Hi,
I'm looking to buy either a second hand Honda Jazz or Nissan Note and have about £5000 to spend (or maybe a little more) - which one should I go for?
I previously had a honda civic and was very impressed with the low running costs, one of the reasons why I am wanting to sell my VW passat tdi (great car but I don't really need all that space and power and do mostly short runs).
I'm looking for economy, both in fuel consumption and maintenance, space for the occasional 5 passengers and a dog.
I prefer the look of the Nissan and think it looks a bit more grown up than the Honda which I think looks a bit tinny and boxy. I also assume that interior build quality will be a bit better on the Nissan as it's a newer release - am I right in thinking this?
The Honda seems to be the better buy looking at economy, but can I justify buying the Nissan for its looks? Also, will there be a dramatic price drop when the new Jazz comes out or will they hold their value okay?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
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"I'm looking for economy, ......... and maintenance."
My parents friends have a Jazz. It is 12 months old and has covered just 3,000 miles. When buying it they asked about servicing costs and were told the first service was about £130.
It was serviced last week and they were presented with a bill for £220 - it took longer to wash and vac the car than it did to do the 'service' which was no more than an oil change.
After kicking up a fuss it was reduced to £180, but for such a car this seems excessive to me.
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Seems excessive to me too! Mind you, I'll be servicing it at my local garage - they love Honda's and I think I know his answer when I ask him the question about Jazz vs Note...
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Konrad,
What about a 5 door Colt? I too was looking at the Jazz and the Note to replace our mx5 as we are expecting our first born in September but was put off by the purchase costs of buying both.
Our Colt (its the wee 1.1 3 cylinder with a chain cam) is a 2006, Attivo spec (alloys & e/w, e/m but no a/c) with 8K (& two Mitsubishi service stamps despite the low miles) and we got it for £4K (although it was a private sale). Some people still want £4K for a 2003 Jazz with 70,000 and the best prices we could find for the Note due to its 'newness' was £6.5K with 40K.
It's not as pretty as the Note but because the Colt's aren't as popular or main stream I guess the residual value suffer accordingly. Anyway, something left field to consider perhaps. Have a look at both the technical and discussion pages of HJ for Colt's to see what other people have said about them. Be aware that the Note's have odd tyre sizes and therefore can be a bit costly to replace. Hope this helps
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If you are buying from a main dealer then the cheapest Note will be for around £6700 for an 06 plate. You could get a 04 plate Jazz for around £5000, obviously private will be cheaper. The cost of a major service on a Jazz is above the class average due to labour time it takes to change some components. Otherwise the Jazz should be very reliable, with above average fuel economy, and the seating is very clever.
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Hi Mondeomonkeymagic and Sunbeamer, thanks for your replies.
I did look at the Colt and it looks a good little car - how about maintenance costs? I'll have a look at the other threads you mentioned. As for pricing, look at this:
tinyurl.com/5hsjmv {link to autotrader shortened to restore the page width back to normal}
and I did spot a 2006 1.4se Note with 17k for £5000 but it's gone now (no wonder).
I do like my bargains ;-)
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 29/07/2008 at 14:39
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Konrad,
The Colt's next service is due at 19K or 31/03/09 whichever is sooner according to the little sticker in the windscreen. It will be outside of warranty then, but irrespective, I will buy genuine Mitsubishi parts and free issue them to my local garage whom I have known for ten years and whom I trust implicity. You can do this on new cars inside the warranty and still keep the warranty up to date, but car makers don't like it obviously and are making it harder and harder despite the EU law (my dad's new Mk3 MX5 is a case in point)
Be careful about the Jazz's like the one above, if it is genuine, then it is the bargain of the century and I would have tried to buy even if you weren't if I was still looking!, but most of the ones that were 'competitively priced' had either finance outstanding due to purse strings being pulled tighter or were Cat D damaged which I wanted to avoid as some seemed to just need a headlight whilst others looked really badly damaged (as badly damaged as some Cat C's which needs VIC check - in other words the spectrum seemed so large for one definition). Interesting enough some people actually lied about both of the above despite me saying I was going to do a hpi check.
Getting back to the serivce cost theme, my 1.5 Dci Clio (we owned the Clio before the MX5 which we have just sold to get the Colt) first service was at 18K was £160 and like the tales above included only an oil & oil filter change which I thought was a huge rip off. Labour was a wopping £75 an hour (then add VAT), so I tend now to just get the genuine parts and get my garage to do it to reduce the cost and also improve the quality of service. My best man at my wedding works at a FORD garage and they do unspeakable things to customer cars and I know you can't generalise in the motor trade but once you find someone who you trust, I stick with them.
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I think the Note looks better than the Jazz and beats it on interior finish. Down side for me is you can't get a sunroof on the Note but can on the Jazz.
Good luck.
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Hmm,
Yes' I'd always want to avoid any damaged cars. How do you find out if there is still finance on them?
And I just remembered something else - my father in law has just bought a small 2 berth caravan - are any of these cars capable of towing something like this or will it just wreck the car / engine? I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to caravans but we might want to use it one day for a break in the UK so it's worth considering I suppose...
Thanks,
Konrad
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You don't see the Note for anywhere near £5000. Mind, I'm astonished at how much used Jazz' go for. Our 5 year old, 43,000 mile Jazz appears to have a valuation if sold by a dealer of above £5000 and we only paid about £9500 for it pre-registered. This equates to not much more than 11p per mile in depreciation if we sold privately (at £4770) which is cheap motoring when total reliability and very low insurance and fuel costs are factored in.
However, the Jazz is now showing its age with a lumpy ride and rather wheezey engines. Avoid, particularly the 1.2. A new Jazz is coming but will be out of your price range.
On balance, maybe find a bit more money and buy a Note.
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No stability control available on the Jazz, whereas it's optional on most Note variations and standard on the Tekna/SVE.
Personally, having read some startling real world statistics, I wouldnt buy a car without stability control. The next Jazz has it as standard thankfully. Looking at HJs first impressions, that car is going to fly out of the showrooms, credit crunch or not.
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Nissan Note? No thanks.
I'm a Nissan fan, and I wouldn't buy one of their newer cars.
An overpriced and badly made Renault variant. Buy the Jazz of the two.
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You'll find a lot more Jazzes around for your budget than Notes - as mentioned above, the earliest ones are barely as low as £5k.
I don't know if you've discounted everything else already, but a Skoda Fabia estate would do most of what a Jazz or Note would. If your mileage isn't high the petrol version is best: go for the 1.4 100 bhp.
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The Note is actually a bigger car than the Jazz with more interior room, especially at the rear, with its sliding rear seats.
My partner bought his wife a Colt and they are delighted with it. Very spacious for a car shorter than the Jazz and with excellent economy and performance from the 1.1 engine.
The Jazz is a very good car with excellent economy, but perhaps overprices compared to some of the competition?
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My partner bought his wife a Colt and they are delighted with it. Very spacious for a car shorter than the Jazz and with excellent economy and performance from the 1.1 engine.
We have both on our family fleet and IIRC the Colt is marginally bigger than Jazz (comparing the 5dr Colt).
The Jazz is a very good car with excellent economy but perhaps overprices compared to some of the competition?
I got laughed at last time I said this, but I honestly think the Jazz is, to some extent, an aspirational purchase. There are certainly cheaper cars - the 5dr Colt with a/c is available for £7-£7.5K and to all intents and purposes does the same job. It has some features (noteably the sliding rear seat) which are better. And it has an intermittant rear wiper - my pet hate on Jazz...aarghh!!! The Jazz may have better residuals, but it's got to go some to make up for being £3-4K dearer in the first place.
My only hesitancy about Colt is the dealers seem a bit iffy and Colt UK (who take care of Mitsubishi imports) are useless. If it wasn't for that then I'd certainly be replacing our 5yr old Jazz with a Colt.
Edited by Bill Payer on 30/07/2008 at 10:27
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Hi all,
thanks very much for your feedback - it really is appreciated. I haven't made up my mind at all so am open to any of your suggestions. Keep them coming!
Thanks,
Konrad
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I've just bought an 06 1.4SE Jazz from Autoquake for £5k.
Arrived today and it seems absolutely excellent for the money.
They had a 1.2 also but i think that's sold now.
Not sure if anyone else has used Autoquake, my first time with this car and I have so say i'm impressed. Genuinely different innovative business model. Good for the average joe consumer like me.
Edited by nick1975 on 01/08/2008 at 20:46
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I was looking to replace my Almera and tested the SVE Note with 16" wheels. I didn't buy one in the end because it was so noisy at anything higher than 50mph - mainly down to road noise. So make sure you roadtest at a reasonable speed.
Covenant.
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How about a Renault Modus? I may be biased here but we've had ours from new since late 2004 and nothing has gone wrong/fallen off/broken etc in all that time - apart from a front headlight bulb blowing [which as a pain in the **** to replace, but not too bad once you know what needs to be removed to replace it].
The Note shares the same platform as the Modus. We specified a full length glass sun roof which is really great.
It's a good car and despite the usual horror stories that go with Renault's ours has been a pleasure to own and drive.
I would even go as far to say that the new Grande Modus has got my attention and may well replace our current car when the time comes.....
I believe you can now pick up the Modus second hand for around the £5k mark. Plenty to be had too.
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