Honda Problems

Honda’s solution to navigation was to equip its lower-spec Civics of this period with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto which allowed you to use the navigation apps on your smartphone to interface with the car’s info screen. If you wanted stand-alone, factory satellite navigation, you needed to spend up a bit bigger and buy the VTi-LX version of the Civic which had a Garmin system that also featured live traffic updates.

There’s a bit of detail missing from your question, Peter, but I’ll take a stab in the dark and guess that you’re talking about the Honda Jazz city car. The MY06 Jazz was, in fact, known as the GD model, while the GE you’re comparing it with was released in 2008.

The GE was an all-new model Jazz, so fundamentally they’re entirely different cars. Yes, they share a similar mechanical specification and share a place in terms of their market segments, but beyond that, the GE is a newer design with better dynamics and superior safety levels.

If you can afford the later GE model, then it would definitely be a better car.

Well, if you’re looking for a fuel-efficient car, then a Honda Jazz is a very good choice. With an official combined fuel-consumption figure as low as 5.7 litres per 100km, and the ability to run on the cheaper 91-RON unleaded, the Jazz’s weekly fuel costs will be among the lowest around.

But $15,000 is a crazy figure. The entry-level Jazz was only about $16,000 when brand-new, so even though the kilometres showing on this one are extremely low, the price being asked is astronomical. The most expensive 2008 Jazzes out there are asking around $8000 (and that’s too much) with plenty out there for $4000 or less.

The difference would be if you meant to type 2018 instead of 2008 (which is a better match with the odometer reading you’re quoting) at which point $15,000 starts to look like roughly the right price to be paying. Either way, the Jazz is nicely built, drives well and will be very economical.

A few factors determine engine longevity, so let’s start with the first of those, the basic materials and design of the engine in question. Both the Toyota and Honda have advanced small-capacity engines that are made from quality materials. So that’s in their favour.

The second factor is servicing. A lack of regular maintenance including fresh oil and filters will kill engines fast, so that’s crucial. And finally, how they are driven will also play a part. An engine that only does long distances in the country will always last longer than one that is subjected to frequent cold starts and stop-start traffic. An engine that is regularly revved to redline between the gears will also potentially die younger than one that is driven sensibly and with a bit of mechanical sympathy.

The bottom line? There’s no short answer. But I have seen small-capacity Honda and Toyota engines clock up 250,000km and more with correct maintenance. Things have certainly changed from the 1950s when the average car engine needed a rebuilt every 100,000km and what was called a de-coke and valve-grind every 30,000km. Ask your grandfather about it.

The issue of a lack of performance from the Honda’s 2.4-litre four-cylinder engine is one that has been noted in the past, David. It stems not from the fact that it’s a four-cylinder, rather the way it has been tuned and specified at the factory. Like a lot of Honda engines, the engine was designed to deliver good horsepower and high revs and, while that makes for a sporty feel in the right car, it does nothing for the Odyssey’s role as a people-mover.

The root problem here is that the engine is tuned to make its maximum torque (the force that actually accelerates the car) at 4000rpm. Combine that with the odd nature of the standard CVT transmission and you had a recipe for a car that could feel quite lethargic around town. Throw in a full complement of six bodies and their luggage, and things only got worse.

Unfortunately, there’s no real way around this. You could have the engine retuned with an aftermarket chip in the computer, but it may not do very much except increase fuel consumption. At that same time, you could wave goodbye to any remaining factory warranty as it applied to the driveline. Manufacturers don’t like customers tinkering with that stuff and will usually claim that the modifications contributed to the mechanical failure.

All that being said, I have heard of people `chipping’ the Odyssey’s engine. But of all the examples I’ve seen, the net gain was just 11 or 12 or so kiloWatts; not enough to warrant the cost or transform the vehicle in any major way. Even then, I’d imagine the extra power to be high in the rev range, not down low where you want it.

You really need to go out and test drive both vehicles, because they both have their plusses and minuses and those will be graded according to your personal preferences. Overall, the RAV4 is a bigger vehicle (almost as big as the original Kluger, in fact) so that might come into the reckoning based purely on the size of your parking space at home.

The RAV4 rides a bit more softly but your choice of the range-topping VTi-LX in the Honda is a good one because that’s the only model in the line-up that includes autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping and adaptive cruise-control. That said, the RAV4 has all those features, too, but extends them to the bulk of the models offered, not just the top-spec version.

On warranty and fuel economy, both compare pretty closely, so it will come down to the little things that you personally find important; things like the Honda’s doors that open almost to 90-degrees and the Toyota’s vast rear seat legroom and cavernous luggage space. Over to you.

With the ignition on press Home button, then in turn Settings, Clock info, and Clock adjustment. You can then adjust the time. It is also shown in your owner’s manual.

I think what’s happening when you open the fuel cap, Frank, is not a release of pressure, but rather a release of vacuum. As your car uses petrol, the level in the tank gets lower. If the tank can’t `breathe’, allowing air to fill that space in the tank, a vacuum is created. Eventually, the vacuum becomes so powerful that the car’s fuel pump can no longer drag fuel from the tank to the engine and the car stalls.

When you remove the fuel cap, hey presto, the vacuum is released and the fuel pump can do its thing once more. In modern cars, this is often caused by the charcoal canister (a part of the pollution-control equipment) becoming clogged and not allowing air back into the fuel tank. I’ve actually seen cases so bad that the vacuum has actually collapsed the fuel tank under the car (must have been a powerful fuel pump).

Driving around with no fuel cap on is both dangerous and illegal (it renders those pollution controls useless because it allows fuel to evaporate into the atmosphere) so the solution is to find out where the blockage is and replace the relevant parts. Like I said, I’d start with the charcoal canister in the engine bay. It could even be that dust or dirt is blocking one of the rubber hoses that link the pollution gear systems. It might seem like a big problem, but from the symptoms you’ve listed, I think it’ll be an easy fix.

There’s not much between them, but the Honda is regarded as being a little better than the Nissan overall. It’s well-equipped, good value, and practical. Another to consider is the Mazda CX-5.