On a $10k budget - Honda Accord Euro 2003 or Mazda
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helen_nz2,
Jan 6, 8:41am
I'm looking for a nice mid-size car basically for around town (Auckland City) to get me to work etc. I am familiar with Hondas but I thought I should look at comparable options and I think the Mazda is in the similar bracket but would like others opinions
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 6, 8:43am
You could almost get a MK5 Golf for that, much better car than both and easier on the fuel for that sort of running if you are going for an auto.
clark20,
Jan 6, 8:45am
The Accord Euro is very nice, but are you thinking manual or auto!
gunhand,
Jan 6, 8:46am
Please say you dont care were its made and 0 to 100kph times dont matter to you, itll make answering the question so much easier for some. And nothing wrong with either really. Go with what you enjoy the look and feel of.
designerliving,
Jan 6, 8:54am
The Mazda would certainly be my pick over the problematic Accord, the Golf isnt even worth considering uless you like cheap plastic unreliablelemons
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 6, 8:56am
What a load of rubbish. The Golf is the most advanced, best value and highest quality vehicle of the three. The others only had a tiny fraction of the Golfs development budget to work with for a start. Its anything but cheap and plastic.
I suggest you actually drive and understand the vehicles before commenting.
phillip.weston,
Jan 6, 9:01am
both are good cars you can't really go wrong with either. I would perhaps choose the Accord Euro over the Mazda6. though don't go choosing a base model Accord Euro over a Mazda6 2.3L GSX for instance. I wouldn't even consider the Mazda6 2.0 GLX.
designerliving,
Jan 6, 9:03am
Tell that to the likes of coca cola and the numerous other owners that have purchased these only to find they are poorly build unreliable rubbish, in fact coca cola are currently replacing there fleet due to the excessive repair costs and down time
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 6, 9:06am
Get over yourself, that was one minor incident several years ago. If you actually followed these things you would realise that Coca Cola have been raving in the trade magazines about the Golfs, they had another round of them after the minor problem with the transmission (which was a very very minor recall compared to what Toyota have had of late).
The Golf is considered one of the most reliable fleet cars in the world. Its also one of the very cheapest to run, incredibly safe and so on.
I won't bother rebutting you any more, say what you want, its just stupid nonsense and not helping poster one at all.
designerliving,
Jan 6, 9:13am
Minor recall! they nearly all suffured total transmission failure outside the warranty period and to make matters worse dealers struggled to repair them and many were off the road for 6-8 weeks. I guarantee you will not find a single coke rep that hasnt had a transmission failure.Rest assured they are NOT replacing there fleet with VW's
designerliving,
Jan 6, 9:15am
Funny not a single, fleet/warranty company nor most reliability serveys would agree with that
kazbanz,
Jan 6, 11:14am
Helen--Look in fairness either option you are concidering will be nice as would several other options that leap inbto my head. So no reliability concerns . On that basis I'd suggest taking both for a drive and see what you prefer the feel of. Incidently I must add -I'd recommend trying a Nissan bluebird silphy 1.8 litre as another option. -they make a very good town car and are less expensive to buy than the mazda/honda.
helen_nz2,
Jan 6, 6:36pm
thanks kazbanz I have looked at several Nissans and the don't seem to be as nice and comfy although they are cheaper. I had my head stuck on Honda and Mazda so I'm trying to be a bit more open minded as I know little about cars.
vtecintegra,
Jan 6, 9:21pm
The base NZ new Accords are still pretty well specced though, the only really useful thing they're lacking is the head airbags. Still have the 2.4 which is a great engine. I wouldn't buy an import with the basic 2l.
helen_nz2,
Jan 6, 9:43pm
There seems to be more Mazdas on the market than the honda Accord Euro which is probably why slightly cheaper, I wondered why that would be and is that a reflection that the Honda owners are hanging on to their cars or that there has been less Hondas imported
moosie_21,
Jan 6, 9:43pm
Lord forbid you should buy a Thai Accord and incur the wrath of Scotty_2001!
trdbzr,
Jan 6, 10:19pm
Avoid the Golf jazz is raving on about, Coca Cola did have many nasty experiences with the DSG transmission. Just give a phone call to Coca Cola and confirm it rather than listening to the one eyed BS from jazz. Both the Honda Accord and Mazda 6 are pretty good cars. But as stated before, make sure go for a 2.3L mazda or a 2.4L honda. Don't go for the lower spec models. Mazda 6 have been selling like hotcakes for around 1 1/2 years and thats why they are more pricey and you see a lot more of them for sale. Its a guaranteed seller so dealers bring them in more.
helen_nz2,
Jan 6, 10:35pm
Why "2.3L mazda or a 2.4L honda. Don't go for the lower spec models" would have thought the would be more costly to run!
kazbanz,
Jan 6, 10:58pm
helen-nz2- Imagine you are asking the three guys hosting Top gear for advice on buying a car. In essence this is what you are doing here. Myself in this case I'm "captain slow"(james May) offering sensible options perhaps boring. Vtec is more like Geramy clarkson--after performance and handling. I can say hand over heart by the tone of your posts that YOU would be hard pressed to notice the difference in performance between a 2.0l and a 2.3l v tec except when it came time to fill up. Again I'd suggest just driving a few cars and see what fits you best.
willz29,
Jan 6, 11:12pm
Between the Honda and the Mazda, the Accord Euro hands down. I've had two of them for company cars, and they are great drives.
thejazzpianoma,
Jan 6, 11:25pm
I was going to let this go but it occurs to me that some poor soul might search this thread one day when considering a Golf and get caught up in the blatant lies, exaggerations and stupidity.
So for perpetuity,
* We have had 4 DSG VW's in the family, I service these transmissions and know how they work. The silly claims are coming from idiots who are just making assumptions from the sidelines. They don't even understand that there are different types of DSG's and just make silly blanket claims.
* The VW's DSG is about the most popular automated transmission on the market today.
* The DSG is incredibly reliable, by nature of its design its very hardy and far more efficient and pleasant to use than a regular auto.
* Yes there was an issue with a short run of DSG transmissions when they first implemented the dry clutch technology. Yes, this happened to coincide with Coca-Cola's purchase. This was however covered under warranty and Coca Cola were perfectly happy.
*Other companies like Toyota for example have recalls all the time but because they are "Japanese" no one takes any notice of that. In fact if you were taking notice of recalls you should be avoiding Toyota's like the plague, they have literally recalled millions of cars in the last few years for various reasons. Should you avoid Toyota for this reason though! No, they are still reasonably reliable.
*Coca-Cola have publicly raved about how happy they are with their VW Golf's and continued to be very happy after the transmission recall. Once the lease was up they continued with the Golfs and updated the fleet to the new model Golf since the transmission recall.
*If you are still unsure about the recalled transmission worry's simply avoid the dry clutch MK5 Diesel Golfs and get a petrol one instead.
*The DSG has been around for nearly a decade now and is exceptionally well proven.
*The Golf and VW products feature in the top 10 most reliable lists for fleet buyers and have for some time.
I am all for robust debate but when people skew the truth and just blatantly make stuff up about vehicles they clearly know nothing about it irks me. Its totally uncalled for when someone inexperienced with vehicles is trying to make a buying decision.
Jazz Out.
edangus,
Jan 6, 11:38pm
I think both cars are very good. However this is the one time when I think the Mazda is more boring than the Honda.
They are both very good vehicles in their own right.
Take both for a decent drive (say an hour) and see which annoys you the least.
johnf_456,
Jan 6, 11:38pm
I agree
designerliving,
Jan 6, 11:54pm
That is simply not true jazzpianoma, they were suffering total transmission failures that were for the most part outside of the warranty period. volswagen were less then prepaired to offer a solution and local dealers were unable to repair them correctly and in a timely matter. hence coca colas desicion to start replaceing there fleet. My sister in law personally suffered a failure in her coke golf. Volkswagen would not cover the cost to send out a tow truck to recover it as it was no longer covered and then she was advised by the dealer to call marshalls as it was such a common fault and they are the best equipped to repair them. They even commented that volkswagen transmissions keep them in buisness, so it would appear you know significntly less about these golfs then you make out
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