1995 Honda Accord LX Sedan 2.7 V6 from North America
Summary:
Think imports are good, reliable cars, think again, story of my Lemon Accord
Faults:
OK, for one thing, when I got it, it ran fine, for about a week. It had 65,000 miles on it. Then the engine started making funny noises around 70,000 miles. I took it to the dealer I bought it from and he said nothing I can do, didn't come with a warranty. I took it to shop and the engine needed a complete tune-up. I did that and it ran fine again Cost: $150.
Around 72,000 miles the engine somehow burned up all the oil that was in it, which was put in at 70,000 and the car was smoking bad. I had to pull over to find out the oil is completely out, I checked the dipstick last week. I put 3 quarts in and drive again, one hour later, out again. Luckily I was near an autozone which I put 3 more quarts in. I took to repair shop, they said one of the cylinders, was burning major oil and the engine needed to be taken apart. I gave them the go ahead, they tore it apart, and what I found out one of the cylinder rings was badly damaged and needed replacement. While he was there, he replaced all cylinder rings, and car ran fine after that. Cost $750.
Around 75,000 power steering started leaking from some unknown places, took to repair shop and needed two new hoses, and the fluid needed changing. Cost: $150.
Around 80,000 seatbelt broke, had to take to dealer to fix. Cost: $100.
Around 81,000 While driving on trip, check engine came on, so I pulled over, and stopped. Started it up, ran fine for another 100 miles then came on again. I ignored and then the car drove terrible, I mean terrible, stalling while in motion, then kicking bad on. Pulled over to nearest repair shop I could find. Ignition System went haywire, had to put in new distributor, or whatever it is, not mechanically inclined, spark plugs, again, wires, again, ignition module, or whatever it is. Cost $450.
Then later on in the trip, it happened again. Luckily I found the same repair shop name and told them about earlier, they diagnosed again, computer was bad, they told me, so they changed it, luckily they had one left. Cost $450 again.
Got back at 83,500 miles and when I pulled into driveway, squeal. Change of brakepads. Cost:$70.
Around 84,000 noticing the car drove shaky and steering wheel wasn't straight to keep the car straight, alignment. Cost: %100.00, costing extra because import.
Around 87,000 the car just never started one day. Change battery and alternator. Cost: 175.00.
At 90,000 Car burned oil again, same problem, fixed under warranty. Repair guy told me and cylinders themselves are warped, and requested I change them which wasn't under warranty, or my cylinder ring warranty is void, so got them performed, but not charged for opening the engine. Cost: $350.
At 92,000 miles when I thought ever possible problem in this car happened and since I fixed them all nothing else should happen, the transmission started slipping, major. Had to rebuild, I figured it was worth it. Cost $1,650.
At 95,000 miles, fuel injectors busted, and the pump kept pumping fuel, gas got all over the engine, caught fire while I was driving down busy road, I slammed brakes, and stopped in middle of road, grabbed my wallet, and jumped out for dear life. Everyone drove away and got out of the cars way and me and a huge crowd watched as my car burned down. Fire trucks came and put it out, and I saw my cars ruins. I made it on 3 news stations.
General Comments:
The day I bought this car, it was a shiny decent looking car on the outside. The interior was shot and sun faded. Throughout its life till it burned down, the paint went to hell, I mean before the fire. The interior pretty much remain the same, not many people went in the car. The car got tons and tons of scratches from being in so many repair shops. This car costed me a fortune.
Because it was an import, every work done on it was double the price I think. Also I always had to wait forever, for the shop to get supplies in. When I drove my trip to Texas, from Cali., I spent most the drive worrying about what was going to happen next. Which something did. Always watching the cooling gauge. Worrying, which I shouldn't have to do.
When It was running fine it was decent speed, especially when I spent all the money on getting the engine fixed. I was going through all my repair bills to make this. I am not a mechanically inclined person, but I believe I was ripped off every where I went.
The car was pretty uncomfortable sometimes, I am a tall person, I think the legroom sucks. When I had people in the back, they didn't like the legroom there either.
I only had this car a year and a half, I bought this car thinking these cars were built to last, but I was wrong. This car probably spent 25% of its life in a repair shop. The transmission repair took 3 weeks.
My 1993 Ford Escort I had previous didn't have nearly this many problems, and I had it double the time, and half the problems. Got rid of it because I wanted something faster and more legroom.
Now I financed me a 2002 Ford Taurus. It has the Duratec Engine the dealer told me, and it is fast. Way faster then my previous Honda. I had it 2 weeks so far, nothing wrong, it has 37,000 miles and it was a previous leased car. I looked in maintenance book and nothing wrong so far.
As far as I know, I will never, ever, buy another crappy import again, they poison our economy with their worthless pieces of SH!?. Excuse my language.
Hope you find my review quite interesting, I really didn't want to fill it out, take to long, but
I want to let people know that these cars aren't as great as they sound. Thier built over their in a foreign country who probably don't give a damn about us, and they sell us worthless cars, and we are the suckers buying them. We fail to see that are great American car dealers work hard to make sure the reliable cars America needs are on the road. Anyways, thanks for reading, goodbye.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No
Review Date: 24th July, 2004
24th Jul 2004, 13:12
I completely agree with your comment on American Car Dealers. This is exactly why I didn't buy Japanese. I tes drove a CR-V a little over a year ago and was not impressed at all. Everybody says "Oh it's a Honda!" SO!? I don't know if you've heard in the news lately, but Honda has a problem now with their mechanics not knowing how to put an oil filter on properly on the new CR-V's. And because of this Oil is leaking out of the Filters, onto the scalding hot exhaust, and bursting into flame, therefore catching the rest of the car on fire and destroying the car. And these are factory trained, Honda Certified Technicians! Everybody always says, "Honda's last forever!" I say so what! Any car can last forever with the proper care. So far I've driven 3 Hondas. A 96 Accord Coupe (horrible), a 92 Accord Wagon (better then the Coupe, but still bad), and a 03 CR-V. Perhaps the best out of the 3, but still not quality enough. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer the mechanics who work on my car to know what they are doing, and I stand out there and watch them, even if it's just a simple oil change (which most of the time I do myself). If they don't like it, or try to make me go into the waiting room I ask for my keys and get out of that place before they can blink. Besides, you can do more in a Jeep that gets decent gas mileage than you can in a tin can.
My best advice is to learn as much as you can about cars. There are plenty of books out there that are in plain english (none of the mechanic jargon) and that are cheap enough. Find a mechanic you can trust. If you can learn the basics of taking care of a car and how things work, you'll be much better off when and if things break.