G'day, we just bought a 2003 Jazz Vti as a replacement for our Toyota Echo. It has got 58,000kms on it and is in pretty good condition and overall I'm very impressed with it...heaps more solid than the Echo. We picked it up for $11,000 so I think we got a good buy.

On the test drive I noticed a whirring noise coming from the rear at anything above 50-60km/hr, I convinced myself it was just road noise form the crap Nexan tyres, but after driving it for a bit I think it maybe something more. It's going to really bug me especially since we wil lbe driving across Australia in it, so I'm going to have to try and solve it. I have read on the internet about lots of rear wheel bearing failures in Jazz's with similar symptoms so I'm guessing this is the problem.

I'll probably replace them myself but my quesiton is, are there any options to prevent future premature failures...ie can I get a non Honda bearing of better quality or have Honda fixed this quality problem with better bearings...am I best to stick with genuine Honda items?