old_ben_kenobi here. i'm picking up my first honda this weekend after the transmission went out in my '87 4runner. i'm parting ways with that truck at 256,xxx miles and i'm picking up a '91 accord lx with 187,000 miles. 5 speed manual transmission, new brakes, new cv shafts, new distributor. the engine, interior, everything looks clean. the clutch feels really soft compared to my old toyota. no weird noises. the only thing powered that doesn't work is the antenna. it's coming with 4 snow-studded tires (on the car right now) and an extra set of ADR spade rims with "low profile" tires. i'll probably just end up selling the extra rims and tires as i have no intentions of turning this car into anything other than a grocery getter and reliable ride to denver.

Couple questions:

is $1400 a good price for this car?

is there anything i should be incredibly worried about by purchasing this car? mostly worried about specific issues with this year/generation of the car.

this clutch felt really easy to push down compared to my 4runner. is that anything to be worried about or is that just a honda?

i'm bookmarking this site and doing a bunch of reading this week. thanks for having me; i'll chime in when i can!

ben

 

Welcome! We hope you like the car. I personally don't know much about the '91 cars, but there's a good number of guys here who do.

 

Hello and welcome to the HAf..Thank You for joining..

 

welcome enjoy your stay. With all the new stuff done to it 1400 isn’t all that bad but I would try for $1200 or $1100. The 4th gen accords are pretty solid. The auto trans tend to have few issues but nothing crazy. But you have a 5speed no worried there

 

Hey "Old-Ben". Just to chime-in on what the other guys are sayin and to help your decision... I bought a 90' Accord with an automatic transmission and hated the rough shifting from day one (never got better or worse, just felt all wrong) so I traded in late 91' for a 92' Accord with a 5spd. I LOVED it!! Tons of power and pep even though it was the same engine and SO much more fun. Guess you could say I liked it since I still have it and am investing money into it for a blown head gasket.
I agree with the price "g22" mentioned, but do yourself a BIG favor being in the mountains, and pull the inspection/timing plug and peer down into the clutch area and see how much material you have left on it. If the owner doesn't know when the clutch was replaced then you might want to get under it (I'd STILL buy it if it's not rusted-out totally or thrashed) and pull the lower engine/transmission inspection plate (three 10mm bolts) and look at the clutch more closely. I have had three clutches in my 92' over the years and 300k miles. Mostly because I do them when I have time as a preventative measure, and every 100k feels good to me. I have only had one blow-up on me (literally) and that was on the down-hill side of a mountain. I had to rev-match-shift for 200 miles till I could nurse it back to my base by D.C. and fix it myself. It didn't do any damage to anything other than itself so the time to do it and the $80 for the clutch-kit was hard to argue with. You being in the Denver area would probably want to be SURE you are set before getting into that predicament.
The clutch ALWAYS feels soft on these cars. As long as you have plenty of fluid in the reservoir and there are no leaks in the lines or connections... then the clutch's hydraulic slave-cylinder is doing it's job. I have close relatives who have other manual-transmission vehicles (Honda, Toyota and other) and all say the same when they drive mine. It's just that way. I have never felt a bit of difference when I change ANY part of the clutch system, it always feels really easy. My 2002 Mustang GT 5spd takes some foot!!
Anyway, good luck with you purchase and have fun!
Dan