Pre or post facelift......???

[GingerWizard]

Hello all,

I have placed only a couple of posts in the forum and i have had a rather througher search of the forums topics. I have come to a conclusion which i am not going to tell you about but i have two options. So please bear with me and if you have the time to reply it will be greatly appriciated.

Option 1:
Budget £7500
Car:Honda CTR 2003 Cosmic grey 20000miles (pre facelift) FHSH, Aircon, no kerbing, mint througout.

Pros: I can more easily afford it, and the insurance is going to be a little cheaper.

Cons: It's pre facelift and older. More mechanical wear, degredation..

Option 2:
Budget £9200
Car: Honda CTR 2004-2005 (poss final edition) Cosmic grey 30000miles (facelift)FHSH Aircon, no kerbing, good throughout, non smoker?. Minor stone chipping.

Pros: Its the upgrade, you drop .2sec 0-60 it has a better interior. Newer. Could still be in warrenty.

Cons: Cars that are still in warrenty are subject to a bit of neglect sometimes, until the 12000mile sevice. Its expensive and they will probably drop £500-£800 next year with New CTR on sale (despite the fact its a bit of a porker!)

So do i strap myself up and go for the second option or play it safe and get a mint pre facelift thats excellent throughout. So old and cared for, or new and abused?

And are the facelift models really noticably better.. (i know over 1500 mods..) I know what i am going to do .....i think..... but your thoughts ladies and gents are welcome.

GingerWizard

[WRumbled]

Couple of flaws in your arguments;

1. A 20,000 mile car will have less mechanical wear than a 30,000 mile car, regardless of age.

2. "Cars that are still under warranty are subject to a bit of neglect", well, that's possible, I guess, but the older car will have been under warranty at some point and would have suffered the same, were that to be the case?

And a couple of pointers;

1. You can't get a pre-facelift in Cosmic Grey; the colour was introduced with the face-lift.

2. There really isn't a lot of difference between the cars, so I wouldn't focus on the differences, I'd focus on which you feel happiest with.

3. There is likely to be little difference, if any, on the insurance price.

[havoc]

Facelift differences, AIUI, aren't just cosmetic - they tweaked a few bits, inc. at least one of steering and/or suspension.

If I could afford it I'd get the facelift - facelifts always keep value better and are easier to sell-on. And those mileages are pretty irrelevant:-
- they're both low anyway;
- it's a Honda.

[WRumbled]

havoc said:

Facelift differences, AIUI, aren't just cosmetic - they tweaked a few bits, inc. at least one of steering and/or suspension.

If I could afford it I'd get the facelift - facelifts always keep value better and are easier to sell-on. And those mileages are pretty irrelevant:-
- they're both low anyway;
- it's a Honda.

Lightened flywheel, which is where the 0.2 seconds on the 0-60 comes from and the steering has a little less assistance, fooling people into thinking it had better feel, where in actual fact, it was just a bit heavier.

As I said, by the car you prefer. For me, the updates alone aren't enough to justify the newer car.

But I'm not a huge fan of the CTR anyway - I only kept mine for 5 months.

[GingerWizard]

Righty then, that certainly explains the cosmic grey colour and in retrospect you are all quite right in your wear arguments etc. I think i am going to go face lift, cosmic grey with budget of £9500 so hopefully under 35 k.

Just one other quickie, what are the engins good for, highest i have seen is 113k on a 02 plate, do they go pop much after this?

Cheers all

GingerWizard

[iamlofi]

there are Supercharged ones with 140k floating about and they are still running fine.

They are only 6 years old so maybe no one has gone higher than that yet?

As long as you service etc then Honda will run forever just things like breaks gearbox etc will need changing eventually

[Martin_Hx]

Engines are pretty bullet proof (only heard one of the new ones go pop), i've heard they are around there best between 20 - 40k, no idea when they start to deterorate tho, im sure it will be way past 100k!

As for Pre or face lift models, go for which ever you prefer the look of !