hopefully an expert will be along in a minute. in the mean time, here are my thoughts.

hondas and Vws tend to be fairly highly priced as used cars, because of perceived quality. that means that, for your money, you get a slightly older car than you would if you bought, say a Mondeo or a Skoda. and slightly older usually means slightly less reliable.

Reliability statistics compiled by which? indicated that the Passat has not been very reliable.

how many miles per year would you be expecting the car to do?

There seeme to be some evidence that honda petrol engines are extremely reliable but diesels less so. Honda are comparatively new to diesels.

In general diesels seem to be more expensive to repair as they get older - despite which they still hold their value better then petrols, and so doing 12-12,000 a year I'd say you're better off with a petrol. The accord is a good car - although so are, for example, the Mondeo and Octavia and there will be more of these around to choose from. those two also give you the choice of 4 or 5 doors - the Accord is either a saloon or an estate.

Or live up to your nom de plume and stick with Mazda. the Mazda 6 is as good a car as the Accord, and also comes with 4 or 5 doors.

If you're going to be the main driver, assert yourself and have what YOU want!

Edited by Avant on 23/03/2010 at 22:31

I have an Accord Ex Tourer iCTDI that I bought new in 2004. It has behaved impeccably - touch wood - apart from a problem with the wiring in the tailgate. Fuel consumption is excellent - around 39mpg around town, and 53mpg fully laden on motorways. No oil used between services.

The car still looks and drives like new. I'll be changing it later this year for a new Accord.

I've run a diesel Accord Tourer for just over four years and 99.5k miles.

The report card is mixed. The car still drives pretty much as new: fast, tractable, good range (600 miles), quiet, comfortable, practical (huge!), easy to live with. The interior looks as new, no rattles, no obvious wear. I've done 830 miles in a day and felt okay afterwards (not that I'd do that again!).

Reliability has not been good for me. The car has been off the road for 2 months since new. No problem has been particularly serious, but it's taken a long time and a lot of hassle to get fixed every time, mostly because Honda don't have to fix them very often! (The AA guys who have picked me up don't normally see Accords, apparently).

Problems have been a faulty alternator at 17k (1 month off the road, comprising 2 weeks for Honda France to destroy a holiday and then 2 weeks for Honda UK to sort out the mess back in the UK), an EGR at 40k (1 month of repeated attempts at fault finding and other remedies), a sticking handbrake caliper (1 week as the workshop was full and I didn't need it back urgently) and it has just needed a new clutch. I've always been kept informed (other than in France), and always had a courtesy car if I've needed one.

It's nor clear if I'll have to pay for the clutch yet, there was a known problem with the cover that meant that 40% of the friction plate was not engaging. It's fixed and the garage are talking to the warranty people.

So not a good record, but I've been very unlucky.

I honestly don't know what I would replace it with. I'd echo others that comment that a Skoda Octavia might be a better choice. In 1.9 diesel form they appear unstoppable - I know one guy who did 630,000 miles in 4 years (a taxi, obviously) and only needed 2 clutches and a set of injectors in that time (plus routine parts and servicing). But, the Honda is larger, faster, and somehow a bit nicer. It's not a choice that makes sense on just the facts, but I might buy the Honda again. Saying that, I've not looked at a Superb yet.

It's under warranty until the end of the year, so I'll consider then. But currently I plan to keep it and run to high miles. We shall see. Hope that helps.

Don't know much about the Honda, though I think it looks good.

Test drove an Octavia 1.9D last year when making up mind about replacement for an ageing small car, and would definitely have bought one had the other half not wanted an MPV. Plenty of power, nice to drive, lots of room, well built, and it had a full sized spare wheel (an oddity in today's world, I think). I would have considered a Mondeo but OH thought that they were too long. Similarly Vectra estate - they really are huge.

Whatever you go for, don't let the fact that taxi drivers seem to use Octavias put you off - it's their bread and butter.

i know in China honda accord petrol 2.4 ivtec is really good choise.