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Executive decision


Partridge

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Brace yourself for what is probably the most boring thread in autoshite history.

 

pic1512663.jpg

 

My 800 was being a pain in the arse. The battery was borked (it just randomly decided to commit suicide), it had developed an irrational hatred of its own coolant (been there, done that with 605gate), the heat shield on the exhaust was rattling like the proverbial skeleton being tossed off by the tin man in a filing cabinet falling down the stairs and I'd put my fingers though one of the sills while cleaning it, despite it looking solid. ALL OLD CARS ARE BASTARDS ect. A new radiator was bought but one of the pipes needed to fit it was made of Unobtanium. I was bored of it and sensed it was time to move on.

 

All minor issues, but when you're outside at 4:30 am in the pissing rain trying to go to work, with coolant on your shoes, you rapidly loose patience and want something that just...works. Then your bastard sodding Jag, that had been fine before now decides to stop working. Being the owner of a broken Rover and a fucked Jag* wasn't really a situation I wanted to be in for much longer.

 

Cut a long story short (a story that involved somebody pressure washing their shoes, a semi-broken Rover 75 and myself trying to find, with great urgency, a cash point in Kew Gardens, but that's a story for another day) a fellow apologist bought the Rover off of me for OMGBARGAIN price and now loves it and cherishes it.

 

So, if it was the early '00s, what would you replace a leathery, toy laden, ultra conservative, saloon with, if you found the 75 too retro and were a bit old and racist and still wanted something made in the UK?

 

This of course. VTEC KICKED IN, YO!

 

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For me, it's a logical progression from a Rover Sterling. It's boring, but it does it so well.  It handles surprisingly well, goes well, has heated leather and pretend wood, and has a BANGING SOUND SYSTEM m9. Plus working air con!!!!! I think it was Junkman who said air-con was as useless as a lost property office in Poland, but it's a bonus. It has a full year's test and looks about 6 months old. I feel I love my 2002 Accord SE Executive way more than I should. It's probably fair to call it neo-shite because it's a minted unloved, unglamours car in a nice spec.

 

Anyone car enough to see more pictures? Thought not. Shall I leave autoshite? I was never really that welcome before, and I'm probably extra unwelcome for replacing a Rover Sterling with a Honda Accord, with a ghastly new style number plate.

 

As you were.

 

TL:DR

Interesting car with leather gets replaced with boring car with leather.

 

*Jag is now de-fucked and working again.

 

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The VTEC's made the picture tiny.

 

Still, good darts, I don't think anyone who's not an arse needs to go away because they've bought a slightly newer car.

 

Basically any thread that actually involves the buying, driving or fixing of pretty much any type of car is A-OK by me.

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My mate had one of these (typical low mileage ex-giffer owned) and it gave him a lot of trouble. I do not think Jap cars are as reliable as people have been led to believe.

I've read that the gearboxes like to blow up sometimes. Probably luck of the draw. But I have good vibes off of this one.

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No, it wasn't anything major like that, it was the cumulative effect of many minor niggling faults. This was possibly due to it being pushed into motorway service (which is supposed to be best for a car!) from its 40-odd thousand mile shopping trip/church run old boy tenure.

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The dashboard was a product of the '90s but looks like it was designed last week. I've not spied rot on mine, but there's no telling what's hiding the sideskirts, so there's every chance I could be in for X-Type style fun* later down the line. The coupe is great for looking at it and squinting, and pretending and it's an NSX.

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The dashboard was a product of the '90s but looks like it was designed last week. I've not spied rot on mine, but there's no telling what's hiding the sideskirts, so there's every chance I could be in for X-Type style fun* later down the line. The coupe is great for looking at it and squinting, and pretending and it's an NSX.

 

My mum's 2002 Accord is a bit rotten but it's lived in the north/north east of Scotland all of its life.

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Well brought, exceutive Japanese cars are the essence of future shite as no one in their right mind would have purchased one over a BMW,  Merc, Audi or even Omega at this time.

 

They rot in the front footwells on the seam between the inner wing and floorpan, lift the carpets and brace yourself.

 

Gearboxes are not the strongest and are sensitive to the atf used, as is the power steering (Honda PSF only or bad things happen) apart from that it should be pretty reliable.

 

Warm starting issues will be the main fuel relay which is buried so far under the dash that it has snow on it.

 

It's fitted with some of Hondas best alloys as well, 5 spokes are for winners, does it have the Bose stereo with the seperate amp fitted?

 

Coxs Honda are good for parts, i got a OEM battery delivered cheaper than any aftermarket battery i could find.

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  • 1 month later...

Well I've had this thing for almost 3 months now and ownership has been as boring and mostly uneventful as I'd been hoping. I think this is a gr17 and very nice daily. It's put up with icey starts and a few long slogs to my girlfriend's without any moaning or worrying lights or noises. 

 

One of the girls in our office at work managed to dent the driver's side wing a little bit, but she did buy me a packet of biscuits to say sorry. So I can't stay mad at her. It was the same girl who managed to break the door handle on my last Jag however...Maybe she just gets a kick out of breaking other people's things? But I digress.

 

I'll try and keep this thread up, in case anybody is interested* in running one as a daily for themselves. There's tons about and they're seriously cheap to buy and insure...But cheap to run otherwise...?

 

So far it owes me about £400.

 

In the first week I had to get new tyres for it. The front offside one was gashed and cut to buggery and the other one was getting thin - I was going to replace just the fronts until I noticed all 4 tyres were dated from 2002 :shock: So sod it, it had four new tyres. I've gone for Kumho Ecstas. About £50 a corner and they're almost as good as the Dunlops on the 800. Not much feel to them, but they cope perfectly well in the wet, are quiet and stop well - but seem gr752 on fuel. What more could you want for 50 a corner? I don't think they'll be man enough for the Jaaag when the time comes, but for daily pottering Kumhos can be recommended. My girlfriend said the other day "Your tyres say cum ho." which put me off them a little bit. 

 

I got the air con regassed while I was at it. For once the hackneyed Scumtree phrase of "it only need a re-gas m8" was totally true. Three months later it's still cold enough to make a penguin crank the central heating up a little bit. It does seem noisy though? A fan on the way out perhaps?

 

So that cost £240.

 

A few weeks after I noticed the power steering belt was starting to squeal. At first I ignored it, but then it got loud to the extent my ears started to swim, and at 4:45 am when you want to get to work SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSHHHHHHQQQQWEELLLLLSSHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEIIIIIIIIIII.....EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..........SQUOOOOOOOOOOSHIEEEEEEEEE started to wear thin.

 

It also started to stink of petrol after being used. I thought maybe it was just weeping fuel filler neck or something, but when I spotted a trail of fuel spots, but I traced it to a leaking fuel filter (after nearly getting high crawling around under the car). I didn't know they could leak. You learn something new everyday. So I bought a new one, and the leaks gone. I'VE FIXED SOMETHING.

 

It's just been serviced and, f**k me, it's made a difference. VTEC KICKS IN a lot better now - probably because VTEC is an oil pressure driven thing, I'm guessing they're very sensitive to oil quality? Or is that bollocks?

 

I got the garage to adjust the belt - which fingers crossed - has worked.

 

That little cost me about £160. Quite satisfying to throw smallish amounts of money at a car and for it to actually stop being broken. Coming from Rovers and Jags, it's an odd feeling.

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