new honda or used acura

I want to spend about 20k on a car.

I am considering:

a) fully loaded civic ex
b) used 2005/6 accord ex
c) 2004 acura tsx--with 25k miles

Each of those is around 20-22k.

I have never bought a used car so I am bit worried about the acura--but
it looks real nice. And I assume the engine is more reliable than the
traditional honda?

I have a civic with 130k miles right now.

Any comments appreciated.

 

Buy the one you like best. If you need the space, choose between b and c.
The civics are nice, but the other two will give you more passenger
room.

No. The engine is as reliable as any other Honda engine. Acuras
typically have more creature comfort type stuff... Leather seats and
that type of accoutrement... 25K is nothing in miles for them.

Personally, if you have a civic now, and find that it fits your needs, I'd
probably go with the new Civic.

 

Save you money and keep your civic. It can easily make another 130K
without much hassle.

 

I wouldn't assume that, but Honda engines are pretty much bulletproof
anyway. I would be more concerned about automatic transmissions but
you should be OK as long as you have a 4cyl engine.

Beyond that it comes down to what is important to you.

Practical economy - go for the Civic (and consider buying a used one
if you can save a few thousand - you don't have to spend the whole
$20K.)

Greater comfort especially for rear seat passengers - go for the
Accord.

Sporty performance - the TSX is best of these three. (You may also
want to consider an RSX - Type S).

I am curious why you are looking for a new car. What about your old
Civic doesn't meet your needs? (And what year is it?)

 

I'd go with the Accord, for pure value.

 

Well I have a 96 civic with 130k on it. I have been very please with
the car and the only thing I have replaced on it is the timing belt,
alternator and battery. Excluding wear and tear items.

For the last year though my engine has been making a clunking noise
randomly,,,I usually hear it once or twice every time I drive. It is a
deep noise maybe spaced 1-2 seconds apart and last about 10 seconds.
Seems to mainly happen in 2nd gear---more often when going up a hill.
But I have been up hills when it does not happen. It never happens at
highway speeds.

So my history of this over the year with the Honda dealer(who I am
seriously disappointed in) has been:

A) put better gas in(even I knew that was not the problem)

B) I need new CV Joints and Front Axle. Supposely something was wrong
and the torque on them was causing the noise. I made an appt to get
them replaced and then:

C) was called when the car was at the dealer to find it I need an
entire new engine. It was not my axel but rather a connector rod was
making noise in the engine. Service guy said my engine could blowup
today or 10 years from now. I was quite pissed because as I told the
guy the dealer has been servicing my car for 10 years. The guy was a
serious dick when I started questioning him, I guess he assumed if a
customer comes in for $400 worth of work and then you
tell them they need a new engine he should just accept it.

D) Months later I went to another Honda dealer who said the problem is
not my engine, but rather some clutch noise. I have the original
clutch. I was advised to just wait until it fails. I have since found
out--from someone on the board perhaps--that if my clutch was bad my
gears would be slipping---they have never ever slipped, and I have
never heard grinding noise either.

E) Finally several weeks ago I took it to an Acura dealer,,,the tech
rode in my car for 20min and of course the noise did not happen!!!!
They looked over the car but could not find anything wrong. This was
just a casual inspection I imagine.


So here I am. Is my engine going to explode when I am driving
somewhere? Do I drive until my clutch fails. It is very frustrating.

 

If you can afford it, buy new. Only buy a used car if you can't find what
you want new. Used cars are always a big gamble, especially if you're not
mechanically savvy.

Honda and Acura engines are exactly identical. Both brands are built by
Honda, and are sold as Hondas in all markets other than North America and
Japan.

 

Thanks for the run down. Hard to diagnose what the noise might be
without hearing it, but another possible cause could be a bad motor
mount. In any event, I don't think the car is in any danger of
blowing up. You might try to get opinions from some other Honda
mechanics. If the noise isn't intolerable, I would just keep driving
it if the car is otherwise meeting your needs. At this point the
trade-in value is pretty low so you won't be losing much if it has a
major breakdown and you decide to sell it rather than fixing it. And
if you do need, say $1500 worth of work, consider that this might
barely cover the sales tax on a new/used car.

Not to say you shouldn't buy a new car if you want it and can afford
it. But if your main interest is economical transportation, I
wouldn't give up on this one yet.

 

I wouldn't worry too much in this case. The things that can blow up your
engine usually are more or less easy to diagnose. And Hondas tend to
endure the noises for quite some time before something bad really
happens. I was riding bad CV joint and syncro sleeve on my 84 civic for
more than 30K miles before I got a chance to get to replace them, and
they did not completely broke by that time. And I still drive my 92
civic with bad syncro, it's about 60K since I bought it...

 

I would go with the TSX. It is more sporty and upscale. Plus it is built in
Japan with high quality parts.

 

I drove a TSX last year when the '04 MDX was in the Acura shop. I do
*Not* see why anyone would buy this car. It has zero acceleration and
the handling is not good, contrary to reputation. Clunky interior too.
It was a loaner.

Was very glad to get into my '04 Accord EX V6 again. Between these two
cars, it's an easy choice for me.

The new Civic is a high-demand item, so you'll pay more for what has
traditionally been known as a "secretary's" car. The Accord has more
room, better car in general. But the Civic may be all you need, now
that it's bigger.

You only lost an alternator in 130,000 miles and still think Acura is
"better"? How much better do you want?? Spend a couple of years with
a high-mileage GM and you'll find out just how spoiled you are. There
is no meaningful difference in reliability between Honda and Acura, or
Toyota and Lexus. (Unlike, say, Nissan and Infiniti, where there is a
real difference.)

 

Oh I was not complaining about my civics reliability---I am very
impressed. Whatever car I get I want to keep it that way. As a previous
poster mentioned---maybe my noise is nothing to really worry about.