FordTechOne
Well-Known Member
What year was your Accord? My family has owned Honda products as well, and they have all been junk with the exception of the 1990 Accord. The 1990 was well built and only required normal maintenance/repairs, but Honda quality went out the window in the mid 90's. The 2001 Odyssey transmission failed at 118K, the 2003 Civic had oil leaks, multiple vibration issues, control arm bushing failure, wheel bearing failure just to name a few, and the 2007 Odyssey has been at the dealer service department more often than it's been on the road. The failure list includes both front power window motors, both power door motors, 2 power steering pumps, the electronic motor mount, 2 wheel bearings, both outer tie rod ends, a fuel tank recall, a faulty torque converter (which Honda refused to replace, instead they reflashed it to make it "less noticeable"), and multiple other issues. I would need to pull the stack of ROs to refresh my memory on all of the problems that piece of trash has had.
And of course, it's directly reflected in Honda's TGW scores:
http://www.jdpower.com/press-releases/2015-us-initial-quality-study-iqs
Acura is all the way down by Mitsubishi and Land Rover, that speaks volumes about Honda/Acura quality.
You claim to have had "zero warranty issues" and only had to replace a fuel pump on your Accord, I find that extremely hard to believe, as I work on various models of cars every day and I've never seen any Honda go 150K miles with only a single repair. In fact, that would be extremely rare for any model of vehicle. Vehicles are complex mechanical devices, things break and wear out, it's simple physics. If you had an automatic transmission model, then it's damn near impossible that you went 150K miles; they typically don't make it past 100K without requiring replacement. They are so bad that the New York Times even published an article about it:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/honda-transmission-problems-seem-to-persist/
If you really did manage to get 150K miles out of a Honda product with a single fuel pump repair, go buy a lottery ticket
As far as body panel alignment, you are comparing apples with oranges. You can't compare the panel fitment of a Hyundai/Kia, which is a box on wheels, to a Mustang, which has a complex body design. Hyundai/Kia doesn't make a vehicle with the curves of a Mustang, so it's an invalid comparison.
If you want to make a valid comparison, compare the panel alignment and build quality of models like the Fiesta, Focus, or Fusion with Kia/Hyundai. You will find that the Ford models in general will have better fit, finish, and panel alignment, and I can tell you that because I've done the comparisons myself (mostly after reading the false statements on this forum about the supposed "perfect" panel alignment on Asian vehicles). If you think Kia has "perfect" panel alignment, then you need to look at more than one example.
I've also been around a lot of S550s, and I can't say I've ever seen one with any actual panel alignment issues. That tells me that it's not as widespread as some people would lead you to believe. However, I have seen some of the pictures of the issues posted on here, and I would agree that these issues should be getting caught at final inspection at the Flat Assembly Plant.
I suppose the best advice (as TikiGT said) is to thoroughly inspect the vehicle before you sign anything. Which, in reality, is something you should do with any expensive purchase. If you're not 100% satisfied, find another model that you are satisfied with.
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