Elmo P. Shagnasty said:
Never. In fact, I bought a Civic Si brand new in 92; to this day it
runs very well, had an outstanding report on the oil analysis, and is on
the original clutch.
I've never had a Honda transmission go bad. I'm reporting the facts as
related by a VERY experienced and VERY good Honda mechanic.
You should learn to read.
You might also open your mind to the fact that Honda isn't perfect 100%
of the time, and the fact is they screwed up on their transmissions for
a few years. Their customers paid the price.
Honda has had some transmision problems that are quite serious. I guess
the most affected was the 2000-2002 V6 Accord, with the Japanese
transmission with exceptional failure rates. The problem is
well-acknowledged, with Honda having extended the warranty for all of
these models (I can't rmemeber how long but a long time). SUPPOSEDLY,
all of the V6 auto transmissions (e.g., new Accords and Odysseys) are
made in the same way and may also have the problem.
I can say for sure the tranmsission also kind of sucked. I had a2001 Acc
EX V6 Whcih I loved but I hated the tranny. It had retarded shift
points (one which caused it to dodge between 3 and O/D right at 59 mph
cruise), was unresponsive and generally ill-behaved. I have the new
5-speed auto in my '04 Odyssey and it is definitely a much better
behaved transmission but who knows if it will last long (I don't care
anyway since it is a 3-yr lease car).
My guess is if problems emerge, Honda will take care of it, like they
did with the Accord warranty extension. Still, this is not the Honda
quality you expect, and it probably would not happen with a Toyota.
Honda has very good quality and more usability in my mind, but my
Toyotas had fewer problems. My Hondas usually have 1 problem in their
lifetime (My Accord EXV6 had a few before 27k miles, though), Toyota's
none.
Here is what went wrong with my Accord. Luckily, I got rid of the car
before the tranny failed:
At 10k miles, the brakes developed a serious shimmy. This was from
warped rotors (all 4 rotors!! obviously a manufacturing defect!!!).
Honda initially didn't want to fix this under warrranty (cost of $290)
but eventually relented and paid for it. I had complained about the
problem at 7.5k, actually, but by 10k the car was almost undrivable
since it would shimmy even if you were not using the brakes. I am also
concerned that I had to have the rotors turned so early since it would
reduce both their usable life and the brake pads (my understanding is
that thinner rotors = more heat = quicker use of pads). Honda assured me
this was not a problem:::
At 26k miles, the REAR disc pads WORE out. I was pretty surprised since
my experience with rears has always been that they last like 60k miles.
I mean that is a long time but 26k seems very premature to me. This was
mostly highway miles and I am very docile driver. Cost was $300. The
front discs had less than 1k miles left when I turned the car in at 27k
miles (although this is not the reason I turned it in, new babies
require more space!!!)
The car also had certain paint defects that emerged over time. These
appeared as cracks in the clear-coat (looked like scratches but they
were not, they also had the shape of the way paint would crack). They
appeared here and there (like maybe 5 in total about 1-3 inches long). I
should say I live in SoCal and the car was garaged both at work and at
home so this was surprising and certainly unexpected.
BUT, I can say in terms of drivability this was the best car I ever
owned. I loved it. And it didnt leave me anywhere, these were sort of
problems that were more like nuisance premature wear issues, but not the
sort of quality you might get from Toyota.
