11th Apr 2007, 12:19

The first commenter is on here all day long. He is always talking about how he was curb checking and his cv joints went bad. How he is burning all of his oil every 50,000 miles a on good engine... he goes on and on on every post that ever makes it on here about his Civic with 50,000 miles and so on. Well I have never had any problems with my Hondas and they have lasted me long. 255,000 miles and no oil burning because I change my oil. No problems with the sunroof in any of my Hondas equipt with them. I am sure there are some bad ones out there, but the guy with the CIvic with 40,000 miles that needed new cv joints pushed me over this time... Why buy a Chrysler when they are almost bankrupt?

11th Apr 2007, 16:30

20:08 I don't believe one word of that story.

Honda engines simply do not do that, and certainly not at 50,000 miles.

11th Apr 2007, 21:23

I think the reviewer should go for the Focus. Our 2001 ZX-3 was awesome and never had a second's trouble. The one Civic my family had was absolute garbage also, and never even made it to 100,000 miles before it totally fell apart and was sold for junk.

12th Apr 2007, 10:35

Oh, you mean the Focus that has had over 20+ recalls to date? Real winner there.

18th Apr 2007, 08:02

16:15 could not be more wrong. My family had a Focus that had all its maintenance done by the book, even including detailing, and yet it continually let us down on numerous occasions. Ford vehicles are built to the lowest legal standards, which once again proves why they lost a Mustang a minute in dollars last year.

13th Jun 2007, 00:12

Although Civics are good cars, they are overrated. I owned 3 civics, the last one a 99 ex. At 90 k tranny went out. It was apparently a problem for these cars, since Honda started outsourcing assembly of some of their auto trannies for cost savings. (And yes...I used Honda factory tranny fluids, and tranny flushed it when it was time). The tranny design wasn't the problem, but the quality of assembly was. Some Acura models were also affected. To tell you the truth, I think most cars (especially Japanese and Korean cars) built over the last 10 years are on even keel with Hondas. I find civic engines exceptionally smooth, but woefully underpowered. Honda built up a well deserved reputation of reliability in the 80's and 90's, but nowadays, they are no longer as superior as they used to be.

13th Jun 2007, 11:47

No, you just proved his point exactly. You had trouble with a single vehicle, and based on that you make sweeping generalizations about an entire company. My dad just bought a Toyota 1/2 ton pickup with 57,000 miles, and it quits within 2 miles of the driveway and has to be towed home every time. By your logic, therefore, all Toyotas are junk and Toyota should go out of business. Sorry, but it can happen to any vehicle of any brand.

16:15 is absolutely correct -- there is some small percentage of units that just don't go together correctly, maybe all the parts happen to be at the outer ranges of their tolerances, and they just won't make it for the long run.

Most vehicles will last a long time with minimal care, and another small percentage will run to extreme miles, all influenced (but not dictated) by owner maintenance and driving habits.

Some people can't accept that a Honda engine could blow up, and some can't accept that an old Dodge Slant-6 engine could blow up, or that a Chevy 350 engine could blow up, but all instances are true regardless of what the fanatical brand supporters think.

14th Jun 2007, 15:43

Ford has fields full of diseased vehicles that are lemons and they don't know what to do with them. My Brothers Ford Ranger was just bought back by Ford last month because of unresolved transmission problems. You might say only one vehicle, but I have heard many stories from family, etc of broken engines, defective parts, continuious transmissions which go out more than an Acura's transmission. The only Ford I have seen that can take the heat is their 30 year old panther platform and the F-150. All the other vehicles are built to the lowest legal standards. that is why the Fusion is built in Mexico and it doesn't do as good as a Honda Civic in crash tests either.

14th Jun 2007, 23:24

Yes, Honda outsources transmissions to the USA and now they have problems. Hmmm I think we need to stop this outsourcing to America and build them in a safe place like China. What the heck are you talking about!?! I also own a 2000 Civic and there are no problems. People drive like they stole their cars and wonder why they break.

15th Jun 2007, 12:47

I wish I had bought a new Ford as Honda/Acura would not buy my lemon back. Long standard factory warranties are the only way to instill a return of faith in vehicles.

22nd Jun 2007, 15:18

Hi Guys.

I bought my Honda Civic EX brand new in 2002 and have driven it to 112,000 miles in the last five years. I have not faced any of the problems that some of you state. The front shocks began leaking at 50,000 miles and by 80,000 the struts in them were dead. I continued driving in this condition and have not had any problem except for the added bumpiness. Other than that I have not had a single problem with it. I regularly change oil b/n 3k-4k miles and had the required maintenance done at 90k miles. This car has seen rain, snow, sun, never garaged and still runs great. The paint has maintained it's quality over the last five years. I have also redlined the engine many many times and it still functions allright. It still has the original clutch and brake pads. Never wrecked and never been in any accident. It typically gives b/n 28-31 mpg with the 87 rating gas. I don't know if those problems are with the automatic transmission since I drive a stick.

Cheers.

Keep writing...

22nd Jun 2007, 19:04

To the person that comments about the Ford Fusion made in Mexico on June 14th, lets just put something clear: manufacturing in Mexico is of very high quality, in fact it is one of the countries with highest quality of assembly, no wonder why Mercedes-Benz manufactured E-420s, C-220s and C-280s in the 90's in Mexico, the same reason why Honda manufactures thousands of Accords in Mexico, the same for Mercedes truck engines and the VW Beetle and Jetta, the Nissan Sentra, etc, etc...

So, the problem with Fords is that maybe thy are badly designed, they make them with low quality materials or whatever, but that is a problem of Ford, the American company, it is not a problem of Mexico.

One of the best Fords made lately is the Escort-Tracer (Made in Mexico). The other way around, yes, I think that American cars are way below in quality, dependability and reliability in comparison with European or Japanese cars.

23rd Jun 2007, 04:50

12:19...with your logic the Delorean, Tucker etc. would be worth less! I cannot get over the disbelief when someone sees an import with mechanical issues. I had 2 transmissions with my Honda/Acura in under 50,000 miles and yet that seems acceptable to another Honda owner. There seems to be issues listed on newer Hondas throughout this site that were never the case in the 80's and 90's I had. What happened? My last 2 Hondas may have been a fluke, but I can't see how I can excuse it. And Toyota seems to not be immune either and yet my earliest models I owned were fine years ago. Seems like a long factory warranty is a wise decision on new models as you may be using it quite often.