My wife brought a 96 Accord EX coupe w/ 74000 miles on it into our marriage... Here are a couple of problems I have had with this car... Please tell me if that's how Accords are in general and if it is still worth keeping...THX!! BTW, I have never had experience with Japanese cars other than a GS300 I just bought about 5 month ago... I had been driven mostly euro cars through out most of my life...that's why I am seeking for experts here... My wife had her car maintained at a dealer and has receipts to show that it was maintained on time; only once that it went 300 miles late of a oil change... I don't think 300 miles is that big of a deal is it? Here are some problems I had been having but she says that these don't bother her at all...

Gear shifts really rough, especially from 1st to 2nd, the car kind of tosses you around rudely. The car seems to not like to down shift and upshifts all the time...especially around 3500 rpm that's when the car go crazy, it would shift 3 to 4 times vilently to hunt for gears. I have never had this problem with my Lexus and my old Audi (sold it last year).

The car vibrates really bad, hand can get numb after driving it for 1/2 hour...not only steering wheel vibrates but the whole car... I was told that the front engine mount is broken, and they want $160 for replacing it... however I would like to know if that will completely solve the problem...cause even if I put the car in Neutral or Parking, the car still is pretty shaky. Not to say the rattles and buzz sounds from everywhere... My 2002 Lexus GS300 is pretty shaky but...

My mechanic told me that the balancer shaft gasket needs replacement, he wants $650 for that and timing belt; water pump would be addition $50. He also told me that my radiator is about to go soon and he wants $400 for that. He wants $160 for the front engine mount. My SRS light is always on, he told me that I need an Air bag controller unit, that will be another $550. He told me that part of my exhust also needs replacement and he wants $300 for that. Rear brake pads, he will charge $155 for those. And for 90K service, he wants $500... Add everything together it would cost me about $2500 to make the car driveable. He told me that these are all common problems of Accord...but I thought Japanese cars are suppose to be trouble free, how can there be so many common problems if they are reliable? The drive feel of this car reminds me very much of my 1991 chevy cavalier...except the cavalier never gave me any problems other than maintainence on the book.

The book says that the car is worth around $8000 but car max would only pay $3800... As far as I know, the car had only a fender bending accident with a deer; and the damage was not extensive... Although only 8 years old and 75000 miles, I am not sure if overall the car is in good shape for the investment of repair. Please let me know what you think...THX!!