I’m looking at purchasing a Honda N-Box Custom Turbo that has 100K Kilometers, but unsure if the car is at the end of its life at that point. It comes with a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty which makes it seem less risky. I prefer a Kei car with a turbo to give it a little more power…also considering a Daihatsu Tanto RS with a little less miles.
Thoughts? If you have an older Kei car how many Kilometers Does it have?
Update: Amazing 👏 comments. Thank you. I am familiar with automotive maintenance, and I appreciate the reminder of the timing belt/chain requiring replacement. Maybe a non-turbo vehicle isn’t a deal breaker and I will look into other vehicles with lower mileage. I just need a sliding rear door to make it more kid friendly.
22 comments
Most Japanese people consider a car to be ‘done’ when it’s at 100,000KM, kei or not.
Alot of cars require timing belt changes at or around 100,000KM and it’s considered too expensive/too much of a pain to bother with.
The only advice I’d say is ask the dealer/seller if the belt has been replaced. Otherwise, kei cars are generally well built and will last for a lot longer than 100,000KM.
A lot of Japanese people will say that anything over 100K isn’t worth your time, but they are 100% wrong. As another commenter mentioned, timing belts are generally done every 100K, and can be quite annoying to deal with, however that does NOT mean that the car is done.
Any reputable brand of car should be able to go above and beyond 100K easily. My current vehicle is well over 150K at this point, and in my home country, which has more environmental extremes than Japan does, it is common for cars to run into 500K+ territory as long as the car is properly maintained throughout it’s life. At 100K, I would ask for a mechanic to do a quick once over to check things like brakes, A/C, engine condition as due diligence, but I would honestly be surprised if anything was wrong.
Anecdotally, my first car in was a Toyota Corolla with about 600K on the clock, and I drove that car for about 8 years before buying a Subaru with about 350K on the clock, which I still own in my home country. My first cat in Japan was a Subaru with 40K on the clock, and by the time I bought my next car it was almost at 200K. As long as you look after your car, you can pay no heed to anyone telling you it’s “done” or reached the “end” because of the odo.
Really interested in learning more about this myself. I’m looking to buy a 2nd hand Kei car myself, and I have zero working understanding of cars in general, let alone kei’s or 2nd hand.
Father in law suggested N-Box as well as Daihatsu Tanto to me as larger alternatives to suzuki wagon R / daihatsu move and n-wagons.
I’m basically looking for a reliable kei for a family (me, wife and soon a newborn), and I don’t know where to start looking. Currently browsing used car websites.
I got my 2014 Carry used at 105,000km, no issues at all. My 1999 daihatsu move is almost at 150,000km. Some issues but nothing major. Mostly taken care of during shaken.
Personally, I prefer Honda to Daihatsu, but there’s no real reason for this.
Anecdotally, I know that the NBox is a great car, but my friend who bought a new one expected something closer to the advertised 35km/l and is only averaging 13. It’s quite a heavy car for the small engine, so a turbo would be nice, at the cost of efficiency.
Also, as a long time Honda driver, my own Kei is starting to need a new paint job, new rubber sealants, and my key fob just broke or unprogrammed itself. I had my non-turbo timing belt change last year and it cost me about 140,000 together with shaken. The biggest problem is that there’s not a lot of experienced people that can do it at cheap places, and the Honda engine required taking apart the water pump area to replace it.
It’s not just the maintenance but the tax as well. It goes up in the 13th year.
I had a kei car that I kept for 10 years before trading it for a new one. By the time I traded it the engine casing was seriously corroded. The dealer gave me just ¥20,000 for it in trade. Those tiny engines in kei cars work really hard over their lifetimes so I’d be very cautious about the reliability and lifespan of a kei car that has more than 100k on it.
Back in America, I have a 1992 Saab at my mom’s house with… let me do some math… roughly 480K on it. I get that it’s obviously not a kei and it’s on the other side of the world, but any vehicle ***should be*** easily capable of going over a million if properly maintained. The only thing you should worry about when buying any vehicle is the availability of replacement parts and associated labor costs if you don’t do the work yourself.
TL;DR If you like the car, you should get it. Just make sure you find out how much upkeep will cost you before you get it.
I’ve seen videos on YouTube of 300,000km nbox running just fine.
It will significantly affect the value though. Expect to pay a lot less for anything over that magic 100,000km number.
If it’s for the right price go ahead, there’s a new model nbox just out so I’d wait a month or two for prices to come down further on previous gen.
Sliding door small car NON kei there’s the Suzuki solio and Toyota Roomy/ Daihatsu Thor.
Slightly bigger, previous gen Honda freed are quite cheap.
I have a 2002 daihatsu mira gino, my very first car. He has 130k km and he’s hanging on 🥹.
I love my car sm 🥹🥹
Depends on the maintenance.
If the oil was changed regularly, the engine should be alright.
But some wear items could be nearing the end of their life, like ball joints, CV axles, clutches, bushings, etc.
In my experience these items are in the 200/250km+ range, depending on road conditions.
Just one more thing, I have a Tanto custom with a turbo and I love it. The interior is in my mind way better than the N-Box. If you can, take a test drive in both to figure out which one you like. I was lined up to get an N-Box, but I wanted to check out some others, and much preferred the Tanto.
0 miles. Death traps that shouldn’t be allowed on the express way because they can’t overtake fast enough and clog up the right lane. Maybe if you live on an island or deep inaka and you treat it like a golf cart it’s OK. Used entry level white plates are often cheaper and much much better. Like shoes, don’t skimp on things that touch the ground.
A Honda with 100k is barely worn in…
I was gonna trade my 4 year old nbox with 34,000km on it at honda dealership but they could only give me 60万円 for it, even though i bought it for 200万円 . In the end i sold the nbox to my mother-in-law for the same price.
I bought my nbox in 2012 brand new and it’s at 130km now. I had to change the transmission (cost about 280k) 3 years ago, but otherwise has no issues.
I happened to ask the mechanic at my dealership about this very thing today. I drive a 15-year old EK-wagon with 150k km on the odometer and was wondering if I should be looking into buying another car when my shaken comes around next March, because I often hear that we should change cars after 100k.
He said that in the past, people were told to buy new cars after 100k. Cars are more durable now compared to the past, but people still mistakenly believe that 100k is the time to get another one. Next year when I bring it in for shaken, they’ll check and let me know if there are any problems, but he thinks that my 150k car should still run fine and I don’t have to think about buying another one yet.
He also said that keeping up with regular oil changes makes a huge difference in the longevity of the car.
Remember the average car journey here is significantly shorter than where many of us are from. So the mileage may look fairly low, but number of times it’s been started cold, driven, and turned off can still be really high.
A kei car is generally finished at 200k or earlier since by that time you’ll most likely have to do a multitude of major repairs since the engine has to work much harder than a larger displacement engine and a lot of the parts of a kei car are built more cheaply than normal cars.
Honda’s are probably the most reliable of the kei cars but from personal experience Daihatsu has really shoddy quality parts and they just tend to fail really early. While you can continue to keep putting money into a high mileage kei car at some point it’s just not worth it and you would probably be better off replacing it.
My truck isn’t Kei but it’s way over 100,000. I think I’m at about 170,000. Airconditioner and heater broke once, and I had a fuse blow that was really hard to find. My mechanic ended up using another type of fuse and grinding it down to fit because he couldn’t even find a match. Outside of that it’s been amazing.
My jimny is just about to hit 200k and runs as well as ever. I had to replace the clutch a little while ago but it shifts even better now than when I got it (about 90k).
Incidentally the clutch replacement cost 15k yen because I did it myself.
I think what you have there is a very safe buy, but the price is a matter for you to decide.
I caution you however, if you drive a k car “like it has a turbo” then the first thing that dies will be the turbo. And if it has been driven like that up until now then the remaining life of the turbo would be my biggest concern.
Warranty sounds pretty good though, I bet the price reflects that.
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EDIT: also worth noting. Others in here are talking about having to replace timing belts at 100k, NBOX has a timing chain so you don’t have to replace it.
My friend has Suzuki Alto that did well over 200k km and it runs great. Its all about how well you take care of the car