Faults:

This car has been in my family since it was brand new. 20 years! In that time amazingly few things have gone wrong, all of them after the car had already covered over 120,000 miles.

1 Air Conditioning compressor

1 Alternator

1 Starter

2 Water pumps

1 Set of axle boots.

1 Oil seal.

That's it!

Engine/transmission have never been apart.

General Comments:

My parents bought this car brand new when I was 7 years old. Over the years it has been passed down through the family members. Both my sister and I leaned to drive on it, and used it (very harshly) as our first cars. Now it's my wife's car, and still going strong. It is also very comfortable, adequately powerful, and quite fuel efficient, even with the automatic.

It has never been on a tow truck, doesn't smoke, always passes smog check, and still drives great. The original paint is scratched, but still shiny.

My only wish is that Honda had put some effort into rust prevention. We live in sunny California, but this car has spots of rust popping up all over. That will probably be the death of this car, because the mechanicals show no signs of giving up any time soon.

Overall a great car!

Faults:

Broken thermostat.

Slipping clutch.

Leaking valve.

Rust.

Broken light bulb.

Leaking exhaust.

Petrol leakage.

General Comments:

I bought this car in a bad shape with a lot of hidden rust on it. I bought it because I liked the handling and found it quite zippy. I paid $US 250 for it and saw the hidden rust when I was back home. The car existed of 50% steel, 50% bog. : (

After 200 km the 3rd cylinder started to miss beats. In the garage they found a lawn mower sparkplug in it. Replaced with a good plug and off she was again.

At idling speeds the whole car was shaking. The cause for this was a leaking valve on top of the 3rd cilinder. Decided to adjust the valves and to put some smoke stopper in the oil which solved the problem partially.

Gas mileage was 15 km/l and that with the car running on 3.5 cylinders!!

Did a bit more of maintenance and fixing on it which cost me several weekends, but the total amount spent on repairs did not exceed $ 50 US so I was pretty happy with it.

The car never let me down although it developed some problems like a heavy petrol smell in the interior due to petrol leaking on the hot engine. Driving with the windows open and no smoking in the car was a must.

Unfortunately the car didn't pass the Warranty of Fitness test due to rust problems and I had to part with it. Still got $ 80 US for it.

Faults:

Very few things have gone wrong with the car.

In the past two years that we have owned it, few repairs have been needed.

The worst problem was that the car almost was unable to pass smog inspection. It passed after minor repairs.

None of the repairs were over $100.

The battery was replaced.

The exterior reflects its age, as does the wear on the interior and seats.

General Comments:

This is an excellent car! Yes, it's 20 years old, but we could not have bought a better car for the value. It was bought as a "beater" car for $500, and it was undoubtedly the BEST $500 we have ever spent! To be honest, we did not expect to get much use out of the car.

The Honda still gets good gas mileage.

The car shifts smoothly.

My brother has driven the car all the way from California to Chicago without it breaking down once.

I am constantly amazed by the incredible stamina of this little Honda. He is planning on driving back to California from Chicago in about a month, and I am confident that it will be safe because the car is just awesome!

Previously, I have owned a 1989 Honda Civic LX, and a 1992 Honda Accord EX. Both cars had about 165,000 miles on them when they were sold, and still ran extremely well.