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[terry paget]

I feel I need an estate in the fleet, and my 2000 Omega estate is dying. Researching Which? used cars, the Honda Accord estate keeps popping as a Best Buy, and looking on e-bay they seem to be quite cheap and numerous. Have memebers any views?

[Sir Tigger KC]

Honda's generally have a good reputation Terry, but if you are looking for a cheap estate I'd suggest a Volvo V70. 

My 2004 2.4 D5 cost £900 a year ago with about 142,000 on the clock (now about 160,000) and I've been very pleased with it.  Apart from a few small niggles that you will get with any old car nothing has gone seriously wrong with it, it has no rust and is big, roomy and comfortable. 

Parts are cheap as there are loads of them about, and when you look on ebay/autotrader/facebook/gumtree etc there are plenty with interstellar mileages 250k+, but they are still going strong and are still solid.  You don't see rusty V70's

I don't know what your budget is but this looks like a decent example...


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2005-05-VOLVO-V70-2-4D-163-SE-AUTO-ESTATE-5dr-DIESEL-LEATHER-NAV-SUNROOF/274254201211?hash=item3fdad3017b:g:icMAAOSwc7tePask

[aaronjb]

Friend had a diesel Honda Accord estate for many years (2003 vintage, I think, or thereabouts) and absolutely nothing went wrong with it given the bare minimum of maintenance.. got replaced a couple of years ago for no real reason other than they wanted to swap to petrol, I think. From memory, anyway.

[Nick W]

An Accord is slightly smaller than an Omega, but is otherwise a very similar car: comfortable, nice to drive and has no image whatsoever.


Service and consumable parts are reasonably affordable(plugs, oil, filters, brakes), but if you have to repair the thing you'll regret even considering one.

[Doctor Gollum]

Vectra Estate. 1.8 petrol.

[BazaJT]

Volvo V70 all the way-I may be biased as I have one-XC70 has all wheel drive or if you want RWD you'd have to go for the earlier 7/8/9 series Volvos.Petrol and diesel 5 pot motors are ex VW/Audi motors easily capable of mega miles.No sign or rot on my 20yr old V70 but at 140,000mls it's barely run in.

[terry paget]

An Accord is slightly smaller than an Omega, but is otherwise a very similar car: comfortable, nice to drive and has no image whatsoever.


Service and consumable parts are reasonably affordable(plugs, oil, filters, brakes), but if you have to repair the thing you'll regret even considering one.

A Honda Accord estate owning chum admits spares are expensive, and can be hard to fit. He bought an aftermarket exhaust for £200, it caused detonation and he had to buy a genuine exhaust at twice the price . Wheel bearings seem prone to failure too. He's got 17" wheels and finds the ride harsh.

[Rangie]

Neighbour had one from new a few years back lovely metallic maroon colour kept it for 8/9 years & it never missed a beat downsized to a Honda Jazz and that according to him is superbly reliable as  was the Accord.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

No experience really, but my impression of Honda cars (like their bikes) is that they are very well built, but can be expensive to fix if they do go wrong.

[annihilator]

Vectra Estate. 1.8 petrol.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133341771332

Looks like a good one.

[terry paget]

Agreed. Fancy one rear number plate light failure being an MOT fail item! However, after 20 years of Vauxhalls I am wondering whether a change might do me good. Members on this forum seem to be enjoying Jaguars, Mercedes, Volvos etc. Hence my foolish temptation to buy an old and cheap Honda or Volvo with long MOT to try one out. Then I could scrap it when it broke down, acknowledge my error and buy a Vectra.
My problem with the Vectra is my clutch foot hits the 'bell housing' bulge unless I consciously aim to the right, and when I forget the gear change crunches.

[dave the builder]

Agreed. Fancy one rear number plate light failure being an MOT fail item! However, after 20 years of Vauxhalls I am wondering whether a change might do me good. Members on this forum seem to be enjoying Jaguars, Mercedes, Volvos etc. Hence my foolish temptation to buy an old and cheap Honda or Volvo with long MOT to try one out. Then I could scrap it when it broke down, acknowledge my error and buy a Vectra.
My problem with the Vectra is my clutch foot hits the 'bell housing' bulge unless I consciously aim to the right, and when I forget the gear change crunches.

Try one of them newfangled "automatic gearbox" cars Terry 

*****just remember NOT to dip the clutch when slowing down *****
(because the clutch pedal is in fact the brake, and you nose plant the windscreen )

[Nick W]

Try one of them newfangled "automatic gearbox" cars Terry 

*****just remember NOT to dip the clutch when slowing down *****
(because the clutch pedal is in fact the brake, and you nose plant the windscreen )

that's never a problem if you're automatically using your left foot to operate the brakes.

[dave the builder]

Try one of them newfangled "automatic gearbox" cars Terry 

*****just remember NOT to dip the clutch when slowing down *****
(because the clutch pedal is in fact the brake, and you nose plant the windscreen )

that's never a problem if you're automatically using your left foot to operate the brakes.

but my left foot is the clutch only foot 
my right foot does STOP and GO
Uncle Stemo said so 

[Nick W]

Try one of them newfangled "automatic gearbox" cars Terry 

*****just remember NOT to dip the clutch when slowing down *****
(because the clutch pedal is in fact the brake, and you nose plant the windscreen )

that's never a problem if you're automatically using your left foot to operate the brakes.

but my left foot is the clutch only foot 
my right foot does STOP and GO

I'm the same, when driving a manual car.


But when you only have two pedals, which are never used at the same time, using both feet makes more sense.