I’m torn between the Honda Civic and the Honda Accord, help me choose…

Baraza, you rarely talk about the Honda Civic or the Honda Accord, please review the two

Dear Baraza,

Thank you for the exceptional and entertaining work of breaking down all things motoring in Car Clinic. Unfortunately, rare is the conversation locally and in your articles regarding the Honda Civic or the Honda Accord. I would very much appreciate your take on the two, especially in our Toyota infested market. Would you recommend acquiring either of the two measured against their respective segment rivals locally?
Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Peter

Hi Peter,

Thank you for the kind word. Rare is the conversation locally and in my articles regarding the Honda Civic or the Accord because as you correctly surmised, ours is a Toyota-infested market, so the Civics and Accords are few and far between.

Given Honda’s general reliability and the bullet-proof build of the two cars in question, they may not come up much in conversation because you may have noticed that this is Car Clinic, where most of the time sick cars come to be diagnosed ex camera. If your car isn’t sick, it won’t need the clinic, will it?

The two cars fare quite well, especially in the British and American markets, again for their solid construction and ultimate dependability. The Accord stacks up against the Camry and the Mazda 6 (Atenza) with the Honda occupying the point of overlap in the Venn diagram between Toyota (reliability) and Mazda (fun to drive) with the Honda having slightly smaller dollops of each characteristic.

The same applies to the Civic, which stacks up against the Corolla and the 3 (Axela). The same thing applies: reliability and fun to drive in smaller doses compared to the other two respective brands.

However, while Toyota rarely does hot versions of its saloons (this only changed recently with the GR sub-brand), Mazda and Honda like to warm things up a bit. We have Mazda speed and we have the Type R (and Type S) Hondas. While Mazda chose to turbocharge their cooking cars, Honda gave them stratospheric rev limits. The Civic Type R revs all the way to 9000rpm without breaking a sweat. It makes for an interesting, if slightly tiresome, drive.

Of the two I’d naturally recommend the Accord because it is the bigger, more powerful car (duh!).

I’m expecting a windfall soon, do I invest in the Ford Ranger Wildtrak or the new Isuzu D-Max? 

Hello Baraza,

Trump here again…

Since losing the presidency, albeit unfairly, I am into gambling and I’m expecting some serious dough very soon! I don’t want to be caught unprepared when the windfall happens, so, I’m looking to get either a Ford Ranger Wildtrak (the orange one) or the new Isuzu D Max, both double cabs and 3.0 L turbo diesel, six speed automatic tranny. Isuzu has manned up and is now as chunky and good looking as the competitor, but it is still an Isuzu – grunty noisy and too common. The Ranger, well, way more unreasonably pricy. My heart says Ranger but my mind Isuzu. Kindly review the two.

Regards
Donald (Trump)

Hi Trump,

You never let up, do you? We appreciate your correspondence bigly and your fan base on this end is yuuuuge. That said, I understand losing the presidency after a single term is not only embarrassing, but also taxes your finances heavily (haha!), however, I am not sure gambling is the correct palliative for your dwindling dollars. Should you hit the jackpot, go for the Ford Ranger.

You may as well do so because money won’t be an issue. This is important for two reasons: the Wildtrak is wildly expensive and some folks keep mentioning expensive maintenance work of the curative kind. But if you get a brand new one, you will be covered by warranty, so less sweat on that front. Now that we are talking large amounts of free money, have you considered the Raptor? It is the Wildtrak’s Wildtrak, with a wider track and fancy bits to remind your neighbours that yes, fortuitous happenstance needs to be thoroughly milked.

You could do the thinking man’s thing and go for the Isuzu. It will do everything the Wildtrak will do for less upfront cabbage, but your estimation is bang on: the vehicle feels agricultural and you will look like a county government lackey. They tend to run around in DMAXes.

That’s just about it. The two are fine pickups with the Ranger costing abnormal amounts of money but is ruggedly handsome – that truck just looks SO good, while the DMAX, while not exactly a minger, is more focused and work-oriented. You want to slay? The Loan Ranger is for you. You want to put in work? The DMAX says “Party Up”.

I plan to buy my wife either the Subaru Levorg 1.6 GT-S or Subaru Impreza Sport 2017 2.0 – which one would you recommend?

Hi Baraza, 

I like reading your articles. Straight to the issue. I intend to purchase my better half a car and I’m torn between the Subaru Levorg 1.6 GT-S and Subaru Impreza Sport 2017 2.0. Her workplace is not far, so distance is a maximum of 10km per day. I am not so much worried about fuel, rather, about reliability. Occasionally, I would also want to drive out of town using the car when going to the village, which is between 300-500kms. 

David

Hi David,

Get your ball-and-chain on the Levorg. It is more interesting than the Impreza despite the two being fundamentally the same car, almost but not quite. However, everyone has the Impreza. Not everyone has the Levorg. You want her to stand out, no?

There is a downside to not everyone having the Levorg. There is a street legend that did the rounds a while back about a lady who is the friend of the cousin of the neighbour of someone who attended one Great Run event some years ago, a lady who took one look at the Levorg and said “I’ma have me some of that” and brought one in from Japan.

Less fortuitous happenstance saw the Levorg succumb to the vagaries of shady Nairobi traffic with the very undesirable outcome being a T-bone maneuver waged against the driver’s door, and the assessors ticked the box labeled “Replace” when they had finished their post-crash assessment assignment.

How much to replace the driver’s door? A hundred and fifty large. Yes, 150,000/- for the driver’s door of a Subaru Levorg, and this does not even factor in inflation. Back then, fuel was less than Sh100 per liter, so do your maths and projections Accordingly as it is your Civic duty (I know the Honda jokes are lame, but shut up, I’m making a point here).

I don’t know how much a driver’s door for the Subaru Levorg costs now, but more people need to buy Levorgs to bring the price down. In the meantime, ask Ye Olde Ball-n-Chain to man the crow’s nest on the starboard side of the SS Levorg, lest a pirate schooner dings the hull necessitating expensive and unproductive layovers in dry dock.

What’s up with my Krystal, aka Nissan X-Trail DNT31 6MT?

Hey Baraza,

Krystal, a 2013 Nissan X-Trail DNT31 6MT, is experiencing intermittent boost loss when flooring it for an extended period of time, extended here meaning like 7 to 12 seconds. This happens very randomly, but it is a lot more prominent when the car is at operating temps. The CEL doesn’t illuminate whenever the issue occurs, so it’s been difficult to narrow down the culprit.

This aside, the car functions properly. I have so far had the turbo, boost sensor and diesel filter checked. All are okay. I have also verified that the check engine light is functioning ok. Might you be able to advise what else I should check? Secondly, how comes the check engine isn’t illuminating to show me what this particular issue is? 

Regards,
Ken
PS: Love your sense of humor.

Hi Ken,

You bought a diesel X-Trail?? Ha!

A quick peek at the fora says that the problem is the turbo, so you may want to have another look at it. Incidentally, the cause of the turbo problem could be something else you allege you checked: the DPF. This is the low-down on the down-low:

You may have a clogged DPF due to insufficient regeneration. The blockage increases exhaust back pressure as well as exhaust gas temperatures within the turbine housing (the “shell” of the turbo) due to the resistance it creates against the normal flow of gases. This increased heat and back pressure negatively affects the efficiency of the turbocharger, as well as creating oil leaks, oil coking/carbonisation and exhaust leaks from the turbo.

I have recently started dabbling in OBD II motor vehicle diagnostics as a pastime (and to look for extra cash) and one thing I noticed is sometimes cars will hide codes without the CEL illuminating. Case in point, I have a friend with a Nissan (haha!) Tiida whose CEL did not illuminate but when I plugged in my dongle and read his EC, I found two DTC codes hidden away in there. So it is possible for your car (a Nissan, haha!) to have issues but still not light up the dreaded CEL.

Also, Krystal sounds like the nom-de-guerre of a naive pole-dancer. Just call your car an X-Trail, which is what it is, and steer clear of anthropological projections trying to humanise a machine. If you have to name it, call it something else, like “El Trouble” or something (“El Turbo” was already taken by yours truly). This will avoid attachment issues – or are they abandonment issues – the day you decide to sell the car

Dear Baraza,

I’ve been reading your reviews for a good number of years. My current car is a Toyota Premio and it has served me faithfully for the past five years. It is still in perfect condition. My only problem is a nagging low back pain that worsens upon driving for an hour and above, which I can’t avoid due to my work demands.  

Kindly advise me on an alternative car that has good ground clearance and is as pocket friendly as my current one, or even better, and good for my back. I hope I’m not demanding too much! 
Tim. 

Hi Tim,

I’m not sure I’m the one to help you here. Enlist the services of a chiropractor, and if they say to change cars, you can come back here, this time with a list of cars for me to compare, contrast and lead you to a smart choice.

In the meantime, my sympathies for your back issue, but I reiterate: ground clearance will not solve your back problems. See a specialist.  BY DAILY NATION