Hello, I found this forum after doing lots of googling about the Accord, and I'm glad I did!

As I know next to nothing about cars, I'm sure you're well positioned to advise me on what to buy.

Our Civic has just been written off by the insurance company following an accident and the hire car we have will be taken back on Thursday - so we need a new car ASAP! As such we don't have the luxury of time to find the right model at the right price etc.

We'd like to stick with a Honda as we no problems at all from our Civic, but we were planning to upgrade this year anyway as I had my third child 4 months ago and 3 car seats in the Civic is a squeeze.

So firstly, can you comfortably get three forward facing car seats in the back of an Accord? 2 of them being High Backed Boosters? And secondly, how on earth do you narrow your choices down as there are a lot of used ones on the market.

We want a diesel and have around £4k to spend, which on a good day could get us a 2004-2005 model on Ebay, either private sale or dealer - which is best?

There ones I'm currently watching are:

2004 2.2 i-CTDi with 105000 miles
2005 2.2 i-CDTi with 110000 miles
2005 2.2 CDTi with 126630 miles
2005 2.2 i-CTDI SPORT with 124000 miles
2004 2.2 i-CDTi Executive with 74100 miles

There's only a few hundred pounds between each and frankly I'm baffled, I only know which one I like the look of best!

Thanks in advance!

 

About the baby seats, your Accord is smaller than a USA Accord. There's at least someone around here with an Acura TSX (that's what they call the smaller Accord over here). Or one of our UK members.

Go look at the cars & drive them. Bring baby seats along & try them.

With 5 or 6 years old & 100k plus miles, you'll have to judge their mechanical condition. Ask a mechanic to do a "buyer's inspection".

 

As far as which is better between private seller and dealer its sort of a toss up. Dealer's usually have higher prices, but there also might be more negotiating room. Dealer's also might offer some sort of warranty. Where as if you buy a car from a private seller and there ends up being something wrong you might be out of luck, but then again I don't know the laws about those sorts of things in the Queen's land.

I personally would go with the one with the least miles if they are all roughly the same price and the same condition.

 

welcome enjoy your stay

 

Thank you, I didn't realise there were UK /US size differences.

The trouble with all these cars is that they're all over the country so we'd be buying without viewing first, as is the slight pot luck of Ebay. But on a very limited budget and with not much time, what else can you do?

 

Plan a bit of sightseeing or some kind of holiday nearby. That way you won't be reluctant to say NO if you don't like the car.