So it was time to say goodbye to our Honda Accord. Since buying the Hyundai a few weeks ago the writing was on the wall for the oldest car in the fleet and with only two spaces on the drive it was obvious to move on the old timer with 160,000 miles on the clock.

I paid for it to be cleaned inside and out by the guys down the road and put it straight onto Autotrader with a premium advertisement. The first proper interest came after two days and the punters were keen to come and see it. I’m not going to say too much about the buyers because that’s between me and them but I agreed a price just below the asking price and arranged to drop it off. The transaction and handover was straightforward.

On reflection this was a good buy – purchased from a friend who has passed away as part of their surviving partner clearing the estate, we knew it was an honest car. I had just changed jobs and it was going to be a ‘station car. But things changed and it became my 50 mile each way commuter hack, and well suited to this mission so it proved to be. Over 50mpg, quiet and reliable the Accord was an excellent motorway cruiser and was stable on fast A-roads.

Reliability was excellent with only a sticking brake caliper bringing it to a halt on two occasions, the first when it initially occurred and secondly when I over-optimistically thought that the road side fix had solved it.

There were running costs – in just over 60,000 miles I changed 7 tyres – 3 pairs and a single replacement when I hit a pothole. I replaced front disks and pads and the rear caliper and a rear wheel bearing. Services at 10,000 miles came around frequently and threw up the odd extra cost including having to remove the bumper recently to change a headlight bulb. The previous mechanic didn’t do this, so a mystery there. New wipers of course, twice in three years. I didn’t repair the stone chip on the windscreen which occurred last summer.

I gave the headlights a polish but by time of sale these were going opaque again. I scraped the rear arch slightly on a wall and left that as it was.

All in all a terrific car and as I drove to drop it off I was struck by the lovely shove of the torquey diesel engine and how it settled quietly into a cruise. I wonder whether it would have gone to the magic 200k miles but as I need it daily, it seemed too much of a gamble, especially since the Hyundai popped us with its low mileage.

Thanks Honda – Happy Motoring new keeper.