Honda reliable?

kyojin

I'm looking around for a Honda Civic/Accord. And
my budget is about $5000. most of the Hondas that
come within this price range are 90k miles to 110k
miles. I'm planning to use the vehicle for another
35k miles.

i will like some opinion on the total mileage a
normal honda can withstand.

mdc32

I had a 87 Prelude with 160,000 miles on the odometer, and it ran fine. The only thing not working well was the AC, but I'm sure the car was in a front end accident before I purchased it.
I currently drive a 93 accord with 170,000 miles on it. I have no worry the car could get me across the country and back easily. Ask the seller for the maintenance records, and if the car has ever been in a wreck. Have a mechanic look at it for an hour. $30 will point out any "oversights" the seller may have neglected to tell you.

joduncan

i have a 1992 honda accord lx with 208,000 trouble free miles. we bought it new and have truly enjoyed owning a honda. right now we are in the market for a new vehicle;not because anything is wrong with ours but because "its time". we got tired of our honda befor it got tired of us, thank God! right now we are concerned about buying a new vehicle that can live up to our expectations. i want my next vehicle to give me the performance that honda has, so i'm leery about buying anything else. the only repairs/replacements that we have done were "just because"...strictly prevenative. just change the oil and put new tires on. we love honda...hope you will, too....happy honda hunting!

wenyue

Toyota and Honda are reknowned for their reliability. So as long as you buy a car that received the proper maintainace, then you should not have any problem driving up to 200,000 miles. So be sure that you have the car checked by an INDEPENDENT mechanic (not the dealer's mechanic) and run a car history check (to see it's been stolen or salvaged). If it passes both, then you should have no more to worry about the car.

There are also other brands besides Honda and Toyota that's also very reliable. Nissan and Mazda are very reliable, and they tend to be cheaper than Honda and Toyota. It's your call, have fun car hunting.

booda3d

The points made by wenyue regarding checking title and car history are good. Of course anyone purchasing a used car should ALWAYS have it checked by a mechanic you trust. Its like having an insurance policy for a relatively small one-time fee. Even if something is wrong with the car, you are in a better position to haggle on price if you know what the problem is, how easy or difficult it is to repair, and the estimated cost to fix it. For example when I bought my son a used 1986 Honda Accord, there was an apparent oil leak near the valve cover (easy to see since the dealer had steam cleaned the engine before putting the car up for sale). My mechanic said that the valve gaskets on 1986 Accords were too thin and would leak with time. To replace the gasket with a thicker one would cost $35 at the time. I used this as a bargaining point to get an extra $200 off the price of the car. My son still has the car with 180,000 miles on it, and no oil leak since the gasket was replaced right after we bought the car in 1990.

As for reliability, we have the following cars which we bought new:
1983 Accord...........162,000 miles still going strong and averaging 35 mpg. Still has original
clutch, transmission, fuel pump, etc. Only problem was alternatore burned out and had to replace it and wiring harness, otherwise normal
maintenance items only. A/C not as efficient as
newer Hondas. My favorite car of all time.
1990 Accord...........102,000 miles and in excellent shape, everything is still original
except brakes, tires, oil, filters and wipers.
No problems, only normal service.
1998 Accord EX........12,000 miles.
Too new for any problems.

The point is, that despite the fact we bought our Hondas new, if they are MAINTAINED properly, it is not uncommon for them to last 200,000 miles or more with very few problems. I know of one individual that had the old CVCC with more than 300,000 miles on it before he finally had to ditch it since the clutch wore out and it wasn't worth the expense to replace it. Motor and transmission were still in good shape, but rust was a problem with it.

Hope you are successful in your search. Toyota, Nissan, and Saturns are also known to have excellent reputations for reliability and have fewer problems than most other automobiles.

moorec

My wife had a 91 accord LX with 207k we received 3k for trade in on 00 accord ex today she also had the dx accord before that,I can't remember how many miles on that one.We refuse the extended warranty because like yourself we had no problems with these cars.I think she is getting back at me for trading in 95ex odssey 87k with no problems,for the 99ex oddy we are in heaven!Don't know what the neighbors will think? Who cares!

mlam

In general I must agree to all the previous praise, however, I have noticed a disturbing trend. I have a 95 Accord EX, Civic EX and a 95 Integra (might as well be a Civic)- so I like Hondas just as much as anyone... my Accord was in for the 60K maintenance and to date ran trouble free. I found out the radiator was slightly cracked along the top. Worse yet it's plastic so replacement is the only option. $600.!!! Fine. Isolated incident right? Wrong. My Integra had the same problem a few months back... $700. again plstic radiator. My wife's Civic is coming up to 60K miles and I'm saving my pennies now, playing the odds since it too has a plastic radiator. An Acura mechanic friend told me this was par for the course. My question is, is Honda aware of this? They must be and if so why aren't they doing anything about it. 60K miles is not excessive. I hope the newer models have corrected this but I cannot say for sure. Anyone else have problems with their radiators in their Hondas???

guitarzan

Gee mlam, sorry to hear about these great expenses! I've never heard of this problem before.

guitarzan
Community Leader/Vans Conference

isellhondas

The radiator problems are not that common.

These radiators CAN be repaired although a dealer is reluctant to do this. Should the repair fail (highly unlikely) and the radiator springs a leak causing the car to overheat and damage the engine, the customer will be right in the dealer's face demanding a new engine!

Independant radiator shops can do the repair if it isn't too bad.

In this day and age, it's kind of sad...If somebody tries to save a customer money, and something go's wrong in the process, the customer quickly forgets about the money "saved".

It only takes one backfire to teach the shop a lesson.

gchernya1

I have a theory about those radiators. If you happened to change coolant before you found cracks in each of them, I would strongly suspect a mechanic, who did it. Draining coolant is usualy done by disconnecting lover radiator hose, and if excessive force was applied, you know what happened.

gus

A lot of japanese cars have a drain plug in their radiators, though. It seems that many more radiators end up cracking along the top or side seams. Cracks around the neck usually happen in older radiators, and can be exacerbated, as (gchernya1) mentions, by an over zealous mechanic pulling a tight radiator hose from the radiator neck.

tom3k

My '90 Integra had a radiator crack in the bottom, but only after about 130K fairly hard miles (a lot of stop-and-go commuting, lead foot the rest of the time). Crack was small enough that it didn't leak until the car was at full temperature for awhile, so I never saw any leakage under the car. Thought I was going crazy, as I would fill the radiator, see nothing on the ground, then have a nearly empty radiator when I arrived!

BTW-It's now near 170K, still doing fine.

rea98d

The State of Texas published a list recently about the cars with the most complaints and the fewest complaints under Texas's lemon law (Kinda like a three strikes & your out law for cars.) Cars with the most complaints were all either GM or Chrysler. Cars with the fewest complaints, except for on Honda, were all Toyotas or Fords. And most of what I've heard about Toyota, Honda, and Ford is that if you treat them good and DO YOUR PREVENTATIVE MAINTAINENCE they'll last a long long time. Once I got it checked out, I wouldn't think twice about getting a Honda with 100,000 miles on it. They are severly lacking in the style department, but when it comes to being dependable transportation, you can't beat them.

mmcbride1

About two years ago, my wife (girlfriend at the time) had a '90 Accord. With about 80,000 miles, her transmission went out. She called the Honda dealer and they quoted her a price, but mentioned nothing about a recall/TSB. We took the car to a local mechanic who replaced the transmission (for about $1,500-2,000). I thought this was a little early for the tranny to go out, but figured it was just a bad one and wrote it off to bad luck.

Talking to a coworker today, it turns out she had the same problem with a '90 Accord. She took hers to a Honda dealer and they told her there was a recall that Honda knew something was depositing metal shavings into the transmission. They replaced her entire tranny for free.

Here is the question: Obviously, Honda knew of the problem and our dealer did and said nothing about it. Although I think I am probably SOL, does anyone have any experience getting any money back in a situation like this?

mohua

I just bought a '97 Accord EX auto with about
29K miles. Lately, I am noticing that if
I drop down to about 40mph or lower and then
start accelerating, the engine makes a
weird loud noise, almost like a car
without a muffler or like a motorcycle
accelerating(not that sweet, though!).
Once it reaches beyond 40mph,the engine is extremely smooth. Any ideas before I take
it to the dealer(warranty is out!)?

gus

Sounds like an exhaust rattle or leak.

pmartin3

You may want to double check on that recall - sometimes they only apply to a certain VIN range - in other words your actual vehicle may have not been recalled; also sometimes, they have product updates where they provide an improved part to avoid PREMATURE failures - do you know if your friend's 90 Accord had the same amount of miles that yours had at time? Anyway, double check before you blame the dealer - your VIN may not have the "recall".

b3u12

I would like to pass this on for serpentine belt replacement NAPA puts out a great tool called a
serpentine belt tool. NAPA tool number is ser3414
cost,s around 39.00 but well worth the price.gets into those tight places and with the necessary leverage to relieve the tension to replace the belt.fits ford chrysler gm and saturn.

mikek2

I sold my 83 Civic a few years ago to a Pizza Delivery Guy. It is still going. I had 160,000 kms on it. It cost me very little to run and had a great manual choke. The manual transmission was just great. I have an 89 Accord now with 120,000 kms and it is going strong. Brakes are a weak point. I have had several brake jobs and some of the front end components don't seem to last. But otherwise it is a great car with a great manual transmission.

black_tulip

I also have a somewhat similar problem with
my '97 Accord(auto) as mentioned in
couple or so of posts earlier. While
accelerating @ low speeds (20-25mph), I hear
a vibrating noise from the engine and I can
actually feel some of that vibration in the
gas pedal. Once it goes beyond 40mph, it is
smooth. Any ideas?

lancerfixer

My mom's '95 Accord and my '94 Accord both do this. I'm not sure what causes it, but it seems to be some sort of harmonic resonance (perhaps at that RPM the frequency of the engine exhaust matches the natural frequency of the frame, or something like that.) Just a theory; I thought it might have been my exhaust, but when my mom had the same thing (seems to happen much more often in her auto-equipped car than my 5-speed) I began to wonder. I'll soon be replacing the exhaust system anyways; it's getting rusty. If this takes care of the problem, I'll let everyone know.

black_tulip

Thanks for sharing. Your theory appeals to me
as being extremely feasible as nothing else
seem to be wrong with the car. I will wait
to hear what happens when you replace your exhaust.

angeleta1

Hi, I was wondering if you would recommend buying a 2000 accord. Have your experience been positive? Is it reliable?

pat455

angeleta1

You'll find lots of discussion on that model over in our Sedans conference. You can use the Search feature at left to find the topics discussing the Accord.

Pat
Community Leader/Maintenance & Repair Conference

dharmabum

Well all I can say is if I ever buy another honda I will get an extended 100,000 warranty. At 80,000 miles I've spent $850 on the a/c (replaced a fan, then the control panel on the dash, and something that had to do with all the freon leaking out). This is a 96 EX coupe. Also at the same time the master cylinder was leaking and had to replace that for another $350. Now it has 84,000 miles and of course soon will need the timing belt maintenace. Other than the above $1200 in repairs I can say the vehicle has been reliable. But I still think (even living in Texas) that all the above parts should have lasted at least 100,000 miles, if not more according to other honda owners. Oh, I've also had to replace both motors on the windows (one at about 45,000 miles on the driver's side) and the other at 75,000 miles. So if I had just bought the extended warranty all of the above should have been covered ........next time I will know better

dmasters

I have a 89 honda accord lxi with 157+ miles. The only thing we've had to do is a water pump & ignition switch. Everything else I've done has been just upkeep. But now I'm afraid it might be time to give up. I was told yesterday that my distributor is going to give out soon & it would cost about $550 for repairs. It breaks my heart because I love this car. It's the 3rd Honda we've had but the 1st automatic. The last one had just about as many miles on it. It is starting to rust out some behind both rear wheel wells. I have a chance to buy a 93 Mercury Sable from a friend of mine with 10,192 miles (that's right--10,192) for probably about 8,000 maybe less. But if I do decide to buy another new car I will definitely look at another Honda (hopefully an Odyssey). Should I go for the Mercury for right now though?

reddogs

The Audi "yes I have personal mechanic"/Volvo "that box is OK by me", don't really grab me ....but the Oldsmobile Intrigue looks nice, but you're looking at $22,770 for the base GX to say nothing of the GX or GSL.......

lancerfixer

I have an answer for you (and anyone else) re: exhaust resonance. I found a technical service bulletin out there; apparently, this is a very common problem for 5th generation Accords. My dealer is selling some sort of retrofit exhaust mounting system that isolates the exhaust from the frame by way of some springs and bushings. The part itself was quoted to me as being $65. If anyone finds it cheaper, let me know.

mzn

For conversation about the purchase or merits of the Honda Accord, please use our Search feature on the left hand menu bar to find a topic in the Sedans conference.

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