1981 Honda Accord Hatchback from North America - Comments

Normal maintenance. I did change the front calipers. Hard to start when the engine is between cold and hot. Parts are now hard to get!

3 speed tranny is the worst part of the car. Dependable, but is shifting hard sometime and the engines rev pretty high on highway (4000 rpm at 60 miles/hour). O/d is missing :)

This car has been well pampered and garage kept. Has not rust at all since it's been undercoated many times. Majors components are working fine and the car is dependable. Now considered as a collector car, I used it only in nice Summer days. Low miles: 65 000.

I agree, Honda makes a great car. Back in the day I had an ugly brown '83 Accord hatchback, we called it "the cockroach" LOL but man was that thing reliable. Mine had the 5-speed which is the way to go, it was quite peppy (the automatics blunt the engine performance). Mine was even involved in a high-speed chase, in which a newer Monte Carlo rear-ended me and attempted to run (he barely pushed my bumper in! That lil Honda was a tank!). I chased him a mile or 2 and was able to catch up to him (barely), I got his license plate number and called the cops (they got him on felony hit-and-run and DUI).. Man what a car. Needless to say, I'd buy another Honda in an instant.

Honda's are incredible vehicles. I had a '96 Accord that had well over 180,000 on it the day I was rear ended by a Buick Roadmaster that blew through a stop sign and smashed my bumper at over 30 MPH. I skidded about 10 feet. Then I got out to check on the other driver to find that their airbags had deployed and their entire front end had folded in on itself, rendering the car no longer driveable. Upon inspection of my Accord, I needed a new rear bumper. Indestructible little thing. I drove away as the Buick was hauled away on a flat bed.

For as long as I can remember, my family has been a Honda family. We bought a Civic the first year it came out and absolutely loved it for the entire 500,000 miles and 20 years that we owned it. Never replaced anything out of the ordinary and the engine and transmission were still all original. We've actually, for the most part, been a Chrysler-Honda family. Loving both brands. We've owned Ford's and Chevy's, only to have them be plagued with problems (First Chevy we owned we kept for a week before trading it in on a Chrysler because it was so bad. First Ford we owned we had for ONE HOUR before it broke down and we traded it in on a Civic.) We always buy our cars new, but always keep them for AT LEAST 200,000 miles. I loved our Honda's especially. Even now we have both a Chrysler and a Honda! A 1995 Plymouth Neon and a 2008 Honda Civic, and we love both of them.