Faults:

ALB system failed.

General Comments:

The interior is a little drab, but typical of the period of manufacture. Most car companies in the early 90's lost the plot with regards to interiors.

The colour coded wing mirrors, bumpers and large rear spoiler certainly gives that sporting look. An extra look of street hardness is given by the double cherry bomb rear box, although still a family car.

I can only describe driving this as complete fun. There is bags of power from the 1600cc engine and its on tap. Put your foot down and hold on.

Handling is excellent although roundabouts in the wet are a little frisky if your lead footed.

Faults:

Quite frankly, although it was a brand new car, I noticed from the start on, strange noises at the ABS system, something like a 'rattling' metallic noise, especially following urgency brakes! I got it reviewed by the dealers' garage, but they told me everything was OK, although the noise continued from time to time!

Just after the full warranty of two years passed, the power window at the driver's side got stuck... luckily, the garage got it repaired at its own cost by covering it still by the general warranty, so without any costs for me.

In 1996, following a long trip abroad of about 2500 km, the engine broke down... allegedly a tube from the radiator broke and caused a dangerous overheating of the engine! The car stayed for 3 weeks in the garage, but I honestly had (and still have) the impression that the car never got well repaired, because since then I had to check the engine oil level after each 500 km, because oil was leaking through the exhaust pipe! Since then, I always carried a 5 liter engine oil can in the boot, just in case...

From 1998 onwards - apart from strange noises at the brakes and central locking system that seemed to be 'alive' by itself - the boot, especially after heavy rainfall, turned out to become a real aquarium! Since then, the car had a smell as if I was driving around in a sailing boat! It became that bad, that the metallic parts, around the spare wheel in the boot, got so rusted that I was afraid that one day I would lose a part of the car when driving! I had to have the boot carpet changed each year, since the fabric was completely rotten because of the water infiltration!

More recently (2001) and just before I decided to sell the car, the air conditioning system went down and it costed a huge price (since it was regarded as an old fashioned out-of-date system) to get it fixed!

General Comments:

The Honda Concerto, with its 134 hp engine, is surely a sporty family car! I was always very surprised by the performance of this 1600 cc. engine, which easily brings you over 200 km/hour, although at that speed you feel vulnerable!

The comfort level is just above the average, with the chairs generally being too hard and becoming very uncomfortable after long driving.

The car, even at high speed and in curves, literally 'glues' to the road... therefore, you can easily drive this car in a very sporty way, but you can also adopt a more 'relaxed' driving, especially in town. The reactivity of the engine is just fabulous!

Faults:

We had to change the exhaust pipe at 90000, another piece on the exhaust line at 110000, now the exhaust collector leaks too and must be changed.

The car is no more water proof. The inside started to feel humid last year. Now it is really flooded! The trunk collected several liters of water around the spare tire. I drilled a water hole in the bottom to evacuate them!

The left windshield wiper arm is badly designed (the dealer said so). It touches the hood and that loosen the screw until it stops whipping. That's easy to fix by just tightening the bolt, but when it happens to my wife under pouring rain she is really annoyed! The real solution would be to change the windshield wiper arm.

The black rubber joints of the electric glasses were already worn out at 80000.

General Comments:

I was happy with my family in this car. It's good for vacations on the highway, and it's also good for working in the city and in the countryside.

We had the usual care (a few light bulbs, 4 tires, one timing belt preventively, oil changes, filters, brake pads, wiper blades, spark plugs) and the car never failed to start (except when we forgot to put in gas or when we left the lights on). That is reliability how I like it.

Dealer is twice as expensive as the mechanic next door.

The driving position is not as good as in the BMW for a 183cm tall person. However, this is not unique to the Concerto!