Faults:

Roof Lining came lose at 210 00km.

Starter solenoid is staring (excuse the pun) to give in.

General Comments:

The Car handles like a dream.

Powerful for a 1989 1500cc.

Economical as long as you keep it below 140km/h.

Very sturdy car.

I have just finished studying and will now be buying a new car as soon as I am offered my first job.

But I want to praise my 1989 Ballade 150 16v for the performance and reliabilty it gave me.

I bought the car out of my grandfather's trust after he died (i had an accident with my 1982 1300 VW Jetta)

I recieved it with 176 000km on the clock. It is now, about 15 days short for a year on 221 000km. Thus,45 000km for the year(i travel a lot.) And on that point, the car gave me no problems on the long road with frequent 3000km trips.

Fuel consumption on the long road was at about 13km/l but that is at about 135km/h. Anything more(and if you are driving through semi desert on a 3000km trip, you tend to do more), and it gave me about 9km/l.

As for a student car...well...hey...it has got an aircon!

Very happy customer!

Faults:

ABS pump replaced.

General Comments:

This is a great driver's car. It handles superbly, I love the sound of the engine when putting pedal to the metal. It's got a lot of torque for an 1800 and pulls like a dream; it can easily outrun a Golf GTI. The ride is just superb. No engine or any other problem. It's got a nice Becker sound system, leather seats A/C power steering, and all the extras. It had a problem with the ABS, but when that was sorted it braked superbly.

Faults:

The following went wrong with the Honda:

The timing belt snapped at about 190000 km and caused 2 exhaust valves to be crushed.

The resulting skim on the engine block caused tremendous oil usage. Having the rings replaced solved the problem for the most part.

The front right ball joint seems to have run dry and is now generating some unnerving noises.

Also, the gearbox synchro seems to be dying along with the clutch (usual wear and tear).

The most annoying failures were however not mechanical, but rather in the interior.

The roof lining came down at 100 000 km and had to be replaced.

A rather nasty series of rattles developed in the dashboard and to this date haven't been fixed (not for the lack of trying).

Somehow the doors developed a nasty thump sound when pulling away. It was discovered that the hinges somehow have worked loose and allow the door room for movement.

On the left outside panel rust has appeared, but this may be due to some old accident before I received the car.

General Comments:

For a student the car is great. It gets you where you need to go with tremendous reliability.

It is also not very quick, but it is extremely economical. When I bought it initially it easily got around 650 - 700 km per tank (around 15 km/l).

Unfortunately, reliability is not all that is required for a good car. Much of that car seems to be composed of cheap plastics that fall apart for no apparent reason. There are many unexplained rattles and tends to give the impression that the car is not very solid.

As well as it has served me, I will never buy a Honda again. Rather pay the extra money and buy a decent vehicle that won't fall apart if you sneeze in the wrong direction.