2001 Honda Civic worse car i ever bought!

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My friend is always praising them.....and to me Honda is a cuss word. Engine, Transmission both went out before 60k and took several years of lawsuits against American Honda to collect a fraction of what we should have got. For us Toyota has been almost perfect cars since I bought my first Truck in 79 to the 2015 Camry my wife has now. Buying a Civic over a Corolla was a costly mistake.
Anybody else had problems with Honda/Acura?
 
People praise Hondas like stoned, possessed consumers.

In 2005 the job of selling my friend's 1999 Accord V6 fell to me. The transmission clanked to a horrid death while on a test drive.
My friend said, "That's what my previous 2 Hondas did."

And she kept buying them????????? That's stoned, possessed, zombie level brand loyalty.

I got her into successive Saab 9-5 wagons (2002 Linear, 2005 Aero) over a 10 year period and she loved driving them.
It's especially noteworthy that other friends (long time, dear ones) DEMANDED that we sell the 2002 to their son.
She bought a new Mazda3 last year. Just turned 7,500 miles.

I gotta add: the neighbor's 2010 Honda Accord 4 cyl (now w/ 80K, maintained by me) seems like quite a good car.
Anybody ever heard of transmission drain & fills? They work.
 
My coworker has a 98 Accord coupe. I think it's a 98. Half a million miles. Looks like ish but runs decent. Not perfect. My other coworker had a 2000 something Accord sedan with 250k. This was immaculate and he sold it to another co-worker. I believe every brand has their bad ones but it's all about how you take care of it.
 
1990 Honda Accord EX. Worse modern day car I ever had. Purchased it new. Too many problems to list everything, including leaking moonroof, CV Joints, Transmission, etc. etc. etc. only thing that did not give problems was the engine. Worse thing was the attitude of the dealers. "This is a Honda, and Honds's don't have problems". ( I had to find the cause of the moonroof leak, not them, a kinked drain hose in the roof, before they fixed it). Traded it two years later for a 1992 Toyota LE, the most trouble free car I've ever had.

Needless to say, I've never had or thought of, a Honda since.

BTW. You may think 1990 was a long time ago, but the big thing, even then, was QUALITY, and this EX had none.
 
Originally Posted By: Kira
People praise Hondas like stoned, possessed consumers.

In 2005 the job of selling my friend's 1999 Accord V6 fell to me. The transmission clanked to a horrid death while on a test drive.
My friend said, "That's what my previous 2 Hondas did."

And she kept buying them????????? That's stoned, possessed, zombie level brand loyalty.


Didn't people do that, sticking to the Big 3? Even after imports hit their stride. Some people are loyal to a fault.

Wife had an '01 Civic and I never liked it. AC was a real weak spot on that car.
 
Kira -

I'm just amazed that you had such trouble free experiences with Saab. Every person I know that had one had lots of trouble and never went back to the brand after dumping their 1st one.
 
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Originally Posted By: ctrcbob
1990 Honda Accord EX. Worse modern day car I ever had. Purchased it new. Too many problems to list everything, including leaking moonroof, CV Joints, Transmission, etc. etc. etc. only thing that did not give problems was the engine. Worse thing was the attitude of the dealers. "This is a Honda, and Honds's don't have problems". ( I had to find the cause of the moonroof leak, not them, a kinked drain hose in the roof, before they fixed it). Traded it two years later for a 1992 Toyota LE, the most trouble free car I've ever had.

Needless to say, I've never had or thought of, a Honda since.

BTW. You may think 1990 was a long time ago, but the big thing, even then, was QUALITY, and this EX had none.

I think my 1992 Accord is very high quality. I've never had a major problem with it, only some minor issues here and there like a bad sensor, leaking radiator, etc. Easy fixes. And those issues only started after the car was 15 years old and had over 100k on it. I have 193k on it now and it's still running fantastic. All electrical accessories work, interior is mint, body has no rust and still looks excellent. It also "feels" very well made. The quality is there. It's fun to drive and very economical. I feel I've become more of a Honda fan over the years because of this car. I'm still a Ford guy first though.
smile.gif
 
Quote:
...Anybody else had problems with Honda...?

Since you asked, can't say as I have. And specifically a topic 01 Civic (EX) AT in extended family now, purchased new now with 265k+ miles with original motor and trans. So it's been very reliable. Other parts of car wearing out before engine/drivetrain. Only thing major needed to be done was a head gasket job at ~165k miles, not unusual on them.

Unfortunate your anecdotal experience not as good.
 
Originally Posted By: E150GT
Only once they got over 10 years old and had been neglected.


Not true at all!

Bought a 2008 Accord new off the dealer lot. 7,000 miles later I was back with grinding rear brakes. Service manager told me my pads were shot and it was due to my driving style. I laughed thinking he was joking. He wasn't, he actually expected me to believe the bull [censored] he was trying to sell me. I went ahead and reluctantly paid the outrageous repair bill thinking I would get my money back after appealing to Honda. That was a mistake - I never saw that money again.

Not long after that, I was back with warped rotors. This was at 16,000 miles. This time I was a bigger jerk and they agreed to turn the rotors but, [get this] my front pads were toast. I learned my lesson from the rear pad incident and I told them not to touch them.

I kept the car from 2008 - 2014 and got involved with a class action lawsuit that was going on at the time. After doing some internet searching, I found Honda had issued TSBs about the braking problem and were well aware of it. They just chose to screw the owners. My dealership seemed to be on-board with screwing people too.

Very long story short, I ended up buying lifetime pads and rotors for the car. I did numerous replacements in during my 108,000 ownership. After getting replacement parts through the life warranty from Autozone for the umpteenth time, I was told this would be my last replacement.

When I sold the car; it had a drinking problem, warped rotors and suffered from the then well known VTC actuator noise at cold start up.

The Durango replaced the Accord and I can say I've never looked back. The Accord is the absolute worst car I've ever owned.

And before all the Honda fanboys chime in, let me say I use to be just like you. When my wife wanted to replace our 2001 Civic, it wasn't a matter of which manufacture we would buy - it was which Honda model and what color. I was a fanboy, the Accord was my 3rd straight Honda. To me, you couldn't beat a Honda. I'm a fanboy no more!

carcomplaints.com : 08 Accord avoid like the plague
 
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Originally Posted By: gmh101357
My friend is always praising them.....and to me Honda is a cuss word. Engine, Transmission both went out before 60k and took several years of lawsuits against American Honda to collect a fraction of what we should have got. For us Toyota has been almost perfect cars since I bought my first Truck in 79 to the 2015 Camry my wife has now. Buying a Civic over a Corolla was a costly mistake.
Anybody else had problems with Honda/Acura?

My 2002 Acura TL Type-S is one of the best cars I have bought, and I've owned 15-20 cars (lost count)
It's up there with the Lexus LS400 in terms of excellence, for me. AND it was made in Ohio too!
 
GF had a '01 Civic EX coupe, as she was impressed with the styling and sporty look.
Worse car ever as head gasket went out, then water pump, then radiator and then finally transmission. The glass came off the side window and the flimsy cable to pop the hood broke.
We swore off on Hondas and got onboard with Toyotas and never looked back.
Stick to boring but reliable Toyota.
 
I have a coworker who purchased a new (2016ish) Accord touring. She's about to retire (doesn't drive hard) and is constantly complaining about front brake noise. She's been back to the dealership several times, but they only turn rotors and replace pads.
 
I have had well over a dozen new Hondas and Acuras since 1986- Then it was the first 86 Acura Integra LS and on from there. The dealership made it too easy for me to buy. I bailed after my 2013 Accord Sport.
I always felt Hondas were too tinny and built for mpg only for which many DID not excel at.
Honda never seemed to design a suspension correctly for rural American roads.

The early years was the AC was a dealer installed scam at about $1600 even in the 80's
Until the 13 Sport most Hondas got 290 miles before you ran out of gas. On long trips that sucked. Give me 400-600 please. Road noise abatement was well below the industry norm. Even the 13 Sport was supposed to correct that and it didn't at all unless you are deaf to begin with.

Trade in value. Every time I traded one in I got super great trade in value with one exception, Honda...
They always lowballed trade ins and it is well known.
If you ever watched Seinfeld and Jerrys mechanic that was anal that was my local Honda dealers.
Excuse after excuse. They were offended that you would even suggest the car had any issues. It actually was disgusting.

Then in the later years both dealers in my area started delivering new cars with scratches inside and out from rushed dealer prep... Then I started getting thin paint and alloys peeling in 18 months and on my 2010 Insight the door cards and arm rest were of such poor quality that were wearing out at the 13K mile range- yes really.

Honda started building to a price and the cars really reflected that.
My dealer in Newark DE. was highly insulted if you wanted a few pennies off the car. Really. In the end I said screw Honda as in my area it was a bunch of drama.

Lets not forget the last deal I did........... The manager wanted me to pay $750 for Road side assistantance as Honda did not include that in the warranty. The dude said, our cars don't break down and I said then I don't need your road side warranty.............

Honda Element- stress cracks in the windshields, they always tried to scam the owners and get out of paying up....
1991 Acura Legend 5spd manual..........
Every time I went up a hill the shifter would jump out of gear. They got ticked off and called me a liar.
Soup Nazi attitude.... Fast forward many years later and it was a known issue........ please stop me before I go on..
 
Originally Posted By: gmh101357
My friend is always praising them.....and to me Honda is a cuss word. Engine, Transmission both went out before 60k and took several years of lawsuits against American Honda to collect a fraction of what we should have got. For us Toyota has been almost perfect cars since I bought my first Truck in 79 to the 2015 Camry my wife has now. Buying a Civic over a Corolla was a costly mistake.
Anybody else had problems with Honda/Acura?


This is all IMHO but the 01-05 Civic is the worst car Honda ever built. There is not a single part of that car that did not have major issues.
 
LOL typical brand bashing. I have never owned a Honda BUT I have countless friends and family that own Honda's and I am not aware of ANY of them having catastrophic failure. Yes they have their issues as does any other brand.

My bad experiences with Honda?????

-[censored] thin paint
- Cheap exterior window weatherstrip (2012 models are now starting to crack in the texas sun)
- bad sounding stereos
- Unsupportive seats

One thing I will say.... I have been to all of the major car brand dealerships except for high end luxury because let's face it, I have no business buying a luxury car. One thing I have noticed every time I visit a Honda dealership is how CLUELESS Honda customers are in general. They treat the process of buying a new car exactly the same as if they were shopping for a blender at IKEA. Even the Suzuki customers were more inquisitive about the vehicle they were buying. All auto brands have clueless customers, it's how the dealerships and the auto industry make tons of money. But Honda has cultivated this philosophy into their customers heads.

That's just what I've noticed throughout the years. Honda makes reliable cars from all my experiences. Sure you might get a bad apple and I believe some on this forum truly have gotten rotten cars. However, all brands have lemons and I've been around plenty of those from nearly every brand.
 
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