I am the proud owner of a 1996 Honda Accord EX. When I bought the car new, I was determined to get at least 300k miles out of it.
I’ve had very few problems with the car that weren’t my fault: passenger side power door lock; water-pump failure 40k mi after doing standard timing belt/water-pump replacement at 90k (didn’t use Honda parts to save money - that worked out pretty well!).
I smashed the front end in a low speed head-on collision (my fault) - necessitating replacement of the radiator and a few bent engine mounts.
Well, here we are 14yrs and 210k mi later and the old girl still runs like a champ and gets a solid 30mpg. Any reason why I shouldn’t get 300k mi out of it? How long do you think it can last? What’s the most mileage a mid-90’s Accord has racked-up?
Thanks,
-mojo from San Diego
If you budget around $3000 a year for repairs and maintenance, you can keep almost ANY car on the road forever…But after 20 years or so, they just start to SMELL real bad…
I’ve driven a few at work (Valet at a Hotel chain) that had in the ballpark of 300,000 on the odometer.
I’ve also seen a Ford, a Buick and a Pontiac all with over 300,000 miles on them (the Ford was a diesel excursion with over 400,000 miles.) A guy I used to work with at a pizza place had an old ford Tempo with over 300,000 miles and the original clutch, too.
In short, you can make any car last a long time if you maintain it properly and don’t mind the occasional “extraordinary repair.”
IF you learned your lesson about useing the correct parts, Hondas do not like non honda parts 300,000 mi should be easy.
Join a Honda accord forun for tips on what parts and fluids work best.
Just keep driving it until you cannot stomach the expensive repair or maintenance bill, or simply get sick of it.
There is no predetermined mileage.
I drove a 1995 Honda Civic to 230,000 miles still getting over 30MPG however just one day got sick of the worn out suspension, rattles, and the car itself.
It needed a timing belt and water pump(running warm) since 190k, $1000 in suspension work, and new tires and brakes. It sold within 2 hrs for around $2000 informing the disinterested new owner about the overdue timing belt. These cars like all cars run a long time however you need to be willing to put money into them. I called it quits at 150k and was happy to get another 70k simply doing oil changes for $14.99 at walmart.
Long ago I had a friend with a 1981 Accord.
At ~80K the water pump went, and he had a shop put in an aftermarket pump.
Over the next 10K miles or so he had the same shop change the pump two more times.
Luckily the timing belt wasn’t involved with the water pump on this model
Back then I was just starting to work on my own car, so I told him to go to get a pump from the Honda dealer and I would put it in.
Problem solved.
From then on I almost always stick with OEM parts.