2001 Honda Civic LX from North America - Comments

I have always heard that Honda & Toyota vehicles last a long time. My car just turned past 100k miles and it is like someone pressed a button at Honda and my car started falling apart. I keep getting coupons in the mail for services I should have done soon or bad things will happen to my car. I went with it and had the timing belt changed along with all accessory belts and water pump $449.00+ tax ($50.00 coupon). While I had the car in for timing belt replacement they told me a list of things that need to be changed asap.

Things that aren't done yet:

The struts, sway arms and bushings were leaking and needed to be replaced ($531.00). The brakes needed to be done yesterday. ($209.00). Brake line flush $119.00. Oil is seeping or leaking above oil pan ($226.00) for fixing.

Two weeks after that my radiator springs a leak form a rock and now that is $540.00. It takes week for the part order and they are not sure that the car is OK due to possible overheating. Technician said he was optimistic because he did not see smoke after starting.

The kicker was that I had bought a warranty after I bought the car out from a lease and it expired 7/31/06. Cost of Warranty $2000.00. Cars original cost was $14,500. Lease it for 42 months at $168.54 month with $2004.00 down. Final cost at completion of lease payments was around $7,000. Over mileage caused me to buy car for $9607.00 + tax + warranty for $2,000.00.

Car has treated me very well and never had a problem unitl now. I blame myself for keeping the car this long and now I am paying the price.

The rock chips aren't the cars fault. The brakes wear out eventually, and if you do your brakes, you should take them to a local shop where its cheaper. If you take everything to the dealer your bound to pay lots of money. 100k without problems sounds like a pretty long time to me. If anything, those problems shouldn't have all sprung on at once.

This is exactly why I don't take my car to dealers. They will fix one thing, and tamper with another to make more money. They did it to my grandfathers Lumina and when I came in and took off my jacket, and told the manager that I would knock the life out of him, they immediately fixed his car, in no more than 5 minutes, when they said there was 500 dollars of repairs to be done.

I've experienced the same with Honda dealers; they push the customer to do repairs not necessarily needed. OK, things do wear at 100000 miles, but unless one needs to keep his car in like new condition forever, don't trust a dealer coming with a long repair bill. It's just a costly and never ending story. Especially, be careful with those suspension bushings, little oil leaks, and such repairs.