I agree on the prices, just crazy. However, what I would say is that condition matters a lot more than years and mileage once you get to about 8-10 years old. And if you look on Edmunds, the prices on used Accords are higher than what I consider reasonable.

On the other hand, a relative gave me (well, not quite give, but cheap enough) a '97 accord, about 180K miles. Looks pretty nice, but I have had to put about $1500 into it in parts alone to get it to where I feel comfortable with my wife and kids driving it (leading my wife to say "gee, there's no such thing as a free car"), making my point that these cars no longer have a "book value", they have a value equal to the remaining service life in them.

The first car on your list apparently had a newer engine/transmission, and if it check out would probably give you the longest service life.

 

I was thinking the same thing about the first car. I'm practically drooling over it. Funny, considering I haven't owned a vehicle older than five years in the past six years. Haha. But I have a thing for Accord coupes.

Now, if only I had the dough now. "/ Still trying to sell my '90 Cherokee with blown heads.

 

So it was the F20 engine that Edmunds listed as poor reliability ('90-93).

Anyone say otherwise?

 

The F22 engines from the 91-02 are pretty solid engines. The manual transmissions are good too. Avoid the 98-02 automatic transmissions.

Your challenge is fining a car that is in decent shape for the price you want.

Your best bet are your local paper, craigslist, ebay. Just keep looking until you find the car that you want.

 

Man, oh man! So I'm trying to sell my '90 Jeep Cherokee with blown heads to fund part of an Accord. Someone offered to trade with cash on top. Here's what he offered:

'91 Accord 4dr, auto, 170k







It sure is gorgeous! But it's an automatic... And I just can't do that. It bums me out pretty bad that it's auto. However, he's a mechanic. So in my reply email, I asked him if he knew anything about tranny swaps. I spoke to him on the phone beforehand as well. Waiting for reply.

What do you guys think? We haven't discussed how much I'd throw on top. But what do y'all think? Worth buying and swapping tranny? I was thinking throwing $1,000 on top, if I could get a tranny swap done for around ~$500.

 

Converting the auto to manual can be done, but it can add up to more than $500 pretty quickly, because there are a lot of parts you don't think about when attempting to do this.

You will need from a MT accord: the clutch pedal, master/slave cyl +lines, transmission, shifter, shift cables, ECU, transmission mount (+ some welding), starter, clutch, flywheel. The CV joints may be different too. I'm probably forgetting stuff as well.

There is a writeup listing everything required somewhere on this forum. You will have to search around to find it.

Plus you are dealing with a 20 year old car that is due for a timing belt change at 180K, or 90K/6 yrs after the last TB change. Find out when the TB was last changed on this car.

I also noticed that the windows are tinted. You should find out what is legal in your state. Also the valve cover gasket was sealed with RTV. That isn't such a big deal, owner probably didn't want to buy a new gasket.

 

Ya, you're right. As for the tint, I ran 'limo' tint on my MINI Cooper S and was pulled over twice and none of them said anything. Limo is, I think, 5%. Maybe 15%?

Anyways, I'll just keep my eyes peeled for the right car that I want. The first one I listed is exactly what I want. Unfortunately, I do not have $2,000 to offer him right now. I wouldn't feel right paying $2,500 for it either.