Comments: 1-15, 16-17
OK, for one thing, when I got it, it ran fine, for about a week. It had 65,000 miles on it. Then the engine started making funny noises around 70,000 miles. I took it to the dealer I bought it from and he said nothing I can do, didn't come with a warranty. I took it to shop and the engine needed a complete tune-up. I did that and it ran fine again Cost: $150.
Around 72,000 miles the engine somehow burned up all the oil that was in it, which was put in at 70,000 and the car was smoking bad. I had to pull over to find out the oil is completely out, I checked the dipstick last week. I put 3 quarts in and drive again, one hour later, out again. Luckily I was near an autozone which I put 3 more quarts in. I took to repair shop, they said one of the cylinders, was burning major oil and the engine needed to be taken apart. I gave them the go ahead, they tore it apart, and what I found out one of the cylinder rings was badly damaged and needed replacement. While he was there, he replaced all cylinder rings, and car ran fine after that. Cost $750.
Around 75,000 power steering started leaking from some unknown places, took to repair shop and needed two new hoses, and the fluid needed changing. Cost: $150.
Around 80,000 seatbelt broke, had to take to dealer to fix. Cost: $100.
Around 81,000 While driving on trip, check engine came on, so I pulled over, and stopped. Started it up, ran fine for another 100 miles then came on again. I ignored and then the car drove terrible, I mean terrible, stalling while in motion, then kicking bad on. Pulled over to nearest repair shop I could find. Ignition System went haywire, had to put in new distributor, or whatever it is, not mechanically inclined, spark plugs, again, wires, again, ignition module, or whatever it is. Cost $450.
Then later on in the trip, it happened again. Luckily I found the same repair shop name and told them about earlier, they diagnosed again, computer was bad, they told me, so they changed it, luckily they had one left. Cost $450 again.
Got back at 83,500 miles and when I pulled into driveway, squeal. Change of brakepads. Cost:$70.
Around 84,000 noticing the car drove shaky and steering wheel wasn't straight to keep the car straight, alignment. Cost: %100.00, costing extra because import.
Around 87,000 the car just never started one day. Change battery and alternator. Cost: 175.00.
At 90,000 Car burned oil again, same problem, fixed under warranty. Repair guy told me and cylinders themselves are warped, and requested I change them which wasn't under warranty, or my cylinder ring warranty is void, so got them performed, but not charged for opening the engine. Cost: $350.
At 92,000 miles when I thought ever possible problem in this car happened and since I fixed them all nothing else should happen, the transmission started slipping, major. Had to rebuild, I figured it was worth it. Cost $1,650.
At 95,000 miles, fuel injectors busted, and the pump kept pumping fuel, gas got all over the engine, caught fire while I was driving down busy road, I slammed brakes, and stopped in middle of road, grabbed my wallet, and jumped out for dear life. Everyone drove away and got out of the cars way and me and a huge crowd watched as my car burned down. Fire trucks came and put it out, and I saw my cars ruins. I made it on 3 news stations.
The day I bought this car, it was a shiny decent looking car on the outside. The interior was shot and sun faded. Throughout its life till it burned down, the paint went to hell, I mean before the fire. The interior pretty much remain the same, not many people went in the car. The car got tons and tons of scratches from being in so many repair shops. This car costed me a fortune.
Because it was an import, every work done on it was double the price I think. Also I always had to wait forever, for the shop to get supplies in. When I drove my trip to Texas, from Cali., I spent most the drive worrying about what was going to happen next. Which something did. Always watching the cooling gauge. Worrying, which I shouldn't have to do.
When It was running fine it was decent speed, especially when I spent all the money on getting the engine fixed. I was going through all my repair bills to make this. I am not a mechanically inclined person, but I believe I was ripped off every where I went.
The car was pretty uncomfortable sometimes, I am a tall person, I think the legroom sucks. When I had people in the back, they didn't like the legroom there either.
I only had this car a year and a half, I bought this car thinking these cars were built to last, but I was wrong. This car probably spent 25% of its life in a repair shop. The transmission repair took 3 weeks.
My 1993 Ford Escort I had previous didn't have nearly this many problems, and I had it double the time, and half the problems. Got rid of it because I wanted something faster and more legroom.
Now I financed me a 2002 Ford Taurus. It has the Duratec Engine the dealer told me, and it is fast. Way faster then my previous Honda. I had it 2 weeks so far, nothing wrong, it has 37,000 miles and it was a previous leased car. I looked in maintenance book and nothing wrong so far.
As far as I know, I will never, ever, buy another crappy import again, they poison our economy with their worthless pieces of SH!?. Excuse my language.
Hope you find my review quite interesting, I really didn't want to fill it out, take to long, but
I want to let people know that these cars aren't as great as they sound. Thier built over their in a foreign country who probably don't give a damn about us, and they sell us worthless cars, and we are the suckers buying them. We fail to see that are great American car dealers work hard to make sure the reliable cars America needs are on the road. Anyways, thanks for reading, goodbye.
I completely agree with your comment on American Car Dealers. This is exactly why I didn't buy Japanese. I tes drove a CR-V a little over a year ago and was not impressed at all. Everybody says "Oh it's a Honda!" SO!? I don't know if you've heard in the news lately, but Honda has a problem now with their mechanics not knowing how to put an oil filter on properly on the new CR-V's. And because of this Oil is leaking out of the Filters, onto the scalding hot exhaust, and bursting into flame, therefore catching the rest of the car on fire and destroying the car. And these are factory trained, Honda Certified Technicians! Everybody always says, "Honda's last forever!" I say so what! Any car can last forever with the proper care. So far I've driven 3 Hondas. A 96 Accord Coupe (horrible), a 92 Accord Wagon (better then the Coupe, but still bad), and a 03 CR-V. Perhaps the best out of the 3, but still not quality enough. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer the mechanics who work on my car to know what they are doing, and I stand out there and watch them, even if it's just a simple oil change (which most of the time I do myself). If they don't like it, or try to make me go into the waiting room I ask for my keys and get out of that place before they can blink. Besides, you can do more in a Jeep that gets decent gas mileage than you can in a tin can.
My best advice is to learn as much as you can about cars. There are plenty of books out there that are in plain english (none of the mechanic jargon) and that are cheap enough. Find a mechanic you can trust. If you can learn the basics of taking care of a car and how things work, you'll be much better off when and if things break.
I just need to say for one thing, Honda cars are put together in America in Kentucky. The parts are built in Japan.
For a second thing, did you go to a Honda dealership? Did you give Honda a chance to fix your car? It's just my personal preference to always go back to the company because they know what they are doing. I don't trust grease monkeys especially if they are going to take apart my engine.
Sorry to hear about your car.
-Honda Accord 95' and I have 141,000.
Honda made for sale in North America (USA) are manufactured in Marysville, Ohio and then exported to Japan and elsewhere.
Since the interior of your car was shot when you bought it at 65000 miles, I wonder if someone didn't roll back the odometer. Car interiors are not normally that bad after only 65K miles. You may have purchased a car with 165K miles!
I wish you better luck with your Ford...
Honda cars have got to be the most overrated cars ever built. It seems that anyone who owns a Honda becomes a brainwashed Lemming, buying into the delusion that Hondas are defect free, never break down, and have better performance than any other make of car, especially those "unreliable American gas guzzlers". The automotive press consistently praise Honda products while overlooking their flaws, and do exactly the opposite to any domestic vehicles.
Accords are built in Ohio (the US) by American workers! I don't know what secret pit you people keep pulling these "BAD" Honda's out of, but around here, everyone likes or loves their Honda! I have a '96 Accord and the only major problems it has ever had are the result of a wreck it was in before I got it and then it was rebuilt! Anyone knows a rebuild will have more problems than a car straight from the factory, but yet this car is still in great condition at 98,000 miles even though it was wrecked in the front end and rebuilt.
In this day, all car companies are getting better and better with making cars. Look at KIA, they were barely heard of about 5 or 6 years ago and now you see KIA's and Hyundai's all over the place and their quality is increasing too! You will not find a new or newer car in this day that will give you as many problems as the ones mentioned in some of these negative comments! Somebody probably treated these "bad" Honda's with absolutely no respect and then they were bought by someone else and they started breaking down, or (like someone else had commented) one of the previous owners turned back the odometer to increase the value! The car could have been a great car with 300,000+ miles on it and the new owner thought they were getting a car that was under 100,000 miles and the car just started to fall apart all of a sudden. Take it from me, Honda's ARE great cars and they DO last a long time with cheap expenses! Try being more careful the next time you buy a used car!
I agree. I just bought a 95 Accord with 130.000 kilometers on the clock (I don't think they're real, it probably has about 200.000), and it runs great. Learned it was badly wrecked, before I (and before previous owner) got it, than it was rebuilt, and now it's fine. Only thing that doesn't work, is the air condition, but it will be repaired soon. Great car!
Hey, there should be no argument that Honda's are better built than any domestic brand. Look at consumer reports magazine. It's a non-biased owners report collection. Year after year thousands of owners report good news. Sure, for every 1000 vehicles made, there has to be a few lemons. Some companies have more than others.
I have a 1997 Accord in northern Ontario (salted roads from November to April) with 275 000kms on her and she still purrs like a kitten.
Sorry to hear about your lemon, though it'd be a safe bet to try a Honda again.
Open for discussion - biteme20@hotmail.com.
It is true that Hondas are made in America, that does not make up for the fact that the people making decisions in Japan are not designing problematic cars. You can roll back an odometer, but taking it to any autoshop that can connect thier computer to the car can see the mileage because the ECU and TCM store the mileage digitally. Consumer reports aren't biased, but where they get their information from is (rental companies and fleet usage). Hondas are good cars and so is any other car with proper care, I have also heard of problems stated here you can check may car forums about these problems. Foreign cars got a good reputation in the 70's when federal restrictions made good, long lasting American cars turn to sh*t.
The assumption that the quality of a car has anything to do with the country it's made in is purely ignorant. Anyone stating otherwise doesn't have an opinion worth listening to.
You bought a used car. The previous owner obviously did not take care of it. If you had bought it brand new, your opinion would be greatly different. I have a 95 Honda Accord EX sedan which I bought brand new, it now has 385,000 miles on it. Still running on the same motor and transmission, most major problem was the starter dying. I took care of my car, go figure.
If you think your used Accord was a sled, why did you go out and buy a Taurus??? Geez, talk about going from the frying pan to the fire! Oops, according to you, you've already been through the fire. (No pun intended in both cases)
I agree with some of the posts above. I believe it being a used car when you bought it, it must have been treated bad or something before you got it. I bought my 1995 LX used in 1996 with about 12000 miles on it. I've maintained it decently, not perfectly, but the car still has held up very well. I've hit a deer in 1999 causing considerable damage to the front, had it repaired, it now has 121,000 miles. The only problem I've had is the starter quit in 2001.
I had always been a life long diehard Chevy man, until a couple of sorry Chevys in a row. A 1987 Cavalier and a 1990 Lumina, both which I bought new, which were the worst two cars I ever owned. I was anti-Honda/anti-Japanese until I got two sorry Chevys in a row.
Don't get me wrong, I have had a lot of good GM vehicles, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a full sized GM truck right now, but that's it, no more cars. I have a 1995 GMC that's been a great vehicle. But I wouldn't have a second thought about getting another Honda.
Sorry to hear about your lemon, but I've owned a 94 Honda Accord, a 95 BMW M3, a 93 Mazda MX-6, a 91 VW GTI, a 92 Honda Accord, and my current 99 Lexus RX300, within the last 3 years. And the two Honda's were the most reliable out of the bunch, the Mazda and the VW being the worst.
The 91 Accord that I had had 196000 miles and passed the emissions test within 30 seconds with HALF the allowed amount of pollutants. The tester was amazed. This car had only wear and tear for its miles, but everything else was working perfectly fine. Now how many domestic cars can boast that they're mechanically flawless at 200k miles?
I can see how rolling back the odometer was the culprit. I had a 1985 Prelude and when ever we would drive down a street in reverse for a while, the odometer would roll back. I can see how it is easy to roll back the miles on a Honda vehicle. This Prelude of mine looked very worn and probably really had 500,000 miles. The previous owner, probably rolled it back under 200,000 miles, to make it sell a lot faster and to get more money. You got one bad deal from "Shady Motors". Don't blame Honda for problems with a 10 year old car.
I own a 1995 Honda EX 4-cylinder with about 196,000 miles. Until recently it was a super car, but old age and two accidents have taken their toll. I had the body fixed and repainted, but am now getting rear quarter panel rust (quite common on this model--especially with snow and salt on the roads).
I recently had to have the radiator replaced due to a crack from a previous wreck. I took the car to a local shop, not a Honda dealer. They installed the radiator and a new CV boot. Within a week, a notice the transmission slipping and the noticed a pool of fluid under the car. Apparently the mechanics failed to reconnect the lines to the transmission cooler correctly. Three weeks later while driving to the East coast, the transmission totally failed on the interstate. Now I have a yard ornament with great paint job. In my case, the Honda product is not at fault, it was me in taking it too a local repair shop who had no idea what they were doing. Hopefully the judge at the small claims court will educate them. Prior to this the only problems were a failed electric window and normal maintenance items.
I have owned a 1995 Civic sedan, a 1996 Acura (made by Honda) 2.5 TL, and currently own a 1997 Civic coupe which I am selling to get a four door, baby on the way. No major problems, routine maintenance. I spend a lot of time looking for a clean Honda that has maintenance records. Any car that is neglected will give you problems. My first compact car was a Honda, also my first motorcycle. Car fax is a big help also. But beware, I looked on the Internet at what appeared to be a clean Civic at a Honda Dealer in North Jersey. I took a day off from work, went to the bank, got a certified check, and went to the dealer. The car had a cracked front bumper, big dent in rear quarter panel, back bumper was very loose and a shade or two off in color than the rest of the car. I was pissed off. They said the Car fax reported no accidents, I guess the car beat itself up. I put a deposit on the car via credit card and am still trying to get deposit back and still looking for a clean Honda. If I don't get the deposit back soon I will be on the phone with Honda giving them an earful about that dealership.