I heard from a few people that Hondas in general have problems with their transmission? Is that true? I'm looking to buy a Civic and just want unbiased opinions. Looking for 97 or later.
Thanks

 

I don't personally think that it's true that Honda, "in general," has problems with their tranmissions. I'm assuming you're talking automatics here? I've known a number of folks through the years that have owned high mileage Honda's with no problems at all. One of my best friends has an old Accord, don't remember the exact year model but it's early 90's vintage, and he made in the neighborhood of 230,000 miles on the original automatic transmission before being forced to do an overhaul. That's the best I've personally seen anyone do.

Having said that, I drove an '01 Odyssey for five years and put just over 85000 miles on it with no problems. However, I did receive a letter from Honda in the second year of ownership that stated that they were voluntarily extending the factory warranty on the transmission to 7 years and 100,000 miles due to "a higher than normal frequency of failure" on '99-'01 Odyssey's, Accords, and Accura's (don't remember the model), so Honda has apparantly been having some issues with automatic transmission in the early part of this decade. I didn't have any issues with mine. I do have some friends in California who also own an '01 Odyssey and their transmission upchucked at around 113,000 miles. Honda did a courtesy overhaul on their car even though it was well past the warranty extension. You can't complain about that!

Bottom line, IMO, is that I don't think I'd worry about it too much. Yeah, Honda's had some atypical problems in the past few years but they're probably no worse than most other makes and, I'd bet, probably a lot better than most! There's no guarrantee regardless of who's car you buy.

Good luck,
Steve R.

 

Every manufacturer has it's issues, but Honda seems to have fewer than the rest. And as for tranmissions??? Any automatic transmission is garbage, so don't buy one.

 

+1

driving a stick is more fun anyways

My 98 hatch has an automatic tranny. I'm beginning to worry about it because it seems to shift at funny times and there is sometimes a bit of a lag before the power hits the wheels. Its possible that I'm just getting the normal bias against automatics after buying a 95 with a manual transmission.

~I've also beaten the crap outa that tranny

 

Agreed! <BG>

But only if you know how to drive a stick. The majority of folks I know don't have a clue as to what to do with a clutch. The rest of them that can drive a stick, won't consider a MT because they spend enough time in rush hour traffic that futzing with the clutch peddle gets tiresome. Automatics do have their advantages sometimes.

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

if you want trannsmission prolems go with a dsm

 

I've always been under the impression that Honda made pretty durable transmissions.

 

the synro's in 3rd and 4th gears tend to go out later in life(150,000+ miles)

 

[sm=smiley25.gif] After 150,000 miles??? After 150,000 miles, I'd expect them to go out! There may be those out in the world that last longer, but I'd bet not many!

Steve R.

 

my honda's at about 162k miles now, and ive never had any problem with it. the timing is off a little bit i think, but not an issue with the tranny. yay for honda