171k on the 97. Great car.

When I went to buy the 98 EX, the seller advertised it as being a standard transmission. I didn't bother confirming that before I took the 1.5 hour drive to look at it. Had I known from the beginning that it was an automatic, I wouldn't have bothered going to see it. But once I got there I liked the car, despite being auto and bought it.

An EX with a 5 speed. Must be a great combo.

 

It is a great combo. A way smoother drivetrain than my former 2002 Forester. My 99 was about an hour and 15 min drive to see. I can understand the appeal of the car no matter what transmission. The 4 speed auto doesn't seem to be all that bad - was reading in the owner's manual how it has sort of a manual shift mode. An advantage of an automatic is typically they're geared a bit higher than a manual - your 4th would be a lower numeric ratio (overall considering the final drive ratio) than my 5th, resulting in a bit less rpm at highway speeds.

Interesting screen name. Years ago in the 70s my parents had a 1974 AMC Gremlin. Had the 232cid 6. Not a good car to have in the snowbelt - with RWD and hardly any weight in back traction wasn't good. I liked the looks of the car though, the hatch was handy.

 

Had a silver with blue interior 1975 Gremlin with the 232 ci 6 cylinder. There was an AMC dealer in Phoenix who was known nationwide for dropping 401 ci V8s into Gremlins. Back in the day I thought that it would make a good sleeper.

 

Damn a 401 V8 in a Gremlin! I think those were an option in the Ambassador, with the 340 V8 being standard. I thought that, the Javelins and AMXs were good looking cars.
Silver/blue would be a good combination. My parent's Gremlin was green/green.

I was also looking for a standard transmission Toyota Camrys. Test drove a 2002, the clutch was bad, slipping significantly. Your 97 Accord has just a bit more miles than my 99 at 169k.

 

I just sold my 97 LX last month. It had 235K miles on it. My 99 Accord LX currently has 234K miles on it. My wife's 2000 Accord LX AT has 239K on it.
The 97 had a power issue for the injection system when I got it, along with needing 4 tires. Then 6 months later it needed an exhaust system. I did do a full tune up on it, along with timing belts. That was it.
The 99 I bought for 350 bucks, and had "needs engine" on the cracked windshield. Turned out it needed a lower pulley/harmonic balancer and a key, along with a timing reset. After I changed the pulley and reset the timing, I listened for expensive noises, and found none. So, I put a timing belt kit in it, along with a balance shaft seal keeper (5 bucks on Rock Auto), then a fuel tank (the original 1 was rusted thru in places), then an exhaust system (had a cat plugged code), as it was all welded together. Then last September I rebuilt the front end, replacing the hub bearings, lower ball joints, upper control arms, and tie rod ends, along with putting on new rotors and ceramic pads. It should be good to go for quite a while now.

 

Impressive 230+K on several of your Hondas. That's great you can do all that work yourself. Yes with all those new parts in the 99 there's not much else that could go wrong.

Now that I'm familiar again with the different generation Hondas I've noticed there's a good amount of the 1998-2002 gen (which #?) out there still. Yes it requires maintenance but owners tend to believe it's well worth it from what I've observed.

 

The 1998-2002 Accords are considered the 6th generation..

 

Noted, thanks.

 

Yup, 6th gen Accord. That's the thing about these cars, a little maintenance goes a long way. When we got my wife's 2000 Accord, it already had 217K on it. The seller told me that the "high mileage" turned quite a few buyers off of buying it. Didn't bother me though, as these cars will do 500K miles as long as you do the maintenance on them.

My 99 Accord 5 speed is a nice ride, and was definitely ridden hard and put away wet. The seller told me that if I got it running right again, that it should make a good "work" car (it has it's share of scratches and small dents). I fixed it, and have been driving it since. Makes for nice beer runs since the AC works like it's supposed to. I use it for almost everything. The balance is what the Chevy pick up is for.

 

A little maintenance, or any maintenance is sure better than a monthly new car payment IMO. Reading posts in this forum helps me to not feel crazy for buying a '99 with 169K on it. Got lucky with the AC, seems to work fine. I'll also use the Honda for just about everything except hauling firewood - that's what the Chevy Pickup is for, and dump runs, etc.