I have never owned a Honda - mainly Toyota's - 99 Camry and 01 Sienna with great success.
I am looking at a used 2005 Accord - fully loaded - only 20K miles and it has been in a climate controlled storage for 3 years. It appears to be in excellent shape.

I have read a lot about 2 primary issues with Honda's - road/wind noise and brakes.

QUESTIONS
1) Will road noise generally get worse as the car gets older?
Since this has low miles (20K) I am wondering if it will get any worse than what I notice as I test drive the car.

2) Brakes
Should I expect to have problems because this is a issues across the board or is it a hit-or-miss depending on the individual car?

3) What do you think is a reasonable price to pay for this car?

Again - I am wondering if I want to get serious about purchasing this used car.

Thank you

 

1) In my experience it doesn't get worse from some fault of the car. What has happened to me was increased noise as tires wore out. For me that was blamed entirely on the tires.

2) Hit-or-miss. Back in the day rear brakes always lasted 2x or more compared to front. So most car companies have made the rear brakes proportionately smaller, including Honda. Sometimes the rear brakes wear out quicker than the front, sometimes not. VERY STRONGLY depends on driving style. If the rear brakes last too long, people tend to ignore them & the pads get rust-bound & the caliper slide-pins get sticky.

3) kbb dot com
edmunds dot com
There have been issues with delicate automatic transmissions, I think mostly 1998-2002 V-6 cars. Also same year 4-cyl. Not sure if those problems have continued into 2005???

 

Jim - Thanks
I see you have had 2 07 civics. Can you tell me your experience with them?
I had read that they had suspension / premature tire wear / noise issues so I backed of looking at 07 civic.

 

No suspension problems. But it's not like they're exactly OLD cars, either.

One daughter went from a 2003 Accord so she was used to the touchy-grabby brakes (she liked em that way...!!) So I put Hawk HPS pads on the Civic & she liked that better.

Stock tires wore out quickly. I think that had more do to with factory tire choice - UTQG treadwear wasn't very high. Just recently replaced them, so I don't know whether there's anything more to that.

One's an EX & one's an LX. The EX has soundproofing panels inside trunk & hood lids, so that makes a bit of difference for noise. Neither one is objectionable - but I didn't expect them to sound like a Mercedes. Don't have to READ about that, just drive one & judge for yourself.

One thing I love about the Civics is the seat is more comfortable to me. Taller side-bolsters - more like a bucket vs Accord more like a bench. But that's not gonna be for everybody. I like the smaller-diameter steering wheel of the Civic, and also the position of the gearshift lever suits me too. But the Accord was 4-door & the 2 Civics are 2-door - maybe THAT's the difference?