1990 Honda Accord LX Coupe 2.2 liter 16-valve SOHC 4-cylinder from North America
Summary:
Honda reliability
Faults:
Very little has gone wrong with this car and nothing critical has happened to it in its lifetime. It has never left me stranded. I have personally owned this car for over 7 years and put approx. 100,000 miles on it in that time.
Soon after I bought the car and on a very cold day, I attempted to enter the driver's side door and the door latch had seized shut and would not open again (I put up with getting in through the passenger side for about 2 years). I had to remove the inner door panel while the door was still shut, and destroy the back side of the latch with a drill, chisels and various tools, to pop the latch. Once the door was open it was fairly easy to swap the door guts. This was the most aggravating problem it has had, but it has been fine ever since I swapped it with a junkyard part.
Replaced the muffler and tail section of the exhaust twice.
Replaced the original battery with a new one.
Replaced tires a couple times. Typical wear and tear.
Replaced windshield, cracked from a truck throwing rocks.
Typical Honda rust mostly around the wheel wells (but not too bad considering it is 26 years old now). Just cosmetic, not structural.
Water fills the brake lenses up to the level of the bulbs and it has corroded the bulb sockets. I put some caulk above the lens and have drilled holes into the bottom for water to drain out and it seems to be working, however the warning light comes on to tell me that there is a brake light failure even when the bulbs are fine.
Also, if it has rained anytime recently, if you pop the trunk, water will mysteriously pour out of the trunk lid into the trunk.
The most serious problem now is that the front brake rotors are warped and cracked, which makes the wheel and steering wheel shake violently if I have to hit the brakes fairly firmly. They are not pleasant to replace on this era of an Accord. It has a captive style of rotor and requires more work that I really want to do to replace them.
I replaced the sway bar bushing because they were dry rotted and splitting.
Most of the problems involved wet weather and time rotting things away.
General Comments:
I would certainly buy this car again. It was built when Honda insisted on building things right, before all the airbags, ABS, and electronic gadgets.
I paid $4000 for this car and in all the years of ownership I may have put $1000 into parts; most of that cost was 2 sets of tires and mufflers.
I have used and abused this poor car and only do maintenance if I think it's about to cause a problem. I put very little effort into it besides pumping gas into it every week.
Parts are easily obtainable and priced fairly supposing you ever need to replace them. All of the general maintenance things are easy to work on under the hood. I tend to do my own repairs, and the one thing that I find abnormally difficult to fix on these cars is the front brake rotors. If you don't have access to air tools, you would have a very hard time doing them.
I bought this car to replace my sporty cars because I needed something to put a lot of miles on commuting to work and I trust Honda. It was a sort of plain Jane looking car that does not stand out, yet it actually has quite classy styling and proportions and the looks grew on me. It has quite a bit of pep, handles nicely, is fun to drive, and does it with a lot smoother and quieter ride than my previous cars.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 20th May, 2016
14th Jul 2013, 21:24
As the old saying goes; they don't build them like this any more.