Just bought my 96 accord with 142K miles on it and it's in @ least twice the shape of any other car i had, even the 2002 grand am gt i got rid of with only 70K miles. Just for the record, it's even documented that European autos are more problematic than American cars, but of all, Asian autos are better. Look @ some of the American cars and you can see that they're just not built like Hondas and Toyotas are (wheel gaps, door gaps, various other tolerances). When you build something better, it lasts longer, that's all there is to it. One car that has surprised me is Saturn, though. Interiors are typical GM fashion, but the drivetrains are pretty good. My trans went out on my last saturn @ about 220K and that was with very much abuse from me since it was only a 500 dollar car. I once done a comparison between a civic and ford zx2, which was rated very good reliability, and after 5 years the zx2 came out costing about 30K and the civic was closer to about 22K i thinik. it was 8K cheaper in the long run to buy the more expensive civic... Sorry so long, but for money and peace of mind, best buy will be, now and for a LONG time in the future, Asian is the best choice.