The Good and Bad of Hondas

Email me: meredith@reynoldsautomotivekc.com

The Good and Bad of Honda: Reliability, Value, and Common Tradeoffs

Host Meredith Reynolds of Kansas City launches a “Good and Bad” series with Honda, drawing on 12 years of selling mostly 5–15-year-old vehicles. She says Hondas are practical, highly reliable, often reach 200,000–300,000 miles with proper maintenance, cost about $420 per year in maintenance on average, are generally cheaper than Toyota, and hold value well; she highlights popular models including the Odyssey, CR-V, Pilot, Accord, and Civic, with strong fuel economy from many four-cylinder options. Downsides include conservative, “boring” interiors and styling, higher prices than some brands, and limited power. She flags concerns with 1.5L turbo engines and notes V6 Honda/Acura timing belts require costly replacement around 100,000–120,000 miles.

00:00 Odyssey Loyalty Story
00:41 Show Intro and Series Setup
02:18 Honda Strengths Overview
02:41 Longevity and Reliability
04:56 Value and Top Models
06:56 Why Hondas Feel Boring
09:14 Price and Power Tradeoffs
10:47 Known Engine Red Flags
12:09 Timing Belt Cost Reality
13:39 Who Should Buy Honda

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Transcript

Meredith 0:03

A few weeks ago, my friend Eric pulled into the dealership in his 2002 Honda Odyssey minivan. I can't remember the mileage, but it was well over 200,000, maybe close to 300,000. It needed a new transmission after 24 years, and he didn't want to put the money into it, so he was ready to get something new. Can you guess what he drove off in? It was a newer used Honda Odyssey. That sums up how people feel about Honda and who the Honda customer is. Today, I'm gonna talk all about the good and the bad of Honda on women buying cars. You are listening to women buying cars, and I'm your host Meredith Reynolds. I'm a former teacher turned used car dealer and I'm here to teach and empower you to walk into a car dealership with confidence and walk out with the car that's right for you. hey, I'm Meredith Reynolds. Thanks for joining me on Women Buying Cars. I own a used car dealership with my husband in Marion, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City. So if you were in the area, I would love to help you find your new used car. Today I'm starting a new series called The Good and Bad. Each episode, I'm going to be taking a car company and telling you what I love about it and what I don't like about it. So you're gonna get the good and the bad of a variety of car manufacturers. We're starting today with Honda. Now, I sell used cars, so I am talking from experience in selling vehicles that are five to 12, maybe even 15 years old. So if something has changed in the last five years that goes against what I'm saying today, I'm unaware of it, right? I don't know what the 2026 Honda Civic looks like in and out because I don't have any 2026s on my lot. We have sold more Honda vehicles than anything else since we opened our doors 12 years ago. The Honda is our bread and butter. So there are a lot of things we love about Hondas. At the same time, we know them back to front, and so there are some things that are less appealing about Hondas. So let's start with what's good about Hondas, that story in the intro about Eric, who went from a 24-year-old Honda Odyssey to an Odyssey that was maybe seven years old, something like that. Um, major upgrade. He exemplifies the Honda customer. The Honda customer is looking for a practical car that will last a very long time, which is exactly what his van did. Hondas typically make it conservatively 200,000 miles, and honestly, it's more like 300,000. If they're well maintained, if they're getting regular oil changes and getting serviced, and someone is actually taking care of their car, it can easily get up to 300,000 miles. So we're talking 15 to 20 years or more out of a Honda. That is pretty amazing, especially in today's world where your dishwasher needs to be replaced after, like, five years, maybe. as far as getting your money's worth, having your car a long time, people who want to keep their car after they're paid o- it's paid off and drive it till the wheels fall off. The Honda is a great choice. They're also really reliable. Typically, okay, and I always have to say typically because there's always some exception to the rule. So there's somebody out there who's had a bad experience, but typically a Honda is not going to be in the shop every other week. They're reliable. I read that the average, Hondas cost about $420 in maintenance a year. That is like nothing. So your Honda should give you very little trouble. Of course, this is dependent on a lot of things. If you buy a salvage title, then that's a different story. If you buy a, a sporty Accord from someone who just ran the heck out of it and never took care of the oil or transmission fluids, that's a different story. But typically, when you buy a Honda, you're gonna have a very reliable vehicle that lasts a very long time. On average, they're cheaper than their close rival Toyota. They hold their value well, which can mean some good things and bad things. Okay? When a car holds its value well, that means you're gonna pay a little more for it when you buy it, right? So if you were going to buy a Dodge Caravan instead of a Honda Odyssey, the Odyssey's going to be more expensive, but it's going to last a heck of a lot longer too. And then when you go to sell it, that's when you really get the benefit of them holding their value, because you should be able to get more for it when you sell it than if you had bought that Dodge Caravan, okay? So I mentioned the Odyssey several times. The Odyssey is our number one best seller, and we love Odyssey's. Customers love Odyssey's. But there's lots of great models, right? We've got the CRV, which is a smallish SUV. It's a two row. If you need a three row, the Honda Pilot is a great option. It is comparable to a Toyota Highlander. Both the Pilot and the CRV can come front wheel drive, so you're getting better gas mileage or all- wheel drive to help you through snow and rain. So those are two good SUV options for you. For the sedan, we have the Honda Accord. While I used to be a teacher, and the parking lot was full of Honda Accords. They're practical and reliable, and so are teachers. For a slightly smaller sedan, you've got the Honda Civic. All of them have amazing reputations. with some of those, you're going to get a V6 engine, like the Pilot and possibly the Accord, but you'll be getting a four cylinder with the CRV, and some of the Accords, which means really good gas mileage. So, sounds like the perfect car, right? What's not to love? So the number one thing that stands out to me that's bad, quote unquote, bad about the Honda is that they tend to be pretty boring. Okay. As far as the interiors go,. The seats are more firm than cushy. There's not the beautiful wood trim on the door or the console area or the gear shift that some other cars use to just pretty up their interiors. You're not gonna find a huge screen, which for some of us, that's not a bad thing. That can be a good thing, but they're definitely not trendsetters, and they don't try to be trendsetters, and the typical Honda customer doesn't care that they're not trendsetters, okay? Consumer reports says Hondas are light on surprising and delightful features. I really hope no one ever describes me that way. Light on surprising and delightful features. I think that's really true. You're not gonna get in a Honda and say, oh, look at this. It's just, that's just not how it is, at least not in the years that I'm aware of. So they are a bit boring on the inside. Even the ones that are a little bit more luxurious, which is kind of a stretch of that word, but the higher trim levels, like the touring, even those are just kind of a very standard interior. For exterior, I guess you could kind of say the same. I mean, I do think that some of the Honda Accord sports are good looking. They're more sporty and kind of fun looking and just more visually appealing than some of their other vehicles. I mean, the Honda Pilot, it's a three-year-old SUV, it's fine. I, I just don't think it's as good looking as a Kia Telluride or a Chevy Traverse or some of the other vehicles in that category. So they don't try to be beautiful, they don't try to be luxurious, and they're not. The good news is you don't have to pay for that type of thing. Now, I told you they were cheaper than a Toyota in general, but they are going to be more expensive than some similar brands, like a Chevy, a Subaru, or a Mazda. Apples to apples, you're gonna pay more for a Honda, but is it gonna last longer than a Chevy? Well, probably. I mentioned you're gonna get great gas mileage. A lot of the models are four cylinders. The flip side of that is that you don't have a lot of power, right, for merging, for climbing a hill. Uh, the CR-V goes zero to 60 in 8.8 seconds. That's kind of slow. If you don't care about that, it's not a big deal, but sometimes it's important, especially if you're merging when you're in the city. I drive an electric car, I've talked about a lot, the Chevy Bolt, the great thing about electric cars is that you go zero to 60 quickly, okay? You're not waiting for the engine to rev up. You just take off really fast. So I'm used to that, and I live in the city where I have to pull out in front of people. And so when I get in a, a four cylinder of some type, and I forget that that's how this car drives, I find myself pulling out and being like, "Oh man, I should have waited and not pulled out in front of this person because this car does not have a lot of get up and go. So it's things like that, that a four cylinder, that's a trade off for having really good gas mileage. Okay. A couple of mechanical issues that come up with the Honda. For starters, at Reynolds Automotive for now, we are no longer buying 1.5 liter turbo engines. Those are found in civics and accords. Maybe some other things as well, I'm not sure, but that's what we see them in and the heads tend to go bad. That's really expensive. So that's a little tidbit for you. If it's a 1.5 liter engine, then you might reconsider It's possible that they've got that figured out by now. Okay. Because what happens is they put out a car. The car has to be on the road for quite a while for issues to come up, right? So it's a few years down the road that a bunch of people start saying, Hey, the heads are going bad on these civics. And then they've gotta figure out how to fix it. And then in the new models they, they fix it. But we're looking at a, a lot of years that they're continuously putting out that same engine before it actually gets fixed on the newer models. And then those become affordable used cars. So I don't know exactly the years, and I dunno if. That has been fixed by now, but it's something to look into. You can always, uh, do some research on your own, you know, type in 2021 civic engine, see what you can find. Another thing, um, for maintenance, and this is really important. A V six Honda or Acura. 'cause Honda owns Acura. The V six engines have a timing belt instead of a timing chain, which is what you'll find in most other vehicles. The timing belt has to be changed after a hundred thousand miles. Okay? It's really between a hundred and 120,000 miles. Typically. This is expensive. It comes in a kit, so it's a timing bell, a water pump, and a tensioner. They all get changed at the same time, and I've heard of some new dealerships charging well over $2,000 to do that because you have to take the whole engine out. It's, it's a lot of labor. Our mechanic charges significantly less than that. So if you ever need one, done, call me up, but it is not cheap, and so if you're shopping for a Honda that has a B six and it's over a hundred thousand miles, you need to be asking if the timing bell has been changed and keeping that in mind for your budget. If you don't change it, you can ruin the engine. So it is not optional. Every a hundred thousand miles, you've gotta look into that. So yeah, if you're, if you're buying a really high mile, I said over a hundred thousand miles, over 200,000 miles is gonna need to changed again. Right? So every a hundred thousand miles to 120,000 miles, it's going to need to be changed. Okay, so that's it. That's Honda. In a nutshell, practical, you're gonna be on the road a long time. It's gonna be reliable. This is for the person who doesn't need to chase a trend. This is for the person who doesn't need a ton of extra luxuries on their car. They need a car that's gonna get them from point A to point B successfully, reliably again, and again and again. That is the perfect Honda customer. If I can help you at Reynolds Automotive, please get in touch with me. I'd love to. And please share my podcast with anyone you know who is going to be in the market for a car soon. Hopefully they can learn something from me. Thank you so much for listening and happy driving.