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tdgeek:.
We have a 2007 Accord Euro, bought in 2008 at 18k. Serviced by Honda NZ. Its an old car now, now 95k, but looks modern, 100% reliable, perfectly nice car,
Sounds a bit better than my 2003, 355,000 km Holden Commodore. Cost me an absolute fortune last year, I had to buy two new tyres at a couple of hundy each, AND I had to put petrol in it last week. Still at least it's reliable and it drives well. 
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tdgeek:
I read the other day that KIA is seen by US citizens as top quality.
I wouldn't place too much stock on what the average US citizen considers top quality, look who they elected as their top man.
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Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos
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MikeB4:
As for DSGs, they should have stayed on the race track where they belong.
Problem is that to meet fuel efficiency (and emissions) targets, then the old "slush box" automatic gearboxes are a fail - at least on the "city" part of test cycles.
DSG/DCT was one solution, but well executed is much better than some of the others - CVT is (IMO) horrid, and then there's automated manuals - "selespeed".
This is Mazda's argument for SkyActiv drive, which is basically a conventional slush-box but with larger lock-up clutches to bypass the torque converter on all forward gears. (conventional slush-box since the '90s have had lock-up clutches, but usually actuating only on top gear - so can be quite fuel efficient on the open road, less efficient around town)
It's also complex - there's no free lunch. OTOH you don't hear of disasters and horror stories with Mazda SkyActive auto boxes - they are fuel efficient.
IMO it seems to be a very good compromise.
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smalltrader:
Gen 1 Accord Euro and Gen 2 Accord Euro represent the prowess of yesteryear Honda. They are both good looking product with superb reliability. The fact that they are good enough to be rebadged as Acura TSX in the US said something about these two Accord Euro. Sadly Honda has lost its way since and produced some very average/also run products which seem to sell well in some part of the Asia but they just don't cut it in AU/NZ. Honda is only just slowly starting to bring better/more innovative products to market like the Euro Civic and the Type-R.
Arguably Mazda is the new Honda if you look at the innovations Mazda bring with its Skyactiv platform, reminiscent of the old Honda.
I agree with your general assessment of the Honda brand. But the biggest problem with Honda in NZ is their completely BS "Market of One"/Price Promise strategy. The premise behind the strategy is so insulting to the intelligence of your average buyer that it verges on being offensive. "You pay the same price as government and fleet buyers. Everyone pays the fair price - the price that HONDA names! And your car's second hand market value won't depreciate as much because everyone got theirs for the same price!". First of all, there are hardly any fleet buyers of Honda -- in fact, there are few mainstream buyers for Honda full stop. Honda was in 2016 the worst selling mainstream brand by a country mile (it sold 1000+ less cars than the disgraced VW). When few people desire your car when it's new, few will want it when you want to buy a new car. Sure, what you can get from buying a Corolla is diminished due to the way the rental car companies can buy their cars for much cheaper. But there are ways of mitigating this, albeit not completely: anyone who isn't an idiot and can exercise some patience/haggling skills can easily get 15% off a Corolla. 20 to 25% off isn't uncommon. For other mainstream brands, discounts of between 10 to 15% are easily obtainable.
I actually short-listed the Yaris ZX (highest of the range), Mazda 2 (tossed up between the middle of the range and their top end - in the end got the middle), and the lowest of the two Civics (the turbo isn't available until August). The cheapest I could get the Yaris was at around 26K driveaway, the Mazda 2 GSX(middle of the range) 24.5K, and the Civic at a whopping circa 34K. Sure, people might argue that the Civic is a larger car with much larger engine displacement, so the proper comparison might be a Mazda 3. The trouble is that for many "Car for one, professional and part of a DINK couple" buyers like me, what is of interest the most are matters of creature comfort - apart from Apple Play and day-time running lights, the Mazda 2 loses absolutely nothing in these regards at almost 10K cheaper. I would also argue that the safety features on the Mazda 2 (auto-braking, rear reversing sensor/side approach sensor plus reversing camera, and blind spot assist) are far more useful than the Civic's (lane departure camera and lane-keeping assist). And, more importantly, I get three years' worth of free service. If I were willing to pay 3K more, I could have gotten the highest end Mazda 2and it would have had partial leather seats, LED lights, and intelligent headlights, plus quite a lot of change compared to the Civic.
Won't try to compare the equivalent Jazz between even the GSX and its "equivalent" at 29K driveaway. The Honda would lose all the safety features apart from the reversing camera and I would have to pay 4.5K more and also lose the free servicing. Sorry, most Kiwis aren't this stupid and cars are inherently substitutable. It's time for Honda to hire someone who can actually pass a 5th form economics exam to do some consulting for them -- I suspect this kind of person is all they can afford now. At the moment, it's a brand that is living off its cachet from 10+ years ago and is trying its level best to pretend that they are a market all on their own. This kind of breathtaking arrogance is again not something that I can abide by.
kingjj:
My 2008 Toyota is the subject of a recall at present due to an issue with the rubber seal in the CVT failing causing an oil leak which can cause performance issues (as it does it my car). Toyota sent me a letter advising me of the issue and offering a free replacement. For a 9 year old imported Jap car I was quite surprised. Reading some of the other comments about service issues in sub 10 year old cars I'm amazed other manufactures can get away with such poor service and reliability. We previously had a VW Polo, worse car we've ever had. Cost us more in repairs in the 2 years we had it than we paid. Glad to offload it.
There is something extraordinarily comforting about owning a Toyota. Like I posted previously, almost all car manufacturers are sociopathic to some degree (see how they deliberately eliminate certain cheap but frankly essential safety features such as reversing cameras from cars and sometimes even refuse to make these optional extras unless you are prepared to upgrade to the next class, not even model, up). But Toyota is as close as one can get to cast-iron reliability and excellent ethics (by carmakers' standards). I had the fortune of being invited to a tour of a Toyota factory and to see how some of their engineers conceptualise their ideas. The thing that's very apparent is how before every change is made, all the implications/drawbacks are very carefully considered. They simply won't do, for example, rubbish like using a highly breakable air pump to control the central locking system and the boot lid lock, all in order to give the car a smooth "Ooooooosh" sound, instead of the grinding, metal-chain colliding sound of "normal"central locking ala VW.
The trouble with Toyota at the small car end is that they tend to use extremely old technology (e.g. a four speed auto with a torque converter for the Yaris), along with having very poor build and ride quality. The Yaris I test drove had deafening road noise and rode about as comfortable as a ride-on mower. If you want at least a Corolla and up, Toyota remains well-worth considering when you can get it at a 15 to 20% discount off RRP, provided you can live without some of the typical creature comforts/luxury.
Fred99:
This is Mazda's argument for SkyActiv drive, which is basically a conventional slush-box but with larger lock-up clutches to bypass the torque converter on all forward gears. (conventional slush-box since the '90s have had lock-up clutches, but usually actuating only on top gear - so can be quite fuel efficient on the open road, less efficient around town)
It's also complex - there's no free lunch. OTOH you don't hear of disasters and horror stories with Mazda SkyActive auto boxes - they are fuel efficient.
IMO it seems to be a very good compromise.
It's still only a Ford Fiesta. Blinkybill told us so!!
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