1992 Honda Accord LX review from North America

In order, as best my memory can serve (mileage are estimates) :

140K miles: Distributor Cap; arcing occurred, typical problem of all distributor caps everywhere, Replaced.

150K miles: Water Pump died. Replaced, and replaced Thermostat as well to be on the safe side.

175K miles: Tune up. Consisted of Timing Belt, Valve Job, Plugs & Wires, Head Gasket, Seals & Bearings, Valve Cover Gasket, Radiator Flush, General Fluid & Brake Check, Oil Change (engine & trans).

175K miles: Lost Oil Pressure, due to shop which did my tune up (they neglected to install the O-rings in the valve cover that go around the spark plugs ports). Oil leak occurred, suspected under-torquing of valve cover by shop. Installed O-rings myself and re-torqued to factory spec and vowed to do my own work from here on out.

190K miles: Main Fuel Relay acted up, causing the car not to start in hot weather. Replaced, easily. This is a typical problem with nearly all 92 accords.

220K miles: Clutch Master Cylinder lost pressure (as all hydraulic ones are destined to do), leaked fluid into interior of firewall (fun). Replaced, and replaced Slave Cylinder as well (which was not fun)

265K miles: Oil leak occurred. Suspected Distributor O-Ring (where it meets with the cam shaft on the head). Noticed Radiator Leaks @ plastic top (no surprise, it's been in the car since it was assembled in the factory). Idle Problem occurred, not sure what could be causing it. Have not yet fixed any of these three issues as of this writing.

Interior on car is well taken care of, could use new floor mats and there's a cigarette burn on the passenger seat from a bitter ex girlfriend, but that's about it. No cracks in the dash, no missing pieces, it's looking pretty good.

Exterior has a slightly crooked pin-stripe on the driver's side, I suspect it was re-painted before I bought it (Honda navy blue). No signs of previous accidents, though I've wrecked it twice in bad weather without any signs what-so-ever that anything had happened, though I did have to replace the driver's side mirror in one of these incidents (found over-priced matching one in junk yard). There's a small dent from the corner of a rogue shopping cart on the front passenger side fender and - funny - a matching one on the driver's side that followed sometime after from probably the same thing.

This is the most reliable car I've ever owned. Things have gone wrong with it, but they're all things that anyone should expect any car to have trouble with. Of course, I also had a bad experience with a repair shop to boot.

I see a lot of reviews on this web site claiming that it's troublesome and full of problems; that something unusual breaks without any warning. I see that as evidence of one or two things: either the person you bought it from didn't take of the car or neither do you, or both. Usually when someone says "it won't start" they don't ask why it won't start, they just assume the car is going downhill as if banging on the dashboard would do any good. If you actually take care of this car, it will give you miles and miles and miles and miles of reliable performance.

Let it be known that I have put over 100,000 miles on this car in less than 3 years, and looking at the maintenance history of the car I can happily say that the clutch has never been replaced on this Honda, and as of today it does not need to be replaced.

As far as styling goes, this isn't my dream car. If I could afford a new one, I'd sell it and get an E36 BMW. The 4th Generation Accord is sort of like a Casio Wristwatch - It looks "okay" and does what it's supposed to do, and that's the end of it. Then again, my Casio watch says "water resistant" and I've discovered it's remarkable waterproof. So in that way it's like a Casio watch as well; It exceeds expectations.