestions.
Truly yours, CarJackManDoe.