When Mr. Honda died in '96 (or '97) the new leadership cut costs by sacrificing quality ... they realized in the '98 - '02 models how bad that can be with the transmissions ... Accord's were pretty susceptible. They have since reversed their decision to sacrifice quality like that. The local shop in town who does nothing but Honda's (not the dealer) stays pretty busy with those model years still.

But don't believe me ... go to CR and look up Accords or a couple others in those model years ... its all there for the world to see. If I get time I'll cut and paste from their site ...