Honda, What a Great Car!

I have been looking for a cheap car for a friend's son who is 18. He has NO mechanical ability so I have been looking for something that maybe doesn't look so good but is mechanically sound.

His friends all tell him he should buy a Honda or a Toyota and so he shows me the Craigslist ads for them just about every day. So, in the last week I have looked at 3 Hondas, 2 Toyotas and 1 Infinity. All of these cars had 150K plus miles on them. The Infinity was a total piece of shit, one of the Toyotas was a decent car but overpriced. The other Toyota had Transmission problems.

Now Honda, everybody knows that they are the finest engineered automobiles on the road. WRONG! All were rust buckets, one idled so rough that the whole car shook, one could not find idle and would rev up and down (on it own). One had various suspension issues that made it an adventure to drive. Two of the Honda owners had service records. One Honda had a replacement engine and one had a replacement transmission. All had replacement radiators. All three of the owners went on endlessly about Honda's well known reputation for reliability (while holding a phonebook sized collection a receipts).

So, In my life I have had 2 vehicles that I have put 180K plus on and 1 that has 105K on it. The first was a 1977 Chevy short bed 4x4 (200K when sold), a 1993 GMC Yukon 4x4 (180K when sold) and my current 1997 Tahoe 4x4 (105K currently). Everybody knows what incredible pieces of shit these are right? What's weird is that they all had the original engines without overhaul, the original transmissions despite seasonal duty towing a boat and the only new radiator was in the 1977. The ONLY non-maintenance item I replaced in any of these vehicles was a brake booster in my current Tahoe.

I must just be lucky I guess:bonkers:

You're not alone. My 1995 Tahoe, owned for over 10 years, has 160,000+ miles on it. Only a/c compressor and cooling service since I bought it. My 2001 Blazer has 120,000+ miles on it and have only done routine maintenance. Great vehicles, IMO.

My 2003 Ford Exp has 130k on it and still running strong.

My 2005 infiniti has 45k on it and has had quite a few electrical problems. PITA. Engine, however has run strong since day 1.

I have had both good and bad experiences with many different imports and domestics...never a Honda though.

3 head gaskets for the guy across the street in his Honda Civic....but it's high mileage...like 200k, still 3???

my wife's Escort can be bought cheep anywhere, if the engine runs fine....make damn sure to change the thermostat and coolent for ethyl glycol.... or better yet pull the cyl head and take to to be rebuilt and the intake seats changed, put it back togeher for with the t-stat and glycol....

the other simple problems are just simple stuff, nothing major....

lights, simple interlock crap with foreign parts, and the a/c realy in a Bosch module...

180k miles.....I still think I let the t-stat and cooling system go...even though it looked ok.....

Well from a guy that worked for Toyota motor co,and not a dealership,for 12 years they are not what they are cracked up to be,they have a lot of problems with those cars and trucks,lots of recalls on the motors,but they do not call it a recall toyota likes to call it a Campaign. and there motors are high maintenance.

kwplot34 said:

Well from a guy that worked for Toyota motor co,and not a dealership,for 12 years they are not what they are cracked up to be,they have a lot of problems with those cars and trucks,lots of recalls on the motors,but they do not call it a recall toyota likes to call it a Campaign. and there motors are high maintenance.

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About ten years ago I went looking for a car for my daughter, for school....looked at many a Toy in the price range....Tercel, whatever....

found many of them with blown engines....the rest were grossly overpriced like the Hondas....

bought her a Saturn, which got her through school +2 more years....used of course....

she beat that car pretty good too....

Told her that the next one was on her.....

:clobbered:

mrvette said:

kwplot34 said:

Well from a guy that worked for Toyota motor co,and not a dealership,for 12 years they are not what they are cracked up to be,they have a lot of problems with those cars and trucks,lots of recalls on the motors,but they do not call it a recall toyota likes to call it a Campaign. and there motors are high maintenance.

Click to expand...

About ten years ago I went looking for a car for my daughter, for school....looked at many a Toy in the price range....Tercel, whatever....

found many of them with blown engines....the rest were grossly overpriced like the Hondas....

bought her a Saturn, which got her through school +2 more years....used of course....

she beat that car pretty good too....

Told her that the next one was on her.....

:clobbered:

Click to expand...

That reminds me, got my son a car this past summer. Looked at all the used foreign stuff...prices were too high. Ended up getting him a used Cobalt Coupe like new with 32k on it. Gets 37mpg. Not a speedster, but the price was right. He's put about 6k on it so far and no problems. Hopefully that will get him through the next 4 or 5 years.

This is another case where people have a selective perception of reality. Honda's are notorious for rust problems. This is passed off by the sellers as the "typical" Honda rust like it's cute or something. If GM were to produce a car that rusted out like that, there would be a public outrage that would only be satisfied when all cars were recalled and a couple of GM execs were imprisoned for perpetrating such a crime!

I don't get it, are Americans so convinced that nothing good can come from their hands? And, that all good things are from the hands of others?

Our son in law has a Honda. One day my wife and I decided to play a practical joke on him, so we took a handful of rice and placed it on the concrete underneath his engine. We went back into the house and told him his car had some kind of leak, and that he should move it out of our driveway. He was upset and went to investigate the situation. He looked at the rice ...not knowing it was rice and he said " What the Phuck is that? " He finally realized it was rice...got up from underneath his car, went back in the house and barely said a word the rest of the evening.

Douglas Mariani said:

Our son in law has a Honda. One day my wife and I decided to play a practical joke on him, so we took a handful of rice and placed it on the concrete underneath his engine. We went back into the house and told him his car had some kind of leak, and that he should move it out of our driveway. He was upset and went to investigate the situation. He looked at the rice ...not knowing it was rice and he said " What the Phuck is that? " He finally realized it was rice...got up from underneath his car, went back in the house and barely said a word the rest of the evening.

Click to expand...

While i worked for Toyota we were allowed to have a car to drive for 2 years then you had to turn it in and get another one if you wanted one,i decided one year to get a new truck T-100 with in 1 year the motor needed the upper end rebuilt and new heads,walked out to go home after work and that sucker had been puking all over the parking lot. That was my first and last Toyota,just drove my Chevy Diesel there just to piss the bosses off
On the parts distribution side you would not beleive the pallets of engine over haul kits that went out of that place daily,it was un-freak'n believable.

I had to take that truck to a dealer ship to have the motor fixed and they had to get the over haul kit from O'reillys because the warehouse was out,i said WHAT! we have thousands of those go out of there every day,checked with warehouse mgr the next day and sure enough,they had a 6 month back order on them. These kits came from Japan,guess they could not keep up with the supply.

Now if you are lucky enough to get one of the older toyotas with an 18R or 20R inline 4 cyl,those motors are pretty bullet proof,other than that,they are junk.

kwplot34 said:

While i worked for Toyota we were allowed to have a car to drive for 2 years then you had to turn it in and get another one if you wanted one,i decided one year to get a new truck T-100 with in 1 year the motor needed the upper end rebuilt and new heads,walked out to go home after work and that sucker had been puking all over the parking lot. That was my first and last Toyota,just drove my Chevy Diesel there just to piss the bosses off
On the parts distribution side you would not beleive the pallets of engine over haul kits that went out of that place daily,it was un-freak'n believable.

I had to take that truck to a dealer ship to have the motor fixed and they had to get the over haul kit from O'reillys because the warehouse was out,i said WHAT! we have thousands of those go out of there every day,checked with warehouse mgr the next day and sure enough,they had a 6 month back order on them. These kits came from Japan,guess they could not keep up with the supply.

Now if you are lucky enough to get one of the older toyotas with an 18R or 20R inline 4 cyl,those motors are pretty bullet proof,other than that,they are junk.

Click to expand...

What about the 22R?

The 22R is a good motor also.

My dad has had two 200k+ SBC and 1 200k+ big block

The big block only lost a timing gear ( one of those cheap plastic ones)
One SB blew up but it was well abused
One SB was pulled for a Big block