1988 Honda Accord LX-i review from North America

CV Joint (right side) wore out around 180,000 miles.

Alternator went out at about 185,000 miles.

This was my first car I bought when I turned 17 and I could not have picked a better deal. Rarely did anything at all go wrong with the car.

The first thing that did go wrong was the CV Joints, which seem to wear out and produce clicking noise at around the same mileage (170 or 175k) on many Accords from this era.

Other minor problems I had included a missing side marker and non-functioning light bulbs in the front, as well as a missing Honda emblem for the front of the hood. The emblems on most Hondas from this era tend to fall off easily.

There was also the small problem of a finicky starter, or maybe it was the battery, that would cause the engine to not start on odd occasions. This only happened a few times, and was usually solved by simply waiting for a few minutes and then trying it again.

The second major problem I had was sensing that the alternator was about to die. They are not that expensive to buy (around $70 or $80) but are nearly impossible for the home mechanic to replace. This is because of the mid to late '80s Honda design that puts the alternator below the engine and above the front driveaxle so that one must remove said driveaxle in order to replace the alternator. This in itself is nearly impossible to do. The job took my father and I nearly two days to complete in our garage.

Now comes the sad part. The day after we completed this job and had the car up and running, with the addition of new side markers, light bulbs, and an emblem for the front, I collided with a minivan that turned in front of me on a downtown street, totaling out the $2100 machine. This made me sad and angry because I would have really liked to get the car up to 400,000 miles like I've heard so many other Hondas can.

So far I have not had a car that is as reliable and mechanically sound as this one was. These '80s Accords, I believe, are higher quality overall than their '90s American-assembled counterparts. This car was a great deal and very little ever went wrong with it.