“Last few decades” is a bit of a stretch. The only real issues up until 2005 were regarding the transmissions, and those got fixed in 2006. No significant problems until about 2015 or so when they started to make everything electronic, including key locks and such. The newest generations have been iffy, but my experience with Hondas up until then have been pretty solid, and you’d be hard pressed to find NHTSA recalls of any significant quantity or severity until then. 80% of recalls for Hondas in that era are for airbags (due to age) and exterior light bulbs going out (due to age) and the rest are usually regarding transmissions, with a handful of other parts thrown in.
I won’t say they were as reliable as the 90’s models per se, since those could take significant neglect and still be okay, but most things past that are really down to lack of maintenance for the most part. There will obviously be exceptions to this, but I would still take any Honda from that era over most brands except for Toyota.
Hondas have always had glass transmissions and electrical problems that would make a Jeep blush, they were just so simple and underpowered that it was never much of a problem. That all changed once Toyota kicked them out of the “cheap reliable” bracket and Honda had to make their cars more complex and powerful to compete
The electrical problems are overblown, that was a pretty specific few years (around 2005-2008 if I recall correctly) with a handful more recently with these latest generations.
Transmission have 100% been an issue since the 90’s, but like I said, have been pretty much all fixed (save for a few parking prawl issues) since 2006.
I will always say that Toyota has better reliability though, by far. They’re the golden child for cars staying alive.
In all seriousness, keep up on car maintenance. It’s cheaper in the long run that way. And if your CEL ever flashes, get that checked out ASAP. That means there is a much bigger problem such as a misfire or a fueling issue. Both of those could melt or clog your catalytic converters. Those things are big money.
Seriously. I used to work at a car dealership’s service department. One of the technicians was assigned a lady who didn’t have any oil in her car because of some issue. The warranty was going to cover the repair. He told her to have the car towed in. But, no, she was able to get the car started, so she decided to drive it in. The car died in the service lane as we were about to check it in. The warranty wasn’t going to cover a fried engine that was her fault.
Sigh More Jeep stories. Despite regular oil changes and maintenance my Jeep would occasionally just fail to build oil pressure all together when starting. Shutting down and starting again always fixed it, never had any crud in the oil pan, happened 3 or 4 times a year for 12 years. New owner says it still does it.
I drunkenly bought this book one night years ago. It was a surprise when I picked up from the post office, and I thought to myself, “Hey, a book on duck revenge!” I was sorely disappointed. Pretty sure it’s still on my bookshelf.
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