2002 Honda Civic LX Coupe review from North America

Struts failed at 40,000 (quoted $1,300 at dealership).

Transmission failed at 35,300 miles. Manual transmission was completely rebuilt under warranty (just barely by 700 miles). I noticed a grinding when shifting into 3rd at 4,000 rpms, so I hightailed it to the dealership before I hit 36,000 miles. The service tech I was speaking to at first said that I was lucky because most of the Civics of this generation tend to have the flimsy brass synchros and fork fail at about 50,000 miles and are not covered under the warranty. The service manager made a remark under his breath when I initially described the problem to him that it could be considered "abuse" and might not be covered under the warranty. I told him that that would be impossible considering that this thing has a rev limiter and only 110 lb feet of torque. Plus, I'm a f***ing 40 year old engineer, not some racer punk! With a professional drivers license (Class B CDL)! I used to drive hazmat through the streets of San Francisco and all over the Bay Area before getting my degree. I know how to shift a car, trust me. I've double-clutched a 46,000 lb 7-speed tandem axle box van all over Knob Hill and back and forth to Santa Cruz on highway 17. Oh, and since this Civic was my only mode of transportation I babied it and the transmission still fell apart.

I've never burned out a clutch or busted a tranny before in over 300,000 miles of driving my personal vehicles. I have owned other Civics, a Corvette LT-1 6-Speed, several CJ-5 Jeeps, Mustangs, and a Toyota. All manual transmissions - zero problems. The good news was that the repair was covered under warranty. They replaced the brass synchros with carbon fiber.

The dealer did have the car back to me in 4 days, but the transmission was so stiff I could not get it into Reverse without actually rocking the car a bit. The service manager told me it would loosen up after a few miles. After about 1,500 miles, it was still very stiff and very difficult to get into third and actually impossible to downshift even with perfect rev-matching. Took car to another dealer and they charged me $75 to flush and replace gear oil with newer type, which made a huge difference, however the car never shifted as easy as it did before the 3rd gear synchro broke.

The road noise and ride is extremely harsh at highway speeds. It sounds like you are driving on a gravel road. My wife's 1988 Camry with 245,000 miles rides a LOT nicer on the highway. Factory tires are terrible too. I replace them at 30,000 miles. They had at least 70% tread left on them but I couldn't take the road noise and dangerously slick wet traction. I replaced them with some Goodyear Comfort Treads and the road noise was cut in half and the hydroplaning stopped.

I will say that the brakes were still at 85% when I traded the car in with 80,000 miles on it.

This generation of Civics (7th Gen) is widely known as some of the worst cars Honda has produced. Don't expect more than 100,000 - 130,000 miles out of these without major repairs. Buy a pre 2001 Civic instead.