As a Korean American, my community generally trusts and advocates everyone to buy Honda cars.
What makes a Honda car last so long? I've heard accords lasting up to 300k miles and still running which is amazing.
Is it the engine?
The material used?
I'm just curious cause I was thinking of switching my accord to something else...

 

Its probably a combination of items. The quality of the metal and parts inside the engine. How effective the coolant system is a removing heat from the engine block. The overall design of the engine.

The most important item is to keep up with the recommended maintenance. Changing the engine oil, transmission fluid, coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid will help keep your honda on the road for a while.

 

I think just about any car that has an owner who is meticulous about maintenance, can be made to last a long long time. A boring car (not fun to drive) might not be maintained well & treated as disposable.

 

The big three are catching up on longevity. Some due to Toyota and Honda getting the concept of the parts market being so profitable, and part due to the big three figuring out parts have to last long enough for future owners to want your cars.

Many years ago I heard a story that Ford laid out one of their inline fours next to a Mitsubishi and found no differences, until they bought more accurate gages which showed alot of differences. As in they were not measuring on the level that determined a good or bad part for Mitsubishi.

 

Honda spends an enormous amount of money on r&d before putting any parts into production. Engineering, machining tolerances, superior materials used and so on do make a huge difference in the longevity and reliability of each model produced. Millions of test miles, teardown, and meticulous scrutiny of any wear is synonomous with Honda quality. Also, many of their parts are race proven in their Indycar series motors, which also influences the build quality of production model cars and their components. This is also especially true of their incredible F1 motorcycle race teams and the technology that is proven on the track first before reaching the consumer bikes.

 

the engines haven't changed much over the years, sure they changed them but a complete redesign no. They do "break down" however the problems arent leaving you on the side of the road in most cases you can limp home. Think transmissions.

 

I think Ford and Hyundai have caught up to Honda in terms of reliability and the cost to own a Ford/Hyundai/Kia is cheaper than a Honda.

 

The simpler the better and that what Honda dose. Honda is far less complicated than most car manufactures.