accord1986

OK - so other than maintenance.

PersonA and PersonB both change their oil every 3k miles, and have since the day they bought it.

PersonA has all sorts of parts fail, while PersonB only has to do does routine maintenance.

Is there that much variance in the quality of what comes out of a factory day to day??? Is it how some people drive the car? For example, personA lets it sit for 2 years, and likes to accelerate quickly?

What do you think the difference is? I read reviews, a some people swear by them that they're perfect, and others report problems despite taking good care of it.

What do you all think?

brages

I always buy used cars, so I have to chalk a lot of it up to how the original owner treated it. Most cars don't hit 300k on the original owner, so my situation is common.

There is a lot of randomness to it. Pick any mechanical component -- the sizes of all the part features and its surface finishes will vary from one to another. One water pump has a tiny defect or misalignment or it gets set up with a tad more belt tension than another, so it fails. In another, the tolerances all align right and it works for 300k. Pick any car with a problem -- Honda Odyssey transmissions, for example. Some don't fail... the owners are lucky.

Yes, how you drive it will make a huge difference in vehicle life. Keep the engine speeds and loads low and the wear rate will be reduced!

Also, there is the human factor. Some people lie about how good their cars are. Or maybe they just fix stuff when it breaks and don't really think about it.

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

What you've presented is completely out of your *** and impossible to prove/disprove. There are so many variables into it.

That said, given general use and keeping up with regular maintenance 200k miles is not out of the reach for most Hondas. There are issues here or there (snap ring failure in the NSX, V6 transmissions, etc) but for the most part they perform as expected.

accord1986

Thanks. How do you vet out a used car then? Just say your prayers every night?

Say I'm picking between a reliability buzzname brand - Honda or Toyota - for $8k with 80,000 miles vs a Chevy Cavalier for $4k with 10,000 miles. Is a Honda really THAT much better? It may not be everywhere, but the Hondas and Toyotas are so prized, that they are actually selling where I am for like 25% over their KBB book price used.

What about letting cars sit? I'm asking since one of the vehicles I'm considering is 10 years old with only 10k miles on it - an old grandma's car who almost never drove it.

Thanks so much!

92 civic ex 4dr

Some car companies, Honda, Toyota. Have a high resale value because they are good reliable cars. But as stated prior. The longevity of the vehicle depends on lots of things. Like fuel type (Chevron vs ampm), oil type, if you use hose water vs distilled water in your cooling system, how you drive, the environment in which you drive, if its all freeway miles or around town, if the car sits for long periods of time, if you drive it non stop between oil changes (like traveling salesmen), if you let the car warm up before you drive it or if you fire it up and go while its still cool, use the engine as a brake (manual Trans), aftermarket intake or stock. Blah blah blah. I could go on and on. I live in a desert with fine sand so i use a stock intake system and stock filter (because i work on diesels so i see the difference on the turbo turbines from a stock intake system and an aftermarket system even an oiled one). So the variables are practically limitless.


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TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

Where are you seeing 80k Hondas priced like that? I think you may need to expand your search area!

Just some examples:

$9,300 with 40k miles

$9k with 40k miles

$8.9k with 46k miles

$8.5k with 56k miles


That was just a really quick search on AutoTrader within any distance of a zip. The reason the Cavalier depreciated like that is generally because of reliability and history. Hondas, Toyotas, Mazdas, etc all have had pretty excellent reliability. That's not to say that Cavalier is going to blow up at 15k miles, but there may be a saggy headliner or paint chipping versus another that may have more miles but held up better.

Regarding actually buying, doing a pre-purchase inspection on any vehicle you look at is your best bet along with buying a vehicle that has a good stack of receipts and history of service.

Chris_McCartney

My mechanic drives a 2002 VW Golf GTI TDI and my last car was a 1999 VW Golf GTI TDI. His car is higher mileage than mine 160k, mine is 110k, but his car has never ever broken down on him. Mine broke down 7 times in 2 years. He also never had to replace the clutch, I had to do mine at 105k. When I got mine it had 18" wheels fitted and was lowered, his was standard with factory 16" wheels. Clearly the previous owner of mine had used and abused it. Knowing that mine is a relatively low mileage for a diesel made me think that it would be problem free....when in fact it was the complete opposite!! The car was clearly driven very hard and caused various parts to break before the end of their average life span.... mechanic had 50k more miles on it and still hasn't replaced the clutch!

Just shows, one of the most important things is probably the human factor. A careful old woman is not going to drive as hard as a 18yr old boy!

92 civic ex 4dr

Driving a car hard can be good for it too. By high revving an engine it avoids carbon buildup and helps to clean out any other carbon deposits. Also a little known fact. The Ford diesels (which i work on) and other consumer diesel vehicles like vw. People assume because they are diesel they will get a million miles out of the engine and that they can let them idle for long periods of time. Not true. They are not peterbuilt's or cat's or kenworth's. They are not long haul and are not designed to idle for long periods of time or designed to go a million miles. Especially if your buying diesel in California.


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