Servicing/Parts costs Focus/Laser VS Honda Civic

[falconboy]

Hi all,

Unfortunately my misses bought a 97 Honda Civic before we met, and its alright as a shopping trolley/second car, but I'm a little concerned about servicing and parts prices, not to mention from reading the Honda forums surprisingly most people seem to suggest using genuine honda for fluids and parts, all of which are EXPENSIVE. $60 for 4L trans fluid, $52 for 4L premixed ready to use coolant, $197 for spark plug leads (yes, only 4 of them). I also have a very slight water pump leak, and I've been quoted $671 for water pump, timing belt and labour from Honda. Even a non genuine water pump from Repco is $121, timing belt $85 supply only. Non genuine leads are still $105.

The other thing that concerns me is the transmission in these are non servicable/adjustable other than drain and replace, basically its drive til they die then replace (and I hate to think for how much)

Its only got 60,000 k's - yes, at 12 years old, so its probably still worth something. I've been considering upgrading to a slightly newer (around 2000) Laser or a slightly newer still Focus. How are they for parts and servicing? Do I assume the Lasers are pretty good and maybe the Focus, being newer and less common, and maybe less non genuine parts around (or harder to get) that they might be a bit more than the Lasers?

I don't know much about Ford small cars unfortunately.

The other problem is getting the misses to sell her baby she bought new!

Thanks