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I'm looking at buying a 2006 Accord Euro, done 120,000kms priced at $10k or a 2003 Accord Euro done 72,000kms priced at $11k. The 2006 is in immaculate condition and has a few more extras like Xenon headlights while the 2003 looks a bit plainer and has less options. Both are imported so very little service history. I do about 20,000kms a year and plan to keep the car for at least 4 years. In your opinion which is the better buy?

For the mileage and time you plan on keeping the vehicle, it swings in favour of the older car with lower mileage. If you go for the newer vehicle, by the time you want to sell, it would have travelled around 200,000km, this will be harder to sell. A lower mileage car is more desireable and should be more reliable. You need to ensure the vehicle has a good service/repair history, a low mileage vehicle with poor or no service history will be of no use either.

Thanks Donovan,

Appreciate your advice. By the way how can I tell if a Japanese car radio has a band expander or not. When I test drove it, it was picking up radio stations in the 74FM- 88FM band of which we don't have any stations as far as I'm aware

The tuning range used in Japan is from 76-90MHz, in NZ we use 88-108MHz.The band expander shifts the New Zealand FM stations to the tuning range of the Japanese radio. If the radio recieves most NZ radio stations, then it is most likely fitted with a band expander. The band expander increases the frequency range while still using the Japan frequency numbers displayed on the radio.

Great news. Unfortunately, seem to have my heart set on the 120km Accord, it has a band expander already installed and the body work is immaculate unlike to 2003 which has 3 dents on the bumper which would be an extra cost to fix. How is Honda reliability at higher kms compared to Nissan and Toyota? I've had Corolla and Sunny autos which gave me 210+kms with nothing major going wrong

The Honda Accord Euro has been a very popular model for Honda, thanks to its good reliability. Overall the Honda Accord's reliability is just as good as some Toyota and Nissan models. Reliability in this case will depend mainly on the past service/repair history and how the vehicle has been treated.