2005 Honda Accord LX / SE from North America - Comments

Maybe someone hit the back of your accord in the first 12 miles before you picked it up.

My 2002 Honda (ACURA TL-S) had actually previously ran into someone on a bicycle and was repaired prior to my buying it. The hood was replaced and front end repainted. I asked the Honda dealer prior to this specific purchase if it had a clean Car Fax and they said no issues. It was only 2 years at the time and very low mileage. That taught me to ask for a Car Fax and actually look at it in the future, not just take the dealers word on it. How did I find out? When I went to sell it myself I saw the report. It diminished its value greatly. I have not bought another car from this dealer since. I had bought a few cars from them prior and this was very upsetting.

CarFax is helpful but not a guarantee that the car was never involved in an accident: they only pull from public records database. If the accident was either never reported to police or was but no report was made, it will not appear on the Carfax report. Many people seem to think that Carfax can access insurance records -- they can't.

That being said, I would still recommend getting a report from Carfax (or their less-expensive competitor, Autocheck) but just be aware that a clean Carfax report does not guarantee that the car has never been in an accident.

And the guarantee that Carfax brags about only refers to an accident that was in the public record that they somehow missed. If the Carfax report is clean and you find out the car was in an accident that was never reported to public authorities, Carfax does not take responsibility.

OK, so, I'm thinking of buying a Honda Certified 2005 Accord EX-L V6 with 70,000 Km on it. Test drove it and found no issues. Gaps apart, should I get it or should I go with a Nissan Maxima?

As long as the car drives OK (let others also drive it) & it's checked over by a reliable mechanic, it should be fine. The body panel gap issue is more of a subjective/AR opinion. Unfortunately, the lack of "pride of workmanship" along with the "disposable" mentality shows in the final product... be it cars, electronics, clothing, etc. Hondas used to be $15K cars feeling like $25k cars (been through 10 from Civics to Accords to CRVs). They don't make them like they used to! Not sure what my next daily driver will be since all the brands are experiencing the same QC decline.