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Originally Posted by danzvtil
I think their reputation was a hang over from the 90s Japanese bubble when every car was over engineered and had mind blowing features compared to the rest of the worlds manufacturers. Honda had to become mainstream in order to make profit.
I had an 08 accord, it was sensational, but not as solidly built as earlier models. Now my ex wife has an ‘18 civic, and its just ok. It looks nice, will probably last a long time, but doesn’t make you excited to drive it.
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Looking at their previous range from around 10+ years ago you had the
Jazz
City
Civic
CRZ
CRV
Accord
Accord Euro
MDX
Odyssey
Legend
The Jazz and City were middle of the road small commuters that weren't anything special compared to it's competition.
The Civic is a bigger version of the two above, it was underpowered compared to it's competition with a 1.8L or 2L engine option, the Type R model sucked compared to the older Integra Type R with less power in a heavier car.
The CRZ was a cool concept with hybrid but underpowered and too heavy, it was supposed to be a modern take on the 1980s CRX.
The CRV started out as a good compact SUV that got increasingly larger but maintained the small engine.
The Accord is a large sedan designed for the American market, albeit the shopping models came with the 4 cylinder engine, alternative to the Camry, standout was the V6 Luxury model with 3.5L V6 but it's Thailand manufactured, why would you pay more for this over Falcon and Commodore that were both RWD?
Accord Euro was the standout model for Honda - Japanese made midsize sedan, top rate build quality and a little more exciting than it's competition.
MDX was a large SUV designed for American market, more expensive and some further electronic trickery but the Territory was a much nicer ride and a cheaper buy.
Odyssey is another of Honda's standout cars, this redefined the people mover market in that it looked great, unfortunately only 4 cylinder engine option that was lacking in such a heavy car, if you put 7 people in it then it would just about go backwards if pointed at a hill.
Legend - flagship car, large sedan, AWD, massive amount of electronic trinkets but at $70K plus the Fairlane and Caprice are again much better buys.
I've driven and worked on all of them, they marketed themselves as the 'Asian BMW' in Australia but their cars were nothing special, just overpriced for what they actually were, small engines, low end to middle of the road performance because of a reliance on the same engine family across 70% of their range, everything was naturally aspirated K20/K24 engines with the larger 3.5L V6 making an appearance occasionally.
They had two models worth buying, Accord Euro and Odyssey, the latter specifically for customers who didn't understand prophylactic use.
The new Accord looks interesting and they've moved to turbocharged engines finally but again they're still underpowered, the only exciting car they have is the new Civic Type R but again it's too expensive.
Middle of the road and premium pricing, if you're happy with mundane you might as well as buy Toyota because they're cheaper to buy and maintain.
I see they've made an attempt to cap service pricing on valve clearance adjustment - it's was every 40,000km when I was there 10 years ago and it was $750 in 2010 for a 40,000km interval service at the minimum.
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In terms of running costs, the Accord comes with a fairly standard three-year, 100,000km warranty. There is also a six-monthly capped price servicing program, with the first three years of servicing coming in at a hefty $1741. It's also worth noting that every 24 months, you may be up for a valve clearance adjustment, which comes in at $556.
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As you can imagine doing the valve clearances on the bank of cylinders facing the firewall is great fun, everyone used to hide in the loo or take longer on their jobs if they knew a V6 was in for a 40,000km interval service and it was getting closer to the top of the pile.
We're not missing anything if they leave our market, they can take their bat and ball and go home for all I care.