Would you buy a late 90s Japanese car?

Arklight

If it had an MOT for 8 months or so, didn't sound like a bucket of nails being dropped when driven, and didn't smell of rabbits, £250 would be about right.

Mercdriver

ShandyAndy wrote: »

To be fair it’s really clean and has a private plate 5 digits

If you are buying it on the strength of the private plates, I would want it mentioned on the bill of sale that the number plates will be assigned to you and have that done before handing the money over. Otherwise you might find that the V5 you get in the post is the one for the original plate. Without evidence that the number plate was coming too, you'd be a pig in a poke.

Arklight

Private plates on a 20 year old banger. I have heard it all now.

jimbo6977

if it was an early 90s prelude with 4ws and i had a workshop full of tools, maybe. but an old underused accord, no.

Arklight

Weren't they basically what Rover were churning out with a different badge before they went bust?

Mercdriver

Arklight wrote: »

Weren't they basically what Rover were churning out with a different badge before they went bust?

You've got it ar5e about face. It was Honda that built the reliable Rover cars. Rover might still be around had Honda been given the chance to merge with them.

reddwarf2002

Arklight wrote: »

Weren't they basically what Rover were churning out with a different badge before they went bust?

Rover 600 series had the Honda engine which was probably taken from the Accord. I had a 618 which had the 1.8 Honda engine. Never really had anything go wrong with it apart from a radiator leak - even so I managed to drive home (7 miles) with no coolant in the car. At the time my main concern was getting home rather than protecting the car. Even after that incident, the engine still ran butter smooth.

That car would have lasted me a good few years more had I bothered to replace the radiator. Alas, I was a lot younger and had very little know-how of acquiring parts cheaply and repairing cars. So like the plonker I was, I let the scrap metal collector take it away for £80.

Oh, I think there was one other reason I did part with it - there was a loud noise from ABS pump which was a little disconcerting. Probably part of the reason why it was auctioned in the first place.

AdrianC

Mercdriver wrote: »

You've got it ar5e about face. It was Honda that built the reliable Rover cars. Rover might still be around had Honda been given the chance to merge with them.

The 600/Accord was Honda designed. UK market cars were built by Honda in Swindon and Rover in Cowley. The main difference was styling, and some engines.

Both rot.


Honda had the chance to merge with Rover. They chose not to, in 1992, and BMW bought Rover instead.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/how-honda-let-rover-go-to-strangers-belief-in-its-partners-independence-was-only-one-reason-that-the-1392300.html

NBLondon

ShandyAndy wrote: »

don’t like modern cars as they’re pretty soulless,

I know what you mean - but Accords and Primeras don't exactly have it... If you want a Japanese car from the 90s with soul then MX5 is the obvious starting point. Not so good for transporting the family though...

a private plate 5 digits

Not in this country it doesn't. Unless it's a Guernsey import in which case you'd only be able to keep it for 6 months IIRC