I always though Honda's were slightly more reliable than nissan's. Then we find out our '99 Accord at 56k needs a new transmission. We pay dealer $460 to get a new transmission b/c of Honda goodwill. Then I goto msn auto and find out that Accords have had transmission problems the last five years.

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/re...ings&tab=4#rel

The maxima's only had couple sensor issues what not. I needed to vent since I found out it is a common problem. My '95 maxima 88k has been fairly reliable except for replacing 2 o2 sensors, cv shaft, and struts.

 

Honda Accord and Toyota Camry = more reliable and higher resale than Nissan Maxima. My uncle has a 98 Accord 4 cyl with 122k, no new tranny yet. As a matter of fact nothing except service engine lamp at 65k. Who knows why yours is punk'd at 56k. Whatever the case it is the exception. There are reported problems with Maxima steering and clutch, 95-96. Take everything with a grain of salt, common sense prevails.

 

the accord AUTO trannys are problematic my cousin bought a 2002 and the auto went out 2 weeks after buying it ofcourse it was under warrenty but the manual trannys are very good unfortuanitly not very many people buy 5spds any more

 

friend's mom's tranny in her 01 accord went after 26K miles

 

i don't know if i trust that msn site. for a 1994 maxima it says transmissions are reliable. we know the truth on that one!

 

The old msn was pretty reliable. Since they changed the look I have found a lot of problems with wrong information. Car saying they were turbo charged when they weren't. I think they said the 4th gen maxima had 190lb-ft of torque before. They have really gone downhill.

 

Hmph.....thank god I didn't had a Honda with automatic. Luckily I had a 5spd. They are reliable for the most part but geez, the auto....egads!! Beside I don't want to buy a honda because of their relatively short manufacturer's warranty

 

Its only certain hondas, dont start saying all automatic Honda/Acura cars are bad. I have a 96 3.2 TL w/ 66k miles and there are dozens of more 1st gen TL owners with 100k+ miles w/o any sort of transmission problems. Our cars have a somewhat hard 1-2 shift because it improves the life of the tranny. I do notice that a lot of acuras and hondas with autos have problems, but those are mostly the newer trannys. Ive seen a share of 4th gen maximas with autos have problems too, so I wouldnt say the maxima is all more reliable, theres different parts that are more reliable than others.

Just my .02

 

Yea only certain ones, I think its the newer Accords with the V6's that have been having tranny problems.

To me, Maximas have great engines but our weakness is our trannies too, auto and manuals. It all depends on how you treat you car. Abuse it or race it alot and your wearing it out more. On an auto, get a tranny cooler and some Mobil Synthetic ATF or something just as good, and you should be safe for the most part.

 

MSN's info on the Honda automatics is accurate, but maybe a bit overstated. There are "significant" transmission issues, for a Honda. One would expect the tranny to last the life of the car when buying a quality Japanese car, but not in this case. 2000-2001 were the worst years, and Honda actually extended the tranny warranty coverage from the base 3/36 to 7/100 because of all of the issues.

The Honda auto tranny issues are not just isolated to the Accord, either. The latest gen Odyessy, TL, CL, and even the Prelude also have had a lot of tranny issues and warranty extensions in certain years. Just browse the TL/CL forums and there's usually a post about another tranny going out on the front page all the time. Some people are on their 2nd or even 3rd auto tranny on those cars. They commonly go out between 50-70k on the V6 Accords, and even sooner on the Type-S CL and TL cars.

The older Honda/Acuras that had the C-series V6 engines (Gen1 TL, Legend, etc) used a different automatic transmission design and are MUCH more sturdy and reliable compared to this new crap on the J-series V6 engines. Personally, I would not consider any of these cars with the troubled auto trannys used, nor would I even consider the new ones for at least another few years until Honda has proven that they can build a dependable auto tranny again. I don't pay extra money for Japanese cars just to have to replace trannys. If I wanted to do that I'd have bought a Ford Taurus or a Chrysler minivan.

 

my transmission in my 96 honda went out at 72k and the friendly dealership said they would fix it for 5,200. haha, ok. therefore, i got the max.

 

yup they are not only not the best but rough as well...
didn;t honda extend the powertrain warranty to 100k on 98+Accords, 99 TLs, Oddesys, Preludes...etc?

 

pretty much everyone i know will claim that honda/acura is more reliable than nissan. I think nissan is a very reliable automotive company, but it doesnt seem upto par with honda/acura.

one incident cant say everything, but i have had 2 maximas and my last one needed trans work, 2 sensors replaced, and a throttle body within a year. it was still a great car, but needed more work than i expected. my 95 acura integra GSR has 104k on it and has only needed routine oil changes.

but i am sure many maxima owners have gone 150k+ miles with out needing much work. it really comes down to how you take car of your car.

 

I'd agree that historically, Hondas are overall a little more reliable than Nissans (Consumer Reports and JD Power data agrees with that), but the auto tranny issues on late model Hondas changes that significantly. Since the transmission is a major drivetrain component that's extremely costly to fix, Consumer Reports weights that much more heavily. As a result, they've downgraded the predicted reliability on the newer Accords to below that of the Camry and Maxima.

The warranty extension to 7yr/100k by Honda on certain models for the tranny only is nice, but lots of Honda owners buy Hondas because they expect to drive them well beyond 100k. What about after 100k? You're still SOL and stuck with a major multi-thousand dollar repair or rebuild.

 

friends 96 tl tranny died at 43K miles

 

Well he was the unlucky one, because Ive havent seen too many 1st Gen TLs lose their tranny early.

 

i heard the weak point of nissan is that their trannies sucks. but the strong point is their vq engine
each car companines have its goods and bads
when buying a car we just have to weight the option. and make the judgment our self does the bad outweight the good and vice versa

 

yup so many guys on the legend boards... and TL/CL boards have tranny issues......but though the legends don't have the best (I got a 89LS) I think they are much better then that of the newer honda trannys....

truth is I have always thought hondas were better.......but after having the 2k for a few months now I am starting to become a nissan man......would just love to have any of the nissan/inf models........

(next car probably a max/i35 or g35......)

 

Seems to me that transmissions are a weak point for both jap car makers. I would say more so for Honda than Nissan though. As mentioned above, honda had a huge warranty issue with their autos where nissan autos are pretty good, but not perfect. I would say that Nissan/Honda engines are the best production line engine out there.

 

mikeb are u on acura-legend.com?

 

The newer accord trannies do seem week. My brother's 2000 Accord LX 4-cyclinder tranny went out at 65000 miles. It was covered under the 7 year tranny warranty though.

 

Yup...I am on there....

my name is "MarriedMikeb120".....it seemed cool at the time right after I got married...but now its a little sappy...

 

yea the name look familair
my name on that site is acura type r
=)

 

The weak points on Nissans are quality and resale value. When you factor those two items, Nissan is no bargain even with 2500 rebates and below invoice. But those things help people to buy what they otherwise may not be able to.

Look at it this way, which is the hardest discipline? MBA? JD? CPA? Actuary? MD? They are all pretty hard. But there is a reason why the last two earn the biggest bucks. They limit who can join the club, so that keeps salaries high. That's what German cars are like, when 80k cars sell for list or above. Nissan is the opposite, STEEP discounts 1st year out. What you gonna do?

 

thats cause they are girls