Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k

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Thu 9 Oct 2014 08:50
Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k - mdmuddin

Hi,

I do about 12k miles anually. About 6k is covered on the A-roads of North and East London (A406/A12) and do end up sitting in traffic quite often. About 2k is covered locally in shopping trips, etc., and the rest is on the motorway thrashes.

I'm tired of driving small hatches and now want something with a smooth ride, a comfy and spacious interior, decent acceleration, but still reliable, economical and relatively low maintenance. Oh yes, and it must be automatic.

I am planning to keep the car until it runs out of steam completely so am not worried too much about resale value. So far, I am thinking of buying a large engined petrol and then converting it to LPG after a few months. That will help me spread the initial cost and also see if I like the car before spending dough on the conversion.

Options:

04-06 Avensis Auto (1.8, 2.0 or 2.4 and not sure of exactly which gearbox)

03-06 Honda Accord (2.0 or 2.4ltr Exec)

Can anybody advise which I should get and why? Alternatives also welcome.

Thanks

Edited by mdmuddin on 09/10/2014 at 08:51

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Thu 9 Oct 2014 21:49
Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k - coopshere
Whilst generally speaking any of those you mention are reasonable punts at comfortable motoring nothing in your price range is likely to be cost effective if you are going to spend money on converting them to LPG. If you are going to have a professional, and therefore safe, conversion you will add at least 50% to the cost of your initial purchase. Work out how many miles you will have to cover to recoup that cost over the expected life of a relatively old car. You may be better off spending that money an a later/lower mileage model and running it for longer.
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Fri 10 Oct 2014 16:27
Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k - catsdad
Searching on Autotrader there are lots of LPG cars around this price so might be worth getting one that's already done. Clocking might be and issue given the reasons people go for LPG - taxis, stellar miles etc. Alternatively it's a good way to browse and draw up your own shortlist of cars that suit conversion. Safety of an existing conversion might be an issue in which case it might be worth considering a factory built one. Vauxhall offered LPG and I assume others did too.
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Fri 10 Oct 2014 21:21
Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k - balleballe

Japanese Manufacturers' engines are not too good for LPG

They suffer from valve seat recession.

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Sat 11 Oct 2014 13:11
Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k - Ed V

A 15 mile commute by the sounds of it, much of it in heavy or slow traffic?

Would you not be better with something smaller, such as an old-shape Civic petrol auto, maybe on an 04 plate or thereabouts? Maintenance would be minimal, 30-odd mpg.

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Sun 12 Oct 2014 22:09
Toyota Avensis, Honda Accord - Auto Avensis, Accord or something else for <£3k - Stumblebum

I did something similar to this last year when my Honda Civic was written off. With a budget of under £4K I decided to stick to Japanese petrol, and got a Honda Accord 04 Estate Executive (Leather etc) 2 litre petrol manual 60K on the clock and clean HP check. Two owners, full service history, previous owning having kept it for 8 years. All four tyres the same brand (Conti) a good sign.

Well I had kept a balance of £1K for repairs etc and needed it. Tyres, brakepads and brake disks (consumables) needed to be done. Unfortunately a brakehose had degraded, a fact only discovered after the second set of brake disks and pads had been trashed. The motor for the powered tailgate died of exhaustion (it is heavy). Rather than pay Honda £1K to fix it, I got an auto-electrician to disable the sensor that prevent me from manually opening the hatch for £150. I will need to employ him again, as there is a fault in the wiring which means that full beam driver side does not work.

The Honda is heavy, and even with 2 liters it struggles at times to pick up speed (Power only really picks above 5000 revs). MPG is about 30, 33 on the motorway. Realy comfortable upfront, but not great space in the back for adults compared to my old Civic.

I don't regret buying the Accord; I do lots of long motor way journeys (were I get paid mileage). It's comfortable, the hi-fi is great. I've driven 20K miles in 15 months with no engine issues etc. Service and MOT just fine.

I'm not deterred by the odd bit of minor trim having been broken. Most of the complex electronics still work (drvier heated seat no longer does, but suspect just the fuse has gone). However I made sure I had money in the bank to cover repairs, and have enough to replace it should it be uneconomical to repair. I hope to keep it another 2 to 3 years. As it's not diesal, I think the engine will be good for another 40K+ at least.

But I would never of bought a car like this unless I had some money left over for any repairs etc.

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